Ethiopian, Israeli, American — One Woman's Story | Tali Aynalem

**Tali Aynalem** (0:00)
It's just very dehumanizing when people just don't assume that your existence is right, or your people's existence in a land that belonged to them is right. You know, that's just very traumatic. It's very, I don't know, it's almost, I just feel like it's earth shattering, because what you think is reality is no longer reality, and it's based on propaganda. It's very, it's a very strange thing to go through, to lose people that you think care about you, but then they care about people that they don't even know across the globe.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:54)
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**Richard Taite** (1:15)
Our guest today is Tali Aynalem. Tali is an Ethiopian-Israeli American writer, former IDF soldier and social media influencer whose videos about Israel, Jewish identity, history and culture have reached millions online through her unique perspective and lived experience to challenges, misinformation, explores identity and belonging and helps people better understand one of the world's most misunderstood conflicts.
Tali, thank you for joining us.

**Tali Aynalem** (1:50)
Thanks for having me, so nice to meet you.

**Richard Taite** (1:53)
When I was a kid, I went to a school that was the most orthodox ship a day school in the country. It's called Emek Hebrew Academy.
I was being punished by my father because I was a bad kid, but it turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to me. And I stopped going there in eighth grade. And what I remember was they told a story because I'm 59 So this has got to be 45 years ago. Easy, maybe 50
And they talked about the 13th tribe from Ethiopia.
And it was a big deal, right? The biggest. And what they said was, this is the happiest days of our life that we found our people.
And I've never seen an Ethiopian Jew. Ever. Until you. The other day. And when I heard you speak, I fell apart. I've never heard another human being. Ever. And I've done some living. I've never heard another human being speak. On Judaism the way you do.
So I don't understand. I don't think you understand the. The importance of who you are and what you do and the effect you have. On the 15.7 million Jews on Earth. Because as you know, in 1939, there were 16.3 million of us. What is that, 80 years?
We're not even even. We haven't even caught up. We're a good, decent people.
And it's become in vogue now to hate Jews. And it's completely bizarre, right? In the climate we're in. And I lost five people, five of my grandfather's siblings on my mother's side, five of my grandmother's siblings on my mother's side. And I have no idea what I lost on my father's side, none. But that's ten people. And we're a little, we're a little, how do I say this? We're a little sensitive to the dialogue that's going on right here today. After six million of us were marched into gas chambers and murdered. Okay. So it's affecting Jews everywhere. They're scared. Their mental health is sent up and down. I want your thoughts on that, please.

**Tali Aynalem** (5:56)
Well, first of all, thank you for your kind words. And speaking life into me, because sometimes in this world, you don't know what you're doing. And so to have your perspective, I really appreciate it.
You know, what we're going through right now is not new, right? As Jews, we know from history that people will always turn their back on this, regardless of how good we were to them.
And what I really want to tell every Jew is continue to be yourself. Don't be afraid. I think so much of what you're seeing online is, it might be like 2% of the population, but they're a very loud percent. So I just want to let people know that you're fine. Being Jewish is a good thing. Like we should be proud of who we are and never back down from being who we are. And if somebody asks you if you're Jewish, you say yes, unless you're in absolute danger. You know, so regardless of the climate, be who you are. You know, continue to be Jewish and continue to hold on to your mitzvot. But it is a sad time. It is a sad time to see how popular it is to be anti-Jew. I just really hope that it's a trend that goes away as fast as it's come.