Harlem's Ethiopian Renaissance

Jewish Week, The, August, 2004 by Steinberg, Shmuel

Steinberg, Shmuel The Jewish Week 08-27-2004 For one recent day, Ethiopian Jewish culture was front and center in Harlem, long considered the cultural hub of black America. The hallways of the Faison Firehouse Theatre on 125th Street reverberated Aug. 15 with the sound of young Ethiopian women speaking Hebrew with Israeli accents, Rastafarians chatting with the melodic flow of the Caribbean, and African-Americans with their New York tones, all learning about Ethiopian Jewish culture. The diverse crowd of approximately 100, old and young, came together for the first NYC Sheba Film Festival, a project of the newly formed Beta Israel of North America Cultural Foundation, an organization dedicated to promoting the heritage and culture of Ethiopian Jewry. "We are...