Live and Become Review

Sirak Sabahat: My Story

Sirak Sabahat plays the adult Shlomo in Live and Become. He was uniquely qualified for the role: Born in Ethiopia, Sirak’s own migration to Israel is an amazing story of success and struggle – not just to survive, but to LIVE AND BECOME.

My name is Sirak M. Sabahat. Born on December 5th, 1981, as the eldest of four brothers, I spent the first years of my childhood in Walita in Northern Ethiopia.

My life changed drastically in 1991 at the age of eleven. Being a member of the minority African Jewish community, my family and I left the town of Awassa in Southern Ethiopia to embark on our long and dangerous journey to Israel. We headed north towards the capital Addis Ababa, walking thousands of miles through the hot and dry desert. It was a long and hard march; and many of my relatives died on the way, suffering from hunger, cold and illness.

When we finally arrived in Addis Ababa, we had to wait, fearing for our lives for five months in the interim camp, until the Israeli Embassy was able to bring the Ethiopian Jews to Israel. “Operation Solomon” was launched.

With nothing but the clothes we were wearing, we were put on military air planes to be taken to the Promised Land.

We arrived in Israel with high hopes and a strong feeling of relief – just to face yet another hardship. It was a new country with a different culture; and the process of adaptation was not an easy one. Not everybody welcomed us: We were among the first Black Jews in Israel.

For eight months, we were put up at Kiryat Shmona, cut off from the world around us. This was done to allow us to adjust to the new country first before finding our way in the new society.

Following that, we were transferred to a trailer park near Naharia before finally arriving in our new home in the town of Ramla. I shortly left Ramla, going to a boarding school for gifted children near Kefar Saba. After all that we had gone through together, the separation from my family was not an easy one.

At school, “falling in” was more difficult than I had expected. I was the only Black child; and my classmates often laughed at me or called me names. But I kept my spirits high and learned to navigate through hard times without letting it get me down.

After graduating from high school in 1999, I started my acting studies at Haifa University. Here, I became the head of the Ethiopian Students Association, trying to encourage the integration and inspiration for Higher Education among the Ethiopian students in Haifa and all Israel.

After my studies, I was cast for a Reality TV show and elected as the best actor on that program. I also became a host for a children’s show on the Israeli First Channel. These acting experiences lead to my role as the lead actor in the French-Israeli co-production “Va, Vis et Deviens – Live and Become”, for which I was nominated for an Israeli Academy Award in 2005.

I have been on stage in Israel as well as in front of the camera, most recently appearing on stage as the lead in a production of August Strindberg’s “Miss Julia”.

I currently live in New York City.

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