This class focuses on the community of Ethiopian Jews who live in Israel. This community has lived in Israel since the 1980s and faces cultural, economic, racial, and social problems as a group and as individuals. We will investigate the relationship between knowledge and social reality and discuss how these relations lead to identity formation. How does science as a means of information in the modern world influence and shape societies’ perceptions?

We will investigate scholarly literature on genetics, medical science, and social studies in Israel that is focused on Ethiopian Jews. These resources play a massive role in policymakers’ decision-making and justify their decisions, and the findings of this knowledge construct and create the community’s social identity in Israeli society. Analyze these means of knowledge attainment and see their contribution to the production of the current social identity of the community.

Abrham Yohannes Gebremichael (PhD)is a sociologist who received his doctoral degree in 2023 from Bielefeld University, Germany. His research interests include theories of nation and nationalism, concepts of ethnicity, identity formation, migration, minority groups, and diaspora, particularly in communities from sub-Saharan regions. He is also the Alan M. Stroock post-doctoral fellow at the Center for Jewish studies at Harvard University.