Ethiopian-Israeli wins Miss Israel Contest for First Time

Summary of Article: This week, an Ethiopian-Israeli woman, Yityish Aynaw, won the title of Miss Israel. Aynaw is 21 years old and a former Israeli army officer. It is the first time an Ethiopian has won the contest. Aynaw came to Israel with her family when she was 12. She said it was hard to acclimate to Israel at first, but she picked up Hebrew quickly by total immersion in an Israeli school. A friend entered her into the contest; she had never modeled before. She currently works at a clothing store.

Picture of Yityish being crowned

Discussion Outline:

• Every year in many countries in the world, there is a contest to see who is the most beautiful woman. When did we recently learn about a similar contest? (Answer: story of Purim. Who won the contest? Queen Esther.) 
• Israel had a beauty contest this week. The winner was an Ethiopian Jewish girl. Tell her bio (see above). This girl is special because she is not only beautiful, she is also a talented soldier. She was an officer in the Israeli army! 
• She is also a special winner because it is the first time an Ethiopian woman has won the contest in Israel. 
• What is an Ethiopian Jew? Where is Ethiopia?
• Some believe that Ethiopian Jews are descendants of the Tribe in Dan (son of Jacob), one of lost tribes of Israel; some say they are descendants of the son of King Solomon and Queen Sheba; some say they fled to Ethiopia after the destruction of the First Temple. 
• How did Ethiopian Jews get to Israel? 
• In the 1990s, a civil war broke out in Ethiopia and Israel feared for the Jews living there. The Israeli government decided to try to help all the Jews leave but they had to do it as quickly as possible, before the Ethiopian government tried to stop them. The Israeli government gave permission for the Israeli airline, El Al, to fly on Shabbat. For 36 hours, on 34 non-stop jumbo jets, Israeli planes brought out all the Jews of Ethiopia. They removed all the seats from the planes to get the max number of people on board. Some women even had babies on the planes to Israel. A total of 14,324 Ethiopian Jews were rescued and brought to Israel in less than 2 days.  

Bonus: A fantastic children's book about the story of Ethiopian Jews is The Return, by Sonja Levitin