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JAFI Regional Director Encourages
Aliyot With a Personal Touch
SASHA ROGELBERG | STAFF WRITER
W hen Sigal Kanotopsky was
growing up, her parents
told her that Jerusalem
was made from golden walls, with a
river of honey flowing through the city.

Arriving in Israel after emigrating
from Ethiopia at age 5, Kanotopsky
was met with a different reality, one
of immersing herself in a new culture
while her parents struggled to adjust to
a new life.

“Israel was​, in one way, the end of one
journey but the beginning of another
journey,” she said.

When Kanotopsky left Israel in
August for the Philadelphia suburbs —
hardly known as the land of milk and
honey — she began yet another journey.

She is the Northeast regional director
for the Jewish Agency for Israel and the
first Ethiopian immigrant to hold the
regional director position.

As regional director, the Lower
Merion resident is tasked with manag-
ing and working with Israeli shlichim,
emissaries, to maximize their poten-
tial to liaise between the Northeast
American Jewish community and
Israel. Her work connecting JAFI with
Jewish Federations also works to tighten
bonds between the two countries.

Underlying all of her work, though,
is the desire to bring Ethiopian Jews
deeper into the folds of Israeli culture
and American Jewry.

“I have always had the ambition and
motivation to be proactive in fixing my
environment ... something I inherited
from my parents,” Kanotopsky said.

My current role, is in a way, the next
level of that, by representing the beauty
but also the complexity of Israel and
world Jewry.

Today there are about 160,000
Ethiopians in Israel, according to the
Israel Central Bureau of Statistics.

Kanotopsky said that 50% of that pop-
ulation was born in Israel, and 70%
would not be considered “newcomers.”
However, the representation of
Ethiopians in Israeli life and gov-
ernment is trailing, despite progress.

6 APRIL 7, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
Sigal Kanotopsky took on the role
of Northeast regional director of the
Jewish Agency for Israel in August,
becoming the first Ethiopian immigrant
to hold a regional director position at
the organization.

Kanotopsky experienced this first-
hand during her time in the Israel
Defense Forces, where she was the first
Ethiopian communications officer,
despite pessimism from her superiors.

Kanotopsky’s path to firsts was not
always so clear.

Her family left Ethiopia in 1983, the Sigal Kanotopsky speaks at a JAFI - North American Council program.

year before Operation Moses, in which
Courtesy of Dylan Thomas
the Sudanese government, with pres-
sure from the U.S., allowed for the entry arriving in Israel.

two traveled to Kanotopsky’s parents’
of thousands of Beta Israel Ethiopian
Experiencing being othered as an village in Ethiopia, that Kanotopsky
Jews to Israel via Sudan. Kanotopsky’s Ethiopian in Israel and watching her more fully understood her parents’
family followed a similar path, staying mother struggle to assimilate to Israeli desire to make aliyah.

in Gedaref, a Sudanese refugee camp, culture — especially in contrast to the
Upon their return, Kanotopsky
for six months before arriving in north ease with which her children accultur- asked her mother why the family had
Nazareth, a town in lower Galilee.

ated — Kanotopsky was confused by her departed their home to endure death
During the family’s travels, one of family’s choice to leave home in Ethiopia. and hardships.

Kanotopsky’s five siblings died. Her
It wasn’t until Kanotopsky’s daughter
“She looked at me and said, ‘We
father died a year-and-a-half after Shachar’s bat mitzvah in 2016, when the didn’t leave Ethiopia to have a more satis-



fied life, to be rich. It wasn’t our dream or
our vision when we were in Ethiopia,’”
Kanotopsky said. “‘We had one destiny
in our life, and it was Jerusalem.’”
By 2016, Kanotopsky was already
deeply steeped in improving the life of
Ethiopian Jews in Israel. She was CEO
of NGO Olim Be’yachad, where she cre-
ated a mentor network and leadership
training for Ethiopian-Israeli young
professionals. The organization worked
with the Israeli CEOs and human
resource departments to address and
dismantle racism and hiring discrimi-
nation within the business sector.

In 2019, Kanotopsky was honored
by the Bruce and Ruth Rappaport
Foundation with the Rappaport Prize
for Women Generating Change.

“Israel was​, in one
way, the end of one
journey but the
beginning of
another journey.”
SIGAL KANOTOPSKY
Her commitment to aliyot for
Ethiopian Jews is part of what made
Kanotopsky an appealing candidate
for JAFI regional director, JAFI Head
of North America Daniel Elbaum said.

“She’s able to speak with unique
credibility externally about the issue of
Ethiopian aliyah, how important it is
to her, her own family’s story, her own
story that’s incredibly impactful, and
personalize an issue which is an incred-
ibly high priority to us,” Elbaum said.

However, JAFI has not been primar-
ily concerned with Ethiopian aliyot
in the past month. The organization
has set up assistance in Kyiv, Odessa,
Kharkiv and Dnipro, Ukraine, and is
helping to process 15,000 Ukrainian
olim over the next six months. JAFI’s
North American Council has helped
raise the funds to make this possible.

“It’s helping people make aliyah when
they wish to make aliyah; it’s helping
to raise money for Ukraine,” Elbaum
said. “And she’s incredibly impactful
and dedicated to all those.” JE
srogelberg@midatlanticmedia.com JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
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