L ifestyle /C ulture
‘400 Miles to Freedom’ Celebrates Jewish Diversity
FI L M
SASHA ROGELBERG | JE FEATURE
WHEN AVISHAI MEKONEN
watched the 1993 film
“Philadelphia” for the first time,
he knew he wanted to be a
filmmaker. The film centers on a young
Black lawyer representing a gay
man living with HIV. To Mekonen,
an Ethiopian immigrant trying to
learn English at the time, the film
represented what was possible
for him.

“As a Black person watching
that film ... wow. It blows my
mind,” he said.

For Mekonen, becoming a
filmmaker meant having a say
over the stories of him and others
who were considered outsiders.

“As immigrants, refugees,
your voice is always being told
by others,” Mekonen said.

“Our voice has never been told
through our parents or through
us. It’s always been others — the
European community — they
talk for us.”
His documentary, “400 Miles
to Freedom” tells the story of his
family’s exodus from Ethiopia
to Israel.

In the film, Mekonen narrates
how his family left Ethiopia to
escape religious persecution.

Mekonen is part of a commu-
nity of Ethiopian Jews called
Beta Israel, who have practiced
Judaism in Ethiopia for more
than 2,500 years. Along with 100
Beta Israel, Mekonen’s family
fled their country in hopes of
being able to freely practice
Judaism in Jerusalem.

They traveled by night to
avoid getting caught and spent a
year in Sudan, in a refugee camp
and the town of Gedaref, where
Mekonen was kidnapped and
missing for three weeks.

One night, over a year after
his family’s departure from
Ethiopia, Mekonen, his family
and dozens of other Beta Israel
were airlifted by Israeli forces.

Mekonen arrived in Israel at the
22 MAY 20, 2021
age of 9, where a series of other
challenges awaited him.

In one scene, Mekonen’s
mother recounts riding a bus
in Jerusalem, looking around
her, on buses, and in the cars
below her, and only seeing
white people. She asks one
woman, “Is everyone here
white?” The woman responds,
“Yes, everyone, young and old,
was white.” Mekonen’s mother
laughs a bit, then says, “Also
us, soon, are we also going to
become white?”
Though Mekonen’s film
details his family’s exodus,
“400 Miles to Freedom” at its
heart, is a documentary about
what it means to be Black and
Jewish. Mekonen faced a lot of racism
growing up.

“Living in Israel, every time
when I went out the door ... I was
already preparing myself to face
the racism ... even when I wanted
to go to the bank,” he said.

Moreover, Mekonen was
without a community of Jews
who looked like him.

He moved to New York to
seek out connections with other
Black Jews but had difficulties
there as well.

He spent hours in Barnes
& Noble and the New York
Scene from “400 Miles to
Freedom” Avishai Mekonen
Courtesy of Diane Tobin
of Be’Chol Lashon
Public Library on 42nd Street
rummaging through books and
CDs, searching for any informa-
tion about Jews of color.

During the seven years it took
to make “400 Miles to Freedom,”
Mekonen struggled to find
Jewish leaders with diverse
racial backgrounds, particularly
without the networking capabil-
ities of social media.

Through the help of Be’chol
Lashon, an organization
committed to celebrating Jewish
diversity — and the documenta-
ry’s eventual executive producer
— Mekonen was finally able find
Jews from Uganda, Nigeria and
Cameroon. He traveled to Harlem,
Brooklyn and Chicago, meeting
with Black rabbis, hearing them
talk about their unique Jewish
customs and experiences.

Only after hearing other
Black Jews tell their stories did
Mekonen feel inspired to share
his own.

“Doing the film, it changed
my life. It helped me to talk
about my past,” Mekonen said.

JEWISH EXPONENT
When Mekonen and his wife
had their first son during the
film’s production, Mekonen
decided to talk to his parents for
the first time in 18 years about
his kidnapping in Sudan.

As Mekonen traveled across
the country asking Black rabbis
about their own experiences
being Jewish, they began to ask
Mekonen the same questions
in return. By having diffi-
cult conversations with them,
Mekonen was able to heal.

Mekonen believes that to be
Jewish means to look differently
at situations, to have a unique
perspective worth sharing.

He hopes to evoke the same
reaction from an audience
watching the film that he experi-
enced making it: awe in Jewish
diversity. “It’s the diaspora, and the
diversity that is so special,”
he said. “It’s like a garden of
flowers: We are one, and we are
so different.”
Temple Sinai and Beth ‘El
Congregation are hosting a
virtual conversation on May 23
with Mekonen starting at 10:30
a.m., followed by a screening
of “400 Miles to Freedom.”
Email mainoffice@tsinai.com
for details on how to view the
presentation. l
Sasha Rogelberg is a freelance
writer. JEWISHEXPONENT.COM