Since 1991, I have been working on a book project documenting the absorption of Ethiopian Jews in their new / old homeland of Israel. The title of this project is "From Tesfa to Tikva (From Hope to Hope). The first word of hope is in Amharic, the language they spoke in the old country; the second hope is in Hebrew, their new language. Most Ethiopian Israelis immigrated less than twenty years ago. Coming from small isolated mountain villages with an eighteenth century agrarian society to a twenty-first century technological one has meant an adjustment of incredible sacrifice for the older generation, and a huge challenge for the younger generation. The community had been praying for generations to return to Jerusalem and were met with open arms by the people of Israel who had heard of their devotion to their faith and the hardship of their journey.

Today Israel's nearly 85,000 Ethiopians are still in a transition period, where the old ways are continuing to be practiced, but are making way for the new. Both in photos and text, I am telling the story of these early years of change and transition. The visual contrasts are extraordinary, an ancient African people in a mostly white modern society; a young boy who was a shepherd in Gondor is now a computer jockey in Tel Aviv. The successes within the community have been tempered by many failures. Most families live below the poverty line, juvenile delinquency is epidemic; yet there are over 2400 ethiopian students now in higher education studies, 100 ethiopian small businesses, 24 rabbis have been ordained, and these graceful, reserved people are enduring from tesfa to tikva…