“For more than 2,000 years, Ethiopian Jews dreamt about Jerusalem,” she said. “Every generation told their kids, Jerusalem is our home and one day, we will make it happen and live there. We are the luckiest ones — the luckiest generation — that we made it happen in our lifetime.”
That passion led Malkai to write her book: We Are Black Jews, Ethiopian Jewry and the Journey to Equality in Israel. She is also working on a doctorate, researching Ethiopian Jewish history.
One detail from this research she highlighted for JC readers is that in the 19th century, Ethiopian Jews wrote to communities in France and the UK in an effort to establish connections across the diaspora – and the JC reported on it.
“For me it is important to talk about this because I want people to know we didn’t just appear here [Israel], and we told the Jewish diaspora we were there, and they sent people to Ethiopia in the middle of the19th century.”
Roni Fantanesh Malkai[Missing Credit]
Like every Jewish group that has built its life in Israel, the community’s practices have evolved. Sigd – the festival marked fifty days after Yom Kippur – once involved climbing the highest mountains in Ethiopia to pray toward Jerusalem. Now, Malkai explains: “People go into Jerusalem to mark the day. We have a different wish; we made it. We are in Israel. Now they go into Jerusalem to say thank you. We managed to get to Israel, the holy land.”
Malkai is also aware of the inequalities that persist. She is an advocate for the black Jewish community, including for nine-year-old Haymanot Kasau, a nine-year-old Ethiopian-Israeli girl who disappeared in Safed last February.
“She doesn’t have a voice. If we won’t talk about her or push her story, nobody will talk about her. We can see that happening.”
Such stories, she says, can be lost in the relentless Israeli news cycle. “We have enough news in one day that would fill a year in another country – Iran, Hezbollah, Gaza, hostages, trial with PM. So sometimes those stories do not get their time. But if we don’t talk about her, she will disappear.”
Haymanot Kasau (Photo: courtesy)[Missing Credit]
Malkai is seeking a seat in the Knesset with Yesh Atid, Yair Lapid’s party. In the last election cycle, she was placed on the party’s candidate list and is poised to be selected again – although, under Israel’s system, this will not be confirmed until closer to the vote.
She described Lapid as “an amazing person”. “We need somebody that will hear Israel. Israel is in a bad place.”
Her second book, Bibi Land, examines how Benjamin Netanyahu reshaped the country. “Israel now it is not really Israel, it became more Bibi land.”
She believes that October 7 exposed a lack of leadership. But she is hopeful, noting that only a few years ago, the coalition government “was really good. There were really good people in the ministries and they came to work.”
If she becomes an MK, her top priority would be the cost of living. “Everybody I am meeting, people look at you as a person, what you are doing for your community, for your society, and they judge you as a person.”
Her centrist politics set her apart from much of the Ethiopian-Israeli community, who tend to vote for right-wing parties – largely, she believes, out of ongoing gratitude to Menachem Begin, the prime minister who opened Israel’s doors to them.
Malkai is determined to show the world that Israel is far more diverse than some activists claim when they describe it as a “white settler entity”. Israel’s strength, she adds, comes from the army, “where everyone – rich and poor, black and white –is the same”.
“We need to copy and paste the army format and take it across Israeli society,” she said. “The army is such an important example of how to connect with people who you have never met before.”
All this and more will be explored at Limmud. Or go to: limmud.org
