Bizu's Family

Today we were invited to my dear friend Bizu Riki Mullu’s half sister’s house for lunch and we had a wonderful time.
 

I met Riki through our mutual dear friend, Wendy Hurwitz Kushner, back in 1992 in NYC while I was in grad school and she was working for the American Zionist Youth Foundation.

 

Riki was born, Bezayou, in Ambovar – a Jewish village in Northwest Ethiopia to a father who was a blacksmith and a mother who was a potter.  A very bright and strong minded young girl, she was selected by the Jewish Agency for Israel to move to Israel with a group of other children before their parents.  At @11 years old, she was the youngest of the group. 

Riki was educated and grew up at an Israeli boarding school and when she was 18, she joined the Israel Defense Force (IDF) like most Israeli young adults.  When she finished her 2-year service, she focused on getting the rest of her family out of Ethiopia.  After years of travel to and from Ethiopia, hard work, tears, etc. she finally succeeded.  Today, Riki’s immediate family numbers over 45 people all living in Israel.    

When she was in her late 20s, with her family safely in Israel, Riki took an opportunity to work for an American Jewish organization and moved to NY.   That is when I met her and we have been close friends ever since. Today Riki lives in NYC and is an artist, an activist and a wonderful teacher of the Ethiopian Jewish experience.  Her speeches have inspired thousands.

Over the years, I have met many of Riki’s beautiful and HUGE family, even having attended several family weddings, but today I got to meet her only relatives still living in Ethiopia:  her half sister (from her father, Mullu, z“l,) her husband and two of their adult children—one of whom was visiting from Haifa, Israel.

They could not have been more hospitable and warm and the food was phenomenal.

Johannas, or Johnny as his family calls him, is 31 years old and is visiting from Haifa.  He moved to Israel at age 18, served in the IDF, graduated from the University of Haifa and works in a bank.  LOVELY young man!

The guests were very cute:

Love and Goodnight from Addis,
--Jen and Bami