On Wednesday, March 13th Yarden Fanta-Vagenshtein, the first Ethiopian Israeli woman to obtain a Doctoral degree, came to Atlanta to give a lecture at Oglethorpe University Museum. Dr. Fanta-Vagenshtein, who is a current post-doctoral fellow at Harvard University, shared with the audience her amazingly unique personal story, not only of her arduous journey from Ethiopian to Israel, by way of Sudan, but also her equally impressive journey to succeed and achieve in her personal life and professional career.
In 1984, Dr. Fanta-Vagenshtein travelled on foot from Ethiopia to Sudan with the vision of coming to Israel. Fanta-Vagenshtein recounted carrying her two year old sister on this arduous trek. Her sister did not survive. After spending 11 months in a refugee camp, Fanta-Vagenstein was flown from Sudan to Israel by the Israeli Mossad during Operation Moses.
Dr. Fanta-Vagenshtein described her exceptional academic journey in Israel beginning at age 12 when she had to learn to simply read and write. Today, she is an expert in the field of illiterate populations adopting into literate cultures. Dr. Fanta-Vagenshtein shared some of her research entitled "Knowledge, Cognition and Cultural Capital Among Non- and Semi-literate Populations."
The lecture was part of Oglethorpe University Museum's Spring 2013 lecture series, and specifically was one of the events supporting the current exhibit on display Beta Israel: Ethiopian Jews and the Promised Land. This exhibition explores the mass migration of Ethiopian Jews into modern Israeli society and the integration difficulties they faced. The exhibition features 100 photographs by South African photojournalist Ilan Ossendryver and will until April 21, 2013