Shlomo Molla appointed first Ethiopian deputy Knesset speaker

MK Shlomo (Neguse) Molla of the Kadima party was approved on Wednesday as a deputy speaker of the Knesset. His appointment marks the first time in the Knesset’s history that an immigrant from Ethiopia will serve in this role.

Molla, whose Ethiopian name is Neguse, was born in a small, rural Jewish village of 40 families in Ethiopia’s Gondar province. At a conference on immigration and absorption at the Ruppin Academic Center in 2010, he described his childhood: “We had no electricity or running water, but we had plenty of food. I can never remember a drought. We were intensely religious, studied Torah daily, celebrated all the festivals and always dreamed of going to Jerusalem.” Molla was the only member of his family educated beyond age ten, having attended a Jewish high school 35 kilometers away from his home run by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.

At age 16, he and a group of friends heard rumors that Jews in the Tigre region of Ethiopia, 700 km away, were being secretly taken through Sudan to Israel. The friends set out walking north. On the way their guide abandoned them, they were attacked by bandits, and eventually arrived at the Sudanese border with only the clothes on their backs. After four months of imprisonment in Sudan, Molla and his friends were taken to a refugee camp. From there, they were driven for 12 hours to an “Operation Moses” airplane and flown to Israel. In Israel, Neguse settled in an absorption center in Safed, where his name was changed to Shlomo.

Molla worked extensively with the Jewish Agency for Israel before beginning his Knesset career. He volunteered during “Operation Solomon,” the second major effort to bring Ethiopian Jews to Israel in 1991. He later managed the Tiberias Absorption Center and was responsible forulpanim[Hebrew language courses for immigrants] on kibbutzim throughout northern Israel. Shlomo served in the Jewish Agency as director for Ethiopian Immigration and Absorption and was later nominated by former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to serve as head of the World Zionist Organization. Molla became a Knesset member for Kadima in 2008 and is currently a member of several Knesset committees, including the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee and the Budget Committee.

“It is a great honor for an immigrant from Ethiopia to be appointed a deputy speaker,” Molla said on Wednesday. “I have no doubt that this will be a source of pride for Ethiopian youth.”

Kadima MK Jacob Edery was also approved by the Knesset Wednesday for the position of deputy Knesset speaker.