AROUND TOWN

JOURNEY
UNFOLDED

Photojournalist tells the story
of Ethiopian Jewry.

ROBIN SCHWARTZ

COLUMNIST

icki Rosen interacts with the crowd.

here vas a good-sized traffic jam lead-
ing to the Farmington Hills home of
Florine Mark as more than 180
women gathered for a presentation on the
remarkable journey of Ethiopian Jews to Israel
— seen though the camera lens of Israeli pho-
tojournalist Ricki Rosen.
The "Food for Thought" program, spon-
sored by the Women's Campaign and
Education Department of the Jewish
Federation of Metropolitan Detroit, drew such
a large crowd that even the hostess was over-
whelmed. "They've brought joy to my heart,"
said Mark, as she personally greeted each guest.
Miriam Weberman of Farmington Hills, Roz
Garber of West Bloomfield, Friedell Wolson of

T

PHOTOGRAPHY BY BILL HANSEN

Waterford, and Kim Bernzweig and Sandra
Lerner of Huntington Woods were among the
crowd.
"It was a scene of biblical proportions, like
the Exodus from Egypt," said Rosen, as she
began showing her extraordinary pictures of
Ethiopian Jews lining up for Operation
Solomon — the emergency airlift in 1991 in
which about 15,000 Ethiopian Jews were trans
ported to Israel.
Rosen, who was a contract photographer at
the time for Time magazine, photographed
about 60 adults and children.
Thirteen years later, she revisited those fam-
ilies and took new portraits to show how their
lives have changed.

Judith Goren of Bloomfield Hills was
touched. "It's just fascinating and very moving
— the smiles all of the people had," she said.
Rosen's photographs are being compiled for
a book called Transformations — From Ethiopia
to Israel, due out this summer. "The transfor-
mations they've undergone and are undergoing
are incredible," said Rosen, who added that
Israel's Ethiopian community is still struggling
to overcome financial obstacles.
"World Jewry paid for the Ethiopians to
come to Israel and are still paying for their
absorption," she said.
"I'm proud of it," said Kim Snover of West
Bloomfield after hearing the Jan. 25 presenta-
tion. "I think it's an altruistic act." El

Sandy Schwartz of Franklin, president of the

Federation Women's Campaign and Education

Susie Pappas of Bloomfield

Department, and Marion Freedman of West

Florine Mark of Farmington Hills, .1

Hills, Campaign chair, and

Bloomfield, that department's Campaign

the host, welcomes the guest

Julie Falbaum of

and speakers.

Farmington Hills

executive director

r

Heidi Fischgrund of

West Bloomfield,

event co-chair