Israeli comedian to stop at SJSU as part of Bay Area tour

From The Spartan Daily, Mon Feb. 20

Israeli comedian and actor Yossi Vassa will perform his one-man show tonight from 4:30 to 7 p.m. in the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Joint Library.

The show, "It Sounds Better in Amharic," is Vassa's personal account of the 440-mile trek he made by foot from Ethiopia to a refugee camp in Sudan in order to escape the country and later flee to Israel.

Co-sponsoring the event are San Jose State University history department, Mosaic Cross-Cultural Center, the Jewish Student Union, Hillel International and Hashbesha, the Ethiopian student group.

"It's a chance to show students that blacks have importance not just in the United States, but all around the world, like in Israel," said Andrew Schwartz, Jewish Student Union president. "The Ethiopians in Israel are an essential part of society - there are 100,000 Ethiopians in Israel today - but on television and in the media, they don't really show that. It's a great opportunity to meet and hear the story of an Ethiopian Jew."

The show is part of Black History Month, which also included a poetry reading last Wednesday and will include a Women's Appreciation Night on Tuesday and an African Unity Fest on Feb. 28 to conclude the month's events.

"The Jewish Student Union and Hillel wanted to collaborate with the organizers of Black History Month to bring a black Jew who can tell his story," said Vanina Sandel, student life director for Hillel, an organization that aims to promote Jewish life on college campuses.

"He was a minority as a Jew in Ethiopia and he was a minority as a black in Israel," Sandel said. "He felt it twice as much."

"It Sounds Better in Amharic" has been performed in five other Bay Area locations, including UC Berkeley.

The Israel Center of San Francisco organized the Bay Area tour.

Sharon Dwek, in charge of student outreach at the Israel Center of San Francisco, has seen Vassa perform before. She said his message is effective because "you can laugh and cry at the same time."

Dwek said the performance opening at the African Diaspora Museum was so popular they had to turn people away, which is why an additional performance was added for Thursday "by popular demand."

Vassa made the journey in 1985, at age 10, taking advantage of the Law of Return, which allows any Jew become an Israeli citizen.

In late 1984 and early 1985, Israeli forces airlifted over 6,000 Ethiopian Jews out of refugee camps in Sudan. However, Vassa's family, along with many others, had to travel from Ethiopia to the camps in Sudan because the Ethiopian government would not allow the emigration to Israel.

Vassa employs two styles - stand-up comedy and narrative storytelling - in his story about the changes he and others faced as new immigrants in Israel.

"He compares Israelis to Ethiopians - that's the funny part," said Dwek, who has seen Vassa's performance many times. "The touching parts (are about) crossing Sudan and going to Israel and losing part of his family."