I don't speak Amharic

At left, me. At right, Ethiopian supermodel Liya Kebede. See the resemblance??!!! Remember sometimes it's okay to lie if it makes someone feel better :)

In Tel Aviv there is a fairly sizable population of Ethiopian Jews. Like many immigrant communities, a lot of them work jobs that don't require advanced education, such as security, construction, childcare or janitorial work. This is of course not the case for every Ethiopian in Israel, but this is where I tend to see them the most - pushing strollers, sweeping and mopping floors,  bagging groceries, and checking cars at the mall entrance. All of these are perfectly decent ways to earn a living, particularly for a population that came to Israel a few generations ago from an underdeveloped country. What I've encountered as a non-Ethiopian, is an automatic assumption on the part of some Israelis that I am here doing one of those same things, naturally, because of the color of my skin.

One day last year, I went to pick up Sidney from school, just as I do any other day. A parent stopped me and started asking me a bunch of questions in Hebrew. I didn't know exactly what she was saying but I could tell it related to her child and the class. Now mind you, I happen to know exactly which kid this parent is here for, because I see her 5 days a week at exactly the same time. I don't know her name, but I see her with the same kid each time and make the connection that they are related, and she is here to pick him up and take him home, like every other parent doing the same. After she rambled on for a minute I interrupted. "Um...I don't work here." A look of overwhelming confusion swept over her, and she walked away, looking for an actual employee on which to unload her questions. I guess it could be viewed as an honest mistake. But she didn't mistake any other parent for one of the teachers or aides at the school, and furthermore, when have you ever seen me with your kid???!!! And yet when I told her I didn't work there, she had to think about it for a minute. She had to process that information. Because in her mind, that was the only explanation for my presence in the building. 

Prejudice in Israel is a problem, and I say that with full knowledge that few nations are prejudice-free, including the United States. A 2005 survey found 43% of Israelis would not want themselves or their children to intermarry with Ethiopians. In 2009, Kiryat Ono Academy published a report saying that 53% of Israeli employers in elite professional fields would prefer not to hire Ethiopians. That same year, children of Ethiopian descent were denied admission to 3 semi-private religious schools in Petah Tikva, an act which Prime Minister Netanyahu condemned as a "moral terror attack." Relations are improving and they will continue to improve, but in the meantime, many Ethiopians here are viewed a second-class citizens, and in my own experiences in Israel I've felt it too.

A few months ago I took a trip with YEDID to Megemeria, (more on this amazing place later) a school just outside Jerusalem that teaches Ethiopian immigrants how to make jewelry. I met so many beautiful young women who showed me the exquisitely crafted pieces they had made for upcoming exams. These women were so excited to see me, they were positively beaming, even after they were told I was American and not Ethiopian myself (it's not just Israelis who make the mistake). They thought it was cool that I was a "basketball wife" and some of them knew Devin from TV. But I think they were most excited that I took the time to come see their work, and that I genuinely valued the beauty of their creations and their unique skills. I imagine that that when they leave Yvel they are viewed by some of their fellow countrymen with the same assumptions thrusted on me at my daughter's school. And I think it felt good to be acknowledged and appreciated as something more than a stereotype.