Story of Ethiopian Jews on the Stage

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MICHEL MARTIN, host:

I'm Michel Martin, and this is Tell Me More from NPR News. Later in the broadcast, an historic college that produces standout young men. He stands out in more ways than one. We'll have his story in a few minutes.

But first, more now on the 60th anniversary of Israel's independence. President Bush is there this week to help celebrate. Jewish people from around the world look to Israel as a spiritual home, as well as a place of sanctuary and refuge from anti-Semitism. Ethiopian Jews are among them. Many first went to neighboring Sudan during the late 1970s and early '80s, but famine and civil unrest prompted the Israeli government to launch Operation Moses to bring these latest immigrants to Israel. Yossi Vassa was only a young boy when his family embarked on that risky journey. Now he's co-written the play "One of a Kind" about his experiences, and he's here to tell us about it. Also with us is cast-member Tehitina Assefa, who plays Vassa's grandmother in the play. Welcome to you both.

Ms. TEHITINA ASSEFA (Actress, "One of a Kind"): Thank you.

Mr. VASSA (Actor, "One of a Kind"): Thank you.

MARTIN: Yossi, not everybody is familiar with the story of the Ethiopian Israelis. As briefly as you can, can you tell us where you came from and how you came to be in Israel?

Mr. VASSA: OK. Actually, there were two operations, two large journeys from Ethiopia to Israel. And the first one, which one I'm located to, is Operation Moses. It started in the early '80s. You know, a lot of Ethiopian Jews from the villages of Ethiopia gathered together in groups and started walking until the plane came and take all of them to Jerusalem. Of course, it wasn't easy as I tell it. There were a lot of problems on the way. Actually, it was a long walking from the villages of Ethiopia to Sudan by foot. It's about 400 miles.

MARTIN: Four hundred miles?

Mr. VASSA: Walking, yeah.

MARTIN: By foot?

Mr. VASSA: By foot.

MARTIN: Whole families.

Mr. VASSA: Whole families. Childrens, grandpas.

MARTIN: It's an amazing story. Do you - now, you were very young when your family decided to leave Ethiopia, correct?

Mr. VASSA: I was around nine.

MARTIN: Oh, you were nine.

Mr. VASSA: Yeah.

MARTIN: Do you remember the trip?

Mr. VASSA: Yeah, of course. You know, it was by foot, so I remember it a lot. Also it was very dangerous. We had to walk by nights and hide by days from robbers and from soldiers of the government who didn't allow us to leave the country. And actually there a lot of people died on the way. And then when we get to Sudan, we had to be in a refugee camp in Sudan. And a lot of people died also there, about 4000 people that time.

MARTIN: That's remarkable.

Mr. VASSA: And who survived, arrived to Israel.

MARTIN: Do you remember when you arrived in Israel what it was like?

Mr. VASSA: It was a shock. We were tired and weak, and all the adults, they bent down on the floor and kissed the floor, the ground, the land. You know, we still were at the airport, but we felt like this is Jerusalem. And then we saw people standing in front of us, a lot of white people. For the time to see a lot of white people it was, you know, kind of shock. And we saw those people who don't understand our language and we don't understand their language, but they were standing there and crying, and we also crying. We felt like brothers who separated for a long time, and we met at last, and we barely recognized each other. So, it was amazing feeling for me.

MARTIN: Tehitina, your journey was very different, as I understand it. You came to Israel to study, isn't that right?

Ms. ASSEFA: Yeah, that's right. I had an uncle - I still have an uncle - in Jerusalem who introduced me to Hebrew University, and I was accepted. So I came to study. And it was very difficult at first because I come from a Christian family, and I lived with a Christian family in Jerusalem. But in time, through studies, I had a lot of friends, Jewish friends. And I loved the place. So I decided to do conversion and I become a Jew. And I'm still living there. And I love acting, and it was amazing to find this story at a very critical time of my life. When my father was about to die, I was supposed to do this character in this show of a grandma who is dying in Sudan. And I had an amazing time doing it.

MARTIN: Yossi, tell me about the play. First of all, you play the young boy in the play, the protagonist. And Tehitina, you play the boy's grandmother. Yossi, tell me a little bit about the plot, if you can.

Mr. VASSA: The story, actually, is based on the relationship between a child and his grandmother. Me and my grandmother had a great and a special relationship, so it's based on that. And between them there is the father who wants to stay in Ethiopia because when he was younger he tried once to go to Jerusalem by himself. And then he was caught by the Ethiopian government, and he sat in jail. And it was very difficult for him. So, he don't want to do it again with his family.

But the grandmother said now is the time. It's the messiah, came to me and say to me, go, go to Jerusalem. Actually, with her grandson, trying to convince papa to leave Ethiopia, and that's what happened. And actually, they moved, they got to Sudan, and there the father start to believe in Jerusalem, and it can happen. And grandma died.

MARTIN: That's very powerful. If you're just joining us, you're listening to Tell Me More from NPR News. And I'm speaking with Yossi Vassa and Tehitina Assefa about their respective journeys to Israel. And they star in the semi-autobiographical play, "One of a Kind," which is currently touring the United States. Tehitina, can you tell me what it's meant to you to perform in this play? Because this really isn't your personal journey, in terms of the hardship and the walk. That walk through the desert is very, sort of, profound biblically, right?

Ms. ASSEFA: Yeah.

MARTIN: As well as an actual, sort of, historical event in the current day. But what has this meant to you? And I'd love to know how audiences are responding to the play?

Ms. ASSEFA: When we perform in Israel, in Hebrew, some of the audience come at the end of the show and ask me which part of Sudan I was, or whose daughter I am, or whose relative I am, because they're very much convinced that I was there. So this is, like, a very good compliment as a professional. But personally I have my own journey, which has different difficulties inside Israel of having a new family, a new country, a new place, a new home. You can call it all the other things that I have to deal with, to become a Jew and the things that I have to deal with to be a black woman, and then an actor who's trying to not go by the mainstream and still act and try to survive.

MARTIN: Now you know in the U.S. there's a complicated racial dynamic between whites and blacks, I'm not sure how much you know about that.

Ms. ASSEFA: Yeah, I do.

MARTIN: But the history is so different in Israel, but is there a racial dynamic there that affects your life?

Ms. ASSEFA: There is. You can see that there are a lot of amazing and inspiring people that you meet in spite of the religion or the color. But we are the last black people who moved to Israel as immigrants. In the show we have a guy who came from Yemen. I do know that his family came from Yemen 60 years ago, and his family had to go through the same issues that we are dealing with now. But you know, everything is very comparative, so we are blacker, we are blacker than he is, and you do feel it. But there are amazing people who do other jobs. Like in the States, you know, you have all. There's still a dynamic.

MARTIN: Do you feel at home in Israel? Do you feel truly Israeli?

Ms. ASSEFA: Yeah. I have certain issues that I have to deal with, which is to change my attitude about it, or understand it differently, if somebody's afraid because I'm very different. Then I have to know how to deal with it. I cannot change their perception. I can change how I respond to it. So it would really be a personal journey to every person, why you're getting this challenge, at this time of your life, in a certain place, you know.

MARTIN: Do you ever find that people question your Jewishness or your nationality?

Ms. ASSEFA: Yeah, all the time. People love to question the differences between people. They see the color, they have to ask you where you're from, why are you there? Why are you in Jerusalem? They can meet you on the bus, and then they ask, oh, so you come from a Jewish family? No. Then you go on telling them that things are different for you. So, yeah, it does happen.

Mr. VASSA: But I have to say.

MARTIN: Yossi.

Mr. VASSA: I have to say that all the story of Tehitina, we came from the same country, in different places, in different religions, but we came to the same place. And we are working at the same stage. And each time I worked with her, I see my grandma. So, it's amazing.

MARTIN: It is a wonderful compliment. Yossi, what about you? Do you feel - well, first of all, what has it meant to you to be able to present your story to the public? And how are they responding? And how do you feel about the response that you are getting?

Mr. VASSA: I feel like I did something very good to my family. I did something, you know, to remember them. Also, on the way I lost my two little brothers, with my grandma. So it's good to remember them. And I think - I don't feel all the time, it's only my story, because it's the story of all the Ethiopian immigrants in Israel.

MARTIN: Do you feel truly at home in Israel now? Do you feel that you are an Israeli?

Mr. VASSA: Yes, very much, because I discovered that there is no such thing as Israeli. It's a definition that exists, actually, more clear from the outside. When we are here we can, you know, look at Israel and say here is Israel on the map. But inside the country, actually, it's a point that people get there with their journey. So I feel like at home. I feel like I have something to give to this country. I feel like I'm part of - though there's a lot of struggles and a lot of difficulties in Israel, and society difficulties. But I feel like these difficulties are the same for every group who came from different country and different culture.

MARTIN: Yossi Vassa and Tehitina Assefa are members of the cast of "One of a Kind." It's an off-Broadway play about one family's journey from Ethiopia to Israel. The play is currently touring the U.S. They joined us from our studio in New York. Thank you so much, and good luck to you both.

Mr. VASSA: Thank you very much.

Ms. ASSEFA: Thank you.

MARTIN: On Friday we will hear a Palestinian perspective.

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