Food coverage is supported by a generous donation from Susan and Moses Libitzky.
Updated on March 3
When Beza Abebe began to think about transmitting culture to children, especially among the relatively small number of Ethiopian Jews in the U.S., food became an obvious vehicle to her.
“What part of your culture would you want to see on your kids’ and grandkids’ tables in the future?” and “What part of our heritage do we want them to have?” were the questions that she and her peers were asking each other.
With funding from the Bay Area-based Jews of Color Initiative, the Oakland resident has spearheaded a video series called “Emaye’s Kitchen” (“Mom’s Kitchen” in Amharic) in which Bay Area Ethiopian Jewish women share favorite recipes, as well as their heritage.
One video has been released so far of Maya Lagese Shumsker, who came to Israel as a child during Operation Solomon and now lives in the East Bay. She makes Misir Wot, a fragrant red lentil and tomato stew. Interspersed with the cooking, Shumsker talks directly to the camera about her desire to educate people about the Ethiopian Jewish community — Beta Israel, which goes back thousands of years — especially since Oct. 7, 2023, when all Israelis have been falsely painted as homogenous “colonizers.”
“Suddenly, people were talking about ‘white Jews,’ as if we don’t exist here,” Shumsker says in the video.
According to Gabi Kuhn, managing director of the Jews of Color Initiative, the videos were funded as part of a round of grants focused on cultural preservation in intergenerational relationships.
Food is a “powerful portal into memory, family histories and cultural traditions,” according to the initiative’s website, and “transmits cultural identity l’dor vador — from generation to generation.”
Kuhn said they are definitely seeing an upswing in food-focused projects, as “food brings people together and is a naturally inviting thing. It crosses barriers and fosters pride and joy.”
Future videos will feature others in the small local Ethiopian Jewish community, like Aviva “Vivi” Bayun of Walnut Creek, who last year collaborated with Chabad of Contra Costa to hold a Sigd celebration, a holiday unique to Ethiopian Jews. Abebe also plans to demonstrate a traditional Ethiopian coffee ceremony.
“We want Jews to think of Ethiopian food as Jewish food, too.” Beza Abebe
“We want Jews to think of Ethiopian food as Jewish food, too,” she said, as opposed to Ashkenazi dishes, like matzah ball soup, that are most often held up as examples of Jewish food.
Abebe, 38, has two sons with her Eritrean immigrant husband. A Jew-by-choice and an Israeli citizen, she attended graduate school in Israel and obtained a doctorate in juridical science at Golden Gate University in San Francisco.
Abebe said she has to work harder to transmit her cultural identity to her sons now that she lives in the Bay Area.
“In Israel, I wouldn’t need to do that much,” she said. “It’s so much easier when you’re exposed to the language and culture and see people who look like you. Here it’s not that obvious. I need to work on creating a feeling of belonging for them. Otherwise it won’t continue.”
Abebe also hopes to raise the profile of the Ethiopian Jewish community in the Bay Area.
“We hope to be visible, to bring our stories and our heritage to the community,” Abebe said. “Our hope is that our kids will feel they belong to the greater Jewish community, and that they can bring their color, their spices and their stories and make the Jewish community more beautiful.”