Ethiopian documentary

Marshall Weiss

The Dayton Jewish Observer

With a key architect of Ethiopian aliyah present, the Levin Family Foundation announced on Dec. 12 that it will produce a feature-length documentary about Ethiopians of Jewish descent and their immigration to Israel.

Karen Levin, executive director of the Levin Family Foundation, said that Yellow Springs-based filmmaker and radio journalist Aileen LeBlanc will direct the project, to be filmed in Ethiopia and Israel over the next two years.

“This will be the first time the full story, the history, and what happens when the people get there will be documented,” Levin said during a presentation at the foundation’s downtown Dayton office.

In March, Levin traveled to Ethiopia for three days with Jewish Federation Foundation Director Sara Shuster and Sara’s husband, David, to explore funding projects to benefit Ethiopian Jewry. They were accompanied by Micha Feldmann, one of the key organizers of the Jewish Agency for Israel’s Operation Solomon, which airlifted 14,310 Ethiopian Jews out of besieged Addis Ababa over one weekend in 1991. Feldmann is now a consultant on Ethiopian issues to the Jewish Agency, the IDF and the Israel Crisis Management Center.

“We have a country in war (Israel), the only country in the world that responds to move Jews in Africa,” Feldmann said at the presentation.

By the end of 2008, the Israeli government and Jewish Agency — with funding from North America’s Jewish federations — will airlift the remaining 18,000 Ethiopian Falash Mura to Israel, reuniting family members who have endured separation for years. Falash Mura are descendents of Ethiopian Jews who had converted to Christianity under pressure. To qualify for aliyah, Falash Mura must at least trace their Jewish ancestry back seven generations. In anticipation of their aliyah to Israel, they have left their villages and live in difficult conditions in Gondar and Addis Ababa. Some have waited up to nine years to make aliyah.

Feldmann said there are 120,000 Ethiopian Jews in Israel, comprising 1.5 percent of the population. The Falash Mura come to Israel from mud huts without running water or electricity. Because of their illiteracy and lack of skills, they enter Israeli society working at menial jobs. Feldmann is adamant that Diaspora Jews and Israelis must ensure that Israel’s Ethiopian Jews don’t develop into what he calls a permanent black underclass.

“Israel provides up to master’s degree funding for Ethiopians and their children,” he said. “I’m not saying it is a rosy story. We have more and more dropouts, domestic violence. I believe in the strength of Ethiopians. They are a strong people. They will succeed. Sharing that part of their heroic story will also give some understanding about what it is to absorb Ethiopians in Israel.”

Levin said the film will explore cultural and language barriers that have impeded Ethiopian Jews’ adjustment to Israeli society.

“Since this process (of aliyah) is drawing to an end,” she said, “we wanted to get this documented on film. This is a piece of history.”

Levin said the project has the full cooperation and support of the Jewish Agency for Israel.

“The nuts and bolts and all work will be done here in Dayton,” she said.

LeBlanc said the production team plans to make three trips to Ethiopia and Israel over the next two years. “We have to learn about the culture,” she said. “We have to gain the people’s trust. They are kind of shy and withdrawn until they know you.”

With the working title Take Us Home, the film will reunite the team that worked with LeBlanc on her public television documentary Dayton Codebreakers, including Emmy-winning director of photography Michael King and composers/performers Sandy and Michael Bashaw.

To illustrate the plight and potential of Ethiopian Jewry, Feldmann brought with him to Dayton 29-year-old Ethiopian Israel filmmaker Orly Melissa. When she was a toddler, her family journeyed on foot with their entire village to Sudan, from which they ultimately were able to make aliyah. Her film Mirrors won last year’s Jerusalem Film Festival Drama Award.

Levin, who will serve as the executive producer of Take Us Home, has established Dayton Community Projects to produce the film, budgeted to cost approximately $533,000.

A private philanthropic organization, the Levin Family Foundation dispenses $1 million each year for Jewish and non-Jewish causes alike. In Montgomery County, the foundation provides grant money and sponsors free health-related events for the underserved.

The foundation was established by the late Sam Levin, an entrepreneur who owned four movie theatres and 12 drive-ins in the Dayton area.

Take Us Home is the Levin family’s second film venture. In 1964, Sam Levin and his brothers, Lou and Al — who now sit on the foundation board — produced the feature film Girls On The Beach starring Leslie Gore, the Beach Boys and the Crickets.

“Beginning in 2007, we will push forward with this and with fund raising,” Karen Levin said. “We hope to get (the film) on PBS, film festivals and used by the Jewish Agency.”

She added that any profits from the film will be donated toward the Educational Scholarship Fund for Ethiopian immigrants in Israel.”

© 2007 The Dayton Jewish Observer