'Straddling Black and White': Rare English book about Ethiopian aliyah - review

There have been two really major efforts by Israel to effect a mass aliyah of Ethiopian Jews – Operation Moses in 1984, and Operation Solomon, seven years later, in 1991. In her new novel, Straddling Black and White, Kim Salzman embraces these seven years with a riveting tale about an Ethiopian Jewish family.

Salzman was born and raised in Columbus, Ohio. After receiving a degree in psychology from Columbia University, she lived and worked on a kibbutz in Israel, a formative experience which inspired her to make aliyah in 2006. She served in the IDF in its International Law Department, and also worked for the UN Refugee Agency and for Tebeka, a legal aid society supporting Ethiopian Jewish immigrants.

Once settled in Israel, “I became fascinated by Ethiopian aliyah,” she said in a media interview. “Their tremendous longing to return to Jerusalem and the sacrifices they made along the way to make that possible.”

She pursued her interest by visiting the northern Gondar region in Ethiopia, where most Ethiopian Jews came from. 

“The more I researched,” she said, “the more I realized that there was little to no literature written in English about Ethiopian aliyah... My motivation to tell their story, and to tell it in a compassionate and moving manner, grew.”

Exploring the history of Ethiopian Jewry and Israel

In Straddling Black and White, Salzman traces an Ethiopian Jewish family’s complex relationship with the Land of Israel, centering her story on Azmera, a teenager when she chooses to participate in Operation Moses so that she can join her father, Kebede, in Israel. She leaves behind her pregnant mother, Tigest, and her four siblings.  

The ancient Jewish community in Ethiopia, called Beta Israel (House of Israel), had lived in relative isolation from the rest of the Jewish world for centuries. On November 18, 1984, Israel launched Operation Moses, a seven-week covert operation airlifting thousands of Ethiopian Jews to safety in Israel. Thousands trekked through the deserts in Ethiopia and Sudan, where they would eventually meet Israeli officials. Nearly a third of Ethiopian Jews traveling to Sudan died on the way. Once in Sudan, they were placed in refugee camps, where many faced antisemitic persecution before being rescued and airlifted to Israel.

At the end of the mission, approximately 8,000 Ethiopian Jews had been brought to Israel aboard 30 flights. The operation ended on January 5, 1985. Several days later, then-prime minister Shimon Peres addressed the Knesset: “We here have been born within the ongoing, never-ending hope of the unification of our people... there are no black Jews and white Jews: There are Jews. History and faith bind us together forever.”

While the operation was a resounding success, over 15,000 Jews – many of whom were infants, or old and infirm – were left in Ethiopia. In May 1991, the Israeli government orchestrated a follow-up mission, known as Operation Solomon. Over the course of the 36-hour operation, over 14,000 Ethiopian Jews were airlifted to safety in Israel.

Salzman digs deep into the disillusionment experienced by Azmera’s father following his aliyah, and its effect on him and on Azmera. She tells us about the past of Azmera’s parents and its impact on her own experiences.  

When Tigest does eventually reach Israel, and mother and daughter are reunited, Azmera whispers in her ear: “Thank God, you’re finally home.” 

Salzman’s deep interest in the Ethiopian Jewish experience, and her extensive knowledge of the difficulties undergone by so many who participated in the mass aliyahs of the 1980s and 1990s, imbue the novel with a sense of reality. She has her story unfold against a background of events and experiences that ring true.

By the close of the novel, the reader understands that the title “Straddling Black and White” refers not only to the problems Ethiopian immigrants faced in Israel but also to Azmera’s growing understanding, as she reaches adulthood, of the nuances in her own family history and in the world around her.

Straddling Black and White is an absorbing story in itself, but it also rewards the reader by shining a light on an aspect of Israel’s history that deserves to be better known and understood – the immigration of so many of the Ethiopian Jewish community.

Read and enjoy. 

• Straddling Black and White
• By Kim Salzman
• Acorn Publishing LLC
• 321 pages; $17.50