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In 1972, a decade before Operation Moses which brought the first mass wave of Ethiopian Jews to Israel, Castel Communications – Shagrir and Dan Arazi’s production company headed to Ethiopia at the behest of the Prime Minister’s Office to film the local Jewish community in the early days of the African nation’s civil war. This rare, first-of-its-kind documentation offered a moving, humane exploration of Ethiopia’s Jewry and its legacy. The footage includes, among other things scenes from Hebrew lessons, reading the Torah, Kosher-keeping practices, and rural synagogue life. The interviews with the community’s Jewish men and women cover a range of complex issues such as identity, religion, and belongingness that will later be at the very forefront of the discussion about the community’s integration and assimilation (formerly known as absorption) into Israel.
Director Yossi Godard’s rare footage, featured in this Castel-produced film, was used by the state and Israeli television as an essential public PR tool for promoting the mass immigration campaigns, and as major points of reference for decision-makers at the top – both a decade and two decades later. Shagrir would spend the next 40 years shadowing Ethiopian Jewry’s mass immigration waves to Israel and their subsequent integration into their adoptive country by revisiting the same subjects every few years. These immigrants’ intimate portraits later also found their way into several other films which Shagrir either produced or directed, including Operation Ten, Between Harar and Goree: Tamar Golan – African Pages, The Envoy, When Israel Went Out, Yona Bogale, and many more.
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All rights are reserved to the Jerusalem Cinematheque – Israeli Film Archive (RA) and the rights holders of the works. Any use of works on the website for non-individual and non-personal purposes is strictly prohibited without prior, written permission.
For more information about the rights holders, please visit the relevant collection page, or contact the Jerusalem Cinematheque – Israeli Film Archive (RA) offices.
We have the utmost respect for all rights holders’ copyright and put great efforts to track down any and all intellectual property owners for the purpose of seeking and obtaining permission to use their materials featured on the website.
Any and all materials are used in accordance with clause 27a of the 2007 Copyright Act. If you believe that your rights as intellectual property and copyright owners of any material featured on this website have been compromised, then you may contact the Israeli Film Archive via email with a cease-and-desist notice, requesting that the material in alleged copyright infringement no longer be used. When contacting the archive, please state the merit to your copyright ownership claim, as well as your full name, email address, and telephone number, with a link to the relevant webpage.
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