400 Miles to Freedom

Overview

Co-director Avishai Yeganyahu Mekonen’s incredible story of his family’s exodus from Ethiopia to Israel. He was 10 years old when his family, members of the Beta Israel, a secluded 2500-year old community of observant Jews in northern Ethiopia, began their escape. Kidnapped from a refugee camp in Sudan, Avishai was eventually freed and transported to Israel as part of Operation Moses. As part of a racial minority in Israel, Avishai longed for a place where he wouldn’t be called “falasha” (outsider). Now a U.S. resident, Avishai draws on his experiences and launches an inquiry into other Jewish minority groups, leading him to other African, Asian and Latino Jews in Israel and the United States.