The JFS Bruce Goodman Read in Color Little Free Library, in partnership with Twin Cities Jewish Film Festival and Minnesota JCC Capp Center present “Exodus 91: The Untold Story of Operation Solomon,” Tuesday, November 14 at 7:00 p.m. at the JCC Capp Center at 1375 St. Paul Avenue in St. Paul.

This docu-narrative film tells the story of Asher Naim, an Israeli diplomat caught between worlds and facing a crisis of faith in himself and his country. Asher, a North-African Jew himself, is sent to Ethiopia to negotiate the escape of 15,000 Ethiopian Jews from a country collapsing under famine and civil war. Working with his Ethiopian-Israeli colleagues who, themselves, immigrated to Israel a decade earlier, Asher and his partners begin to question if the Israeli government is serious or using the operation as part of an elaborate publicity stunt against claims that “Zionism is Racism.” With rebel forces closing in on the capital, Asher’s faith in his mission is put to the test as he navigates the treacherous world of bureaucracy and politics in Ethiopia, Israel, and the US.

Exodus 91 takes viewers behind the scenes – and behind the spin – of Operation Solomon, the diplomatic and military mission to bring thousands of Ethiopian Jews to Israel in the midst of Ethiopia’s brutal civil war. The feature-length film explores challenging questions of racism, white saviour-ism, homeland, cultural identity, the politics of immigration, and the hardships of these immigrants, and those that followed them, to this day.

The film will be followed by a discussion with Jon Parritz, a Twin Cities local who served as a lay leader on the last airlift from Ethiopia.

Attendees will also receive a link to a virtual interview with Belaynesh Mekonen, an Ethiopian-Israeli scholar who immigrated through Operation Solomon and spent 2022-2023 in the Twin Cities as a visiting scholar and postdoctoral student at the University of Minnesota.

Tickets are $15 in advance and $18 the day of the event. Each ticket includes a free bag of popcorn. Purchase tickets here.

Contact rivs@minnesotajcc.org for financial assistance and accessibility needs.