In late 1984, a 21-year-old Fantanesh Ayaleou Zamir lost three babies making the journey, barefoot, from her village in Ethiopia to Sudan, the first stop on the long road to Jerusalem. Mulu Desta’s family with young children and the elderly would not have made it across the Sudanese border without the help of Ethiopian villagers — two of her siblings died on the journey. Becky Sereche has only vague memories of the trek she made, also barefoot, as an 8-year-old with her family.

“The mind hides the most terrible parts,” Sereche said on Tuesday at a reception before a ceremony marking the 40th anniversary of Operation Moses hosted by the Ministry of Immigration and Absorption at the Jerusalem International Convention Center. 

“It was when Jews of Ethiopian descent somewhere there in Africa decided it was enough waiting to get to Jerusalem and got up and started walking,” she said. “My parents got us ready and we left. Sometimes I can’t believe that these feet made that journey. Now sometimes when I get tired, I tell myself: Those feet made that journey, I can do this too.”

Operation Moses was launched on Nov. 21, 1984, following a secret Israeli Cabinet meeting approving the covert mission to evacuate Ethiopian Jews. Taking place amid a civil war and famine, the operation was a collaboration between Israel Defense Forces, CIA, the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum, Sudan’s capital city, mercenaries and Sudanese state security forces in an airlift of approximately 8,000 Ethiopian Jews from Sudan to Israel via Brussels. The mission concluded on Jan. 5, 1985. 

Thousands of Ethiopian Jews began the perilous trek of hundreds of miles from their villages in Ethiopia to Sudan to await the airlift. According to statistics from the Ministry of Aliyah and Absorption, a total of 14,579 Ethiopian immigrants were brought to Israel from 1979 until the end of the mission. The majority (34%) were children under the age of 10, and 25% were between 11 and 20. Some 13% were young adults, 21-30, and 4% were over the age of 71.

Jewish Agency Chairman Maj. Gen. (Res) Doron Almog, who participated in Operation Moses as a soldier, and Chief Sephardi Rabbi David Yosef, whose father and former Chief Rabbi Ovadia Yosef ruled in the 1970s that Ethiopian Jews were halachically Jewish and campaigned for their aliyah to Israel, attended the Feb. 26 ceremony, as did Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister of Immigration and Absorption Ofir Sofer.

The event opened with a prayer by Kes Berku Tegania, the chief spiritual leader of the Ethiopian Jewish community, and was co-hosted by actor-comedian Yossi Vasa, who noted that his younger brother and beloved grandmother died as they trekked to Sudan when he was 7. Singer Kabra Kasai, who was born in a Sudanese refugee camp and came to Israel on Operation Moses, and Ester Rada, whose parents came to Israel on Operation Moses, performed at the ceremony.

“We will continue to invest in the advancement of Ethiopian immigrants in Israel. We will continue to fight against unacceptable phenomena of discrimination, racism. We will continue to spread the wonderful Zionist story of the Beta Israel community,” said Netanyahu, calling the community a “community of heroes.”

In his speech, the prime minister also noted that the ceremony was held three days after the release of Ethiopian Israeli hostage Avera Mengistu, who had been held in captivity in Gaza for over a decade after he crossed into the enclave in September 2014, apparently during a mental health crisis.

Kes Nega Asrs, who was held as a “Prisoner of Zion” in Ethiopia (referring to someone jailed for their desire to emigrate to Israel), told eJewishPhilanthropy that while Netanyahu mentioned the release of Mengistu several times in his speech, the prime minister had not secured Mengistu’s freedom in the more than 10 years that he had been held captive by Hamas. If it hadn’t been for Oct. 7 and the other Israelis taken hostage, Mengistu may still not have been freed, Asrs said. 

Alem Balley, who came to Israel 30 years ago at age 3, said she had brought her three young children to the event so they could be exposed to the history of their community.

Thousands of people lost their lives along the journey to Sudan, and people at the reception gathered in front of a video screen using their phones to record parts of the long list of names of those who had died as they scrolled across the screen.

“Forty years is a long time and it is good to stop and remember and recognize and understand those who made that journey, and how the Ethiopian community completes the mosaic of Israel, gives it color and diversity,” said Sereche.

Desta said her children grew up on the retelling of her family’s trek and have recounted the stories in their schools as well, but said it should be better known by the Israeli population at large. In Israel, the immigration of Ethiopian Jews is often seen as a story of Israel saving or rescuing a vulnerable population; to the Ethiopian community, however, the narrative is one of a group of people who were determined to make aliyah despite intense challenges. 

“Israelis need to see this other view, and give this story center stage, not to pity us. It is a story of strength and shows how strong our community is. We survived the most difficult situations in Sudan,” said Desta.

According to data published by the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics in November 2023, on the occasion of the Sigd Festival, at the end of 2022 the population of Ethiopian origin in Israel numbered 168,800 residents. Approximately 92,100 (55%) were born in Ethiopia, and 76,800 (approximately 45%) were born in Israel to fathers who were born in Ethiopia. Approximately one-third of the immigrants from Ethiopia arrived in Israel in two major waves: the first in the 1980s in Operation Moses and the second in 1991 in Operation Solomon. In 2022, 1,680 immigrants arrived in Israel from Ethiopia; 2021 saw 1,755 Ethiopian immigrants arrive and 1,080 immigrated in 2020.

“The story of the Ethiopian Jewish community is the story of Israeli society as a whole. The second and third generations are at the front lines of the battle, leading in the IDF, propelling Israel’s economy forward and symbolizing the uniqueness of Israeli society,” said Sofer.

More work needs to be done to educate the general Israeli population, especially in schools, about the history of the Ethiopian aliyah during Operation Moses, Asrs said.

“We pass on the story in our community,” added Ayline Aweak, a member of the community who attended the ceremony. “It needs to be told and heard by other Israelis. If you look here [at the ceremony], most of the people are from the Ethiopian community. We all know the story, so what have we achieved with this?”