Video Installation screen 4: Roi Tamanyo

Text Panel

My name is Kes Roei Temeniu, I’m a 24-year-old Sabra.
My parents came to Israel in 1991 in Operation Solomon. I’m the youngest Kes in our community, and I carry out the duties of a spiritual leader in the Beta Israel community in Hadera. Among other things I conduct marriages, and conversely, divorces, settle disputes within the community, serve as a cantor, and oversee kosher shechita, slaughtering. Most of all, I pass on our tradition, which has been preserved over more than 2,000 years of exile, to the next generations.
So what does being a Jew mean to me?
During all those years of exile, our ancestors didn’t recognize the term “Jews”. They were called Beta Israel, and that was how Christians in Ethiopia knew them. To me, Judaism is first and foremost faith and closeness with God, and the understanding that everything is of him and of divine supervision of the individual.
To me Judaism is being connected to the tradition, culture, customs and roots I was raised with in my parents’ home, and to not only pass them on to those of Ethiopian descent, but to youths of all ethnicities in Israel.