“400 Miles to Freedom: A Perilous Journey from Ethiopia to Israel”

A conversation between filmmaker Avishai Mekonen, historian Steven B. Kaplan, and ethnomusicologist Kay Shelemay

Online conversation via Zoom (link to be sent out 1 day prior)
“400 Miles to Freedom” documents Avishai Mekonen’s perilous journey from Ethiopia to Israel during Operation Moses in 1984 when the Israeli government secretly moved 8,000 Ethiopian Jews to Israel under a veil of complete secrecy. Mekonen is a filmmaker and photographer whose work includes the award-winning documentary Video Flour, screened widely at international film festivals and broadcast primetime on Israel’s premiere network.
On Thursday, August 6th at 4 p.m. Eastern, Avishai Mekonen will discuss his film with Professor Steven B. Kaplan, the author of The Beta Israel: Falasha in Ethiopia: From Earliest Times to the Twentieth Century and a former Dean of the Humanities at Hebrew University in Jerusalem and Kay Shelemay, the G. Gordon Watts Professor of Music at Harvard University author of Music, Ritual, and Falasha History (1986), A Song of Longing: An Ethiopian Journey (1991); and Ethiopian Christian Chant: An Anthology (3 vols., 1993-97), among others.

The film will be available for screening between July 30th and August 6th. RSVP required to receive the streaming and webinar information.

All Fordham events in Jewish Studies are free and open to public. The Zoom link will be sent to all registered participants 1-2 days prior.