The Ethiopian Jewish Exodus: Narratives of the Journey

Between 1977 and 1985, some 20,000 Ethiopian Jews left their homes in Ethiopia and embarked on a secret and highly traumatic exodus to Israel. Due to various political circumstances they had to leave their homes in haste, go a long way on foot through unknown country, and stay for a period of one or two years in refugee cames, until they were brought to Israel. the difficult conditions of the journey included racial tensions, attacks by banditys, night travel over mountains, incarceration, illness and death. A fifth of the group did not survive the journey. This interdisciplinary, ground-breaking book focuses on the experience this journey, its meaning for the people who made it, and its relation to the initial encounter with Israeli society.