ENP= Social Justice to Me

By: Destiny N. Dixon

University of California, Berkeley

ENP Rothberg International School Intern, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

How can I forget October 9^th, 2013? I can’t. This was the day I experienced real Israeli love; my very first day volunteering with the Ethiopian National Project. I spent this day in Ashkelon with a group of wonderful Ethiopian women. I felt like I was around my mother and her sisters. I had the pleasure in helping them pick chili peppers and other spices and veggies from the community garden in order to cook a range of delicious original Ethiopian dishes. We enjoyed this food with other ENP volunteers, staff, and donors. IT was amazing. Although the majority of these women spoke Amharic, I felt the love as we converses in our limited Hebrew. We ate, laughed, ate some more, hugged, kissed, drank amazing Ethiopian coffee, and shared our desires. One of them even invited the volunteers and I to her home for a Shabbat dinner. Such genuine hospitality left me wondering…

 

I wonder about their stories; migrating to Israel in search of something new. Did any suffer in refugee camps along the way? Did any lose a son, a daughter, a loved one during their journey? Did any feel like giving up because of her lack of education and language skills? Regardless if they did or did not, where does such humble hospitality, warm welcoming, courageous courtesy, and genuine geniality stem from? They treated me, a complete stranger, like one of their own. And that, my friend, is the Beauty of Blessed Love. 

As an African American living in Israel, I am not surprised at the number of times I have been mistaken as Ethiopian here. I remember once while working with the younger kids in Beit Shemesh, (in my aleph level of Hebrew of course) I was explaining to the girls that I am not Ethiopian. One girl in particular¾we’ll just call her Jane for identity purposes¾well Jane’s facial expression seemed as if she was dumbfounded at my statement. “What do you mean you’re not Ethiopian?” Did it not make sense? You don’t speak Hebrew. You are not Ethiopian. You are not Israeli. You are not Jewish. Why are you here? I then thought about notions around authenticity. In essence of race, culture, ethnicity, and all of the other identity markers, when, where, how, and what cultivates your authenticity? Am I authentic enough to relate to a common struggle? Are you authentic enough to comprehend cultural values? Are we authentic enough to realize, I am human. You are human. We are one in the same.

Thank you to the beautiful queens in Ashkelon for helping me to realize this.

The cultural distance is there. But, the effort in traveling the roads less traveled is the very thing that transforms such distance into a ladder; it is no longer a wall, hurdle, or barrier.
Jane’s eyes lit up when I told her how much I enjoy eating Injera! She goes to the other girls at the table, “hee ochelah injera veh hee ohevet et zeh!” (She ate injera and loved it!) She went on to ask me more questions about when and where did I eat it, what did I eat with it, and started telling me what other Ethiopian dishes I should eat. We smiled, laughed, colored, and conversed about food. Jane, thank you for accepting me as one in the same.

When I think of the work of ENP, I think of Social Justice. Volunteering with ENP is helping me understand the depths of that very notion. Social justice is reconciling those who are deprived from the fruits of life back to hope. Jane is a one of those fruits. For if this current world was a perfect utopian society, what would we need to hope for? It is the reward of fulfilling the hope of sincere human connection. When we look beyond society’s hegemonic ideals about race, gender, class, sexuality, language or what have you, we are able to experience the fullness of God’s purpose for creating life. It reveals to us how deep we can love, how long we can endure and persevere, how forgiving we can be, how long our helping hands can extend, and the endless possibilities of living in peace even in the midst of chaos. 

ENP. thank. you.

I am looking forward to more.