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AFRICAN JOURNEY from page 21

Women participate in the "buna" or coffee ceremony.
prior to the immigration to Israel.

Enjoy Special Events

• School-age children are urged to
participate in a summer reading pro-
gram sponsored by the Henry and
Delia Meyers Library at the JCC in
West Bloomfield in conjunction with
"Stone Shoes." (See center-spread poster

for details of the reading program.)
• Sunday, July 10, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.,
grand opening of the Ethiopian village.
Reservations required; call 1-877-
SHALOM3. Ethiopian food will be
available for an additional cost.
• July 19 and Aug. 16, 7-8:30 p.m.,
family program
• Aug. 14-15, Jane Kurtz, author of
The Storyteller's Beads, will be doing
workshops about Ethiopia and reading
her stories.
• Sept. 18, Apples and Honey, focus-
ing on how the High Holidays are cele-
brated by Ethiopian Jews

6/30

2005

22

strong appeal to non-Jews as well. She says "Stone
Shoes" is running through September so school
groups will have the chance to experience it.
Many.districts already have signed up.
"They will not find an exhibit like this any-
where," she said. "It speaks a lot to how we value
education for everyone."

Creating The Exhibit

Shari Davis and Benny Ferdman, the husband-
and-wife team that make up their exhibit design
business Creative Ways, have been building the
exhibit in their home workshop in Los Angeles.
Their love of the Beta Israel stem from their time
in Israel, when Ferdman was a Melton senior edu-
cator fellow in Jerusalem.
In 1984, after doing extensive oral histories of
Ethiopians living in Israel, they created a perform-
ance exhibit presented to groups visiting Israel fea-
turing 14 performers who told the story of their
journeys from Ethiopia.
While working at the Jewish Heritage Museum
in New York more recently, Davis was hooked up
to the Shalom Street project.
"There are not many folks with exhibit experience
and experience with the Ethiopian community,"

Davis said. "For us, it's very meaningful and exciting to
revisit the research and connections with the Beta Israel
— they have been a highlight of our professional lives."
"Stone Shoes" gives them the opportunity to re-
connect professionally with Esther Germay, one of
the performers whose story was part of their first
Ethiopian exhibit. Germay will be in Detroit through
July to interact with visitors and tell her story.
"Each group leaving Ethiopia has their own experi
ence," she told Davis in an earlier interview. "Mine i s
written in my mind. It was 1984; I was 17 years old.
I was the youngest of 10 children. I was very close to
my father. All my life, I had been told that one day
we would go to Jerusalem. My father told me that
Israel was the land of milk and honey.
"There was a big Kess (Jewish priest) named Kess
Barhan Baruch," she continued. "He told my father
in 1984 that the day had arrived for the Beta Israel to
head to Jerusalem. He somehow knew the future! He
said then that the way to Jerusalem was opening."
The title of Shalom Street's exhibit comes from a
word play used by Germay's father when they were
preparing to leave her village, Davis explained. "It is
time to put on your stone shoes," her father told her.
They were not real stone shoes; most Ethiopians
wore sandals or walked barefoot during their long
journey. By imagining stone shoes on their feet, the
Beta Israel felt their bodies and spirit were strong
and protected.
Germay, who had been studying nursing and
English in a nearby village, left with a group of 135
people, traveling with 11 guides and mules to carry
food and water. They walked day and night across
the desert for a month without much rest. Always
there was fear of wild animals or robbers. But their
guides knew the proper routes, unlike others, and
avoided Ethiopian soldiers who would capture and
return people to their villages or put them in jail.
Finally, her group reached the Sudanese border,
where they were trucked to a refugee
camp. She was one of the last to leave the
camp because her nursing and English
skills were in demand. She chose to go to
Canada first, then Jerusalem. She current-
ly is living in Ottawa with her two sons
but will return to Israel. Her older daugh-
ter is in the Israeli army.
Penny
Exhibit designer Davis also has connec-
Blumenstein tions with photographers Roth and Ricki
Rosen, a photojournalist who lives in
Israel. Rosen has published a book called
Transformations, which features portraits
of individuals in Ethiopia and then catch-
es up with them 14 years later in Israel.
The transformations are incredible, and
some of her photos will be included in
"Stone Shoes."

Early Jewish Roots

Harlene
Appelman

Why are there Jews in Ethiopia and how
did they gain their particular observance
of Judaism? No one knows for sure, but
theories speculate they are the lost tribe
of Dan or that they are descendants of
King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba
or that they came to Africa during the
exodus from Egypt.