Three Israeli Ethiopians, one attorney and two law students, will be speaking in the Oak Room of the John A. Barone Campus Center at Fairfield University on Thursday, March 3 at 7:30 p.m., as part of the "Israel at Heart Program." The program is being coordinated through the Center for Multicultural Relations and the Bennett Center for Judaic Studies, both at Fairfield University, and the Community Relations Commission of the Jewish Federation of Eastern Fairfield County. The public is welcome.

Jerry Gordon, who is facilitating the program through the Community Relations Commission of the Jewish Federation of Eastern Fairfield, explained that Ethiopian Jews, who felt oppressed under the Mengistu Communist dictatorship in Ethiopia, were airlifted to Israel in a massive evacuation that took place in the mid-eighties, resulting in an Ethiopian community in Israel.

Larri Mazon, director of Fairfield's Office of Multicultural Relations, said he thought it was important for students to meet Israelis who are people of color and to hear of their experiences in the Israeli military and as law students.

The "Israel at Heart Program" brings the real faces and stories of Israeli students who completed their military service and who are fluent in English to college campuses, communities, and various organizations in the United States and Canada. For two weeks starting Feb. 21 and concluding March 6, three groups of three Israelis are visiting communities in the Atlanta, Washington, D.C., and greater New York areas.

The three Israelis visiting Fairfield include:

Aviva Cohen: a third year law student at Ono Academic College who has also studied communication and community leadership. She served in the Israeli defense forces from 1996 to 1998 and has worked in sales while attending law school.

Nevo Vandimo has completed four years of law school at Tel-Aviv University. He has begun a legal internship at a corporate law firm and has done volunteer work in legal assistance in labor law and for the Ethiopian community in Israel. He served in a tank unit of the Israeli military from 1995 to 1998, attaining the rank of first sergeant, and worked as a shift leader at Tel-Aviv Sea Port while attending law school.

Abaynesh Tessema is a graduate of the School of Law at Tel-Aviv University and was admitted to the Israeli Bar last June. She has been a legal intern at Haim Tzadok & Co. in Tel Aviv and was a volunteer legal intern with the Center of Legal Aid and Advocacy for the Ethiopian Community. She was a paramedic assistant in the Israeli Defense Forces from 1998 to 1999.

Posted On: 03-23-2005 10:03 AM

Volume: 37 Number: 173