This is a list of notable Israeli Ethiopian Jews, including both original immigrants who obtained Israeli citizenship and their Israeli descendants.
Although traditionally, the term "Ethiopian Jews" was used as an all-encompassing term referring to the Jews descended from the Jewish communities of Ethiopia, due to the melting pot effect of Israeli society, the term "Ethiopian Jews" has gradually become more vague as many of the Israeli descendants of Beta Israel immigrants adopt the characteristics of Israeli culture and intermarry with descendants of other Jewish communities.
This list is ordered by category of human endeavor. Persons with significant contributions in two fields are listed in both of the pertinent categories, to facilitate easy look-up.
Religious figures
Priests
Liqa KahenatBerhan Baruch (Abba Uri; 1898–1984) – the main leader of Beta Israel from the Italian occupation until his death.[1]
Liqa Kahenat Raphael Hadane (born 12 August 1923 – 2020) – the priest of the Jews in Dembiya.
Liqa Kahenat Isaac Yaso (1892–1997) – the priest of the Jews in Tigray.
Rabbi Sharon Shalom – lecturer in Jewish ritual and tradition at Bar Ilan University in Israel. Is the rabbi of Ashkenazi synagogue in the town of Kiryat Gat.[4]
Rabbi Yefet Alemu (born 1961) – In 1980, he left his small village in Ethiopia to go to Israel. He was arrested in Addis Ababa and escaped from prison. He arrived in the Gondar region and then set out walking to Sudan. There he met a Jewish Red Cross director who arranged for him to fly on one of the Israeli-organized secret flights to Israel. In Israel he studied and became a nurse. He was accepted by the Schechter Institute and after 6 years of hard work, he received a BA, MA, and his rabbinical ordination.[5]
Athletes
Association football
Shai Biruk (born 15 February 1984) – soccer player.
Ziv Caveda (born 10 December 1978) – soccer player.
Wodage Zvadya (born 7 September 1973) – marathon runner
Politicians and activists
Knesset members
Adisu Massala (born 16 June 1961) – former Israeli politician of the Labour party and later One Nation. Massala was the first Ethiopian-Israeli to serve in the Knesset.
Shlomo Molla (born 21 November 1965) – Israeli politician and former member of the Knesset for the Kadima party.
Rabbi Mazor Bahaina (born 12 September 1973) – from Beersheba, studied at Yeshivat Porat Yosef, one of the most prestigious Sephardi yeshivot in Israel. Bahaina is a member of the Shas party and a former knesset member.
Alali Adamso (born 1963) – Israeli politician and former member of the Knesset for the Likud party.[6]
Pnina Tamano-Shata (born 1977) – first Israeli Government Minister of Ethiopian descent. A lawyer, Israeli politician and former member of the Knesset for the Yesh Atid. Former journalist in Channel 1 and the first Ethiopian-Israeli presenter.[7]
Shimon Solomon (born 1968) – Israeli politician and former member of the Knesset for Yesh Atid
Avraham Neguise – one of Israel's most prominent Ethiopian Activists and a member of the South Wing to Zion. His struggle, with the support of many other Ethiopian-Israelis has resulted in the Israeli government continuing to bring the last 23,000 Ethiopian Jews from Ethiopia; though the Israeli government has set a quota of 300 Jews per month, half of what they agreed to under pressure from Neguise, NACOEJ and the United Jewish Communities. He is a member of the Knesset for the Likud party.
Hadas Malada-Mitzri – first lieutenant (Hebrew: סגן) in the IDF. The first woman from the Ethiopian community to serve as a physician.[23]
Cultural figures
Actors
Meskie Shibru-Sivan (born 29 September 1967) – an Israeli actress and vocalist, well known in Israel and beyond for acting on theater stages, in television programs, movies as well as being an accomplished singer.
Abraham Adgeh – Israeli writer. His books "המסע אל החלום" ("The journey to the dream"), "עם הפנים קדימה" ("Facing forward") and the futuring novel "אלמז" ("Almaz" – Amharic for "Diamond").[37]
Asefu Baro – Israeli female writer, poet and academic.[38]
Tsega Melaku – politician, author, journalist, community activist and former director of Kol Yisrael's Reshet Alef ("Network A")[12]
Journalists
Tsega Melaku – radio personality, Amharic language newscaster on Channel 33 and the director of Reshet Aleph radio station.[39]
Fasil legesse – one of the founders of the Amharic-language broadcast at Israel Radio and the director of Israeli-Ethiopian television channel (IETV).[40]
Esti Mamo (born 29 January 1983) – an Israeli model. She is one of the first Ethiopian-Israelis to make it into the entertainment industry, and is a budding actress
Tahounia Rubel – Ethiopian-Israeli model. She became widely known as the first Ethiopian-born to win the fifth series of HaAh HaGadol (the Israeli version of Big Brother)[56] and the first Ethiopian-born Jew to win a beauty pageant in Israel.
^Shalva Weil, "Beta Israel Students Who Studied Abroad 1905-1935"Archived 31 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine in Svein Ege, Harald Aspen, Birhanu Teferra and Shiferaw Bekele (Editors) Proceedings of the 16th International Conference of Ethiopian Studies, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, 2009, ISBN ,p. 209-217