Tag: Eden Rocks

Even if it’s only the sum of all the times I have watched it, this video is going viral. View Cartoon But this video and this experience are unique, even in a country like Israel that’s unique in so many ways. It’s the sum of many elements that makes it special, making national news at home and going viral abroad. Despite Israel having people who don’t celebrate Israel’s ethnic diversity, or are more intolerant (sadly another depiction of Herzl’s vision that Israel would be a nation like other nations), Eden celebrates her Ethiopian origin, and the audience celebrates that wildly. Standing backstage, Eden’s traditionally dressed Ethiopian mother expresses incredible emotion and gratitude to God (watch closely) that’s infectious. It’s likely that given her age, Eden’s mother was a girl or young woman and was rescued in the miraculous Operation Solomon in 1991, now realizing her dream and living in Jerusalem. Given the mass movement of nearly 15,000 people in such a short time, one of the most interesting and vivid images from that time was the fact that many wore numbers on their foreheads to keep families together, and reunite them when they inevitably got separated amid the harried mass immigration. Her mother may very well have worn a number on her own head as she finished her journey to realize her dream of living in Israel. Now, 26 years later, the number on Eden’s head depicted more than just her being a contestant in a reality show, striving for her dream on the road to the top. As such, Eden is one of us.