Yossi and Yarden Vasa Present the Graphic Novel of Yossi's Childhood as an Ethiopian-Jewish Refugee

Students received a powerful visit from Yossi and Yarden Vasa. Yossi is a famous Israeli television actor, but he came to Ramaz under a different hat: speaking as an author of his new memoir, a graphic novel titled Hayom HaAcharon Shel Purim (in English, The Last Day to Dress Up). Yarden is not only his life partner, but also his creative partner, and she brought his story to life through illustration. The pair spoke to students about Yossi’s story as an Ethiopian-Jewish refugee to Israel and about the process of creating the graphic novel.

Yossi immigrated to Israel at 10 years old from an Ethiopian village that had no electricity or running water. He and his family escaped Ethiopia in secret and walked for weeks to Sudan. They waited nine months in a Sudanese refugee camp, during which time his grandmother and two younger brothers died. Yossi and his remaining family were finally rescued in Operation Moses, a secret mission in which Mossad landed airplanes in the desert by night and flew the Ethiopian-Jewish refugees to Israel.

In Israel, everything was new and different; Yossi’s parents were confused and overwhelmed by the new society, while the children experienced a combination of social isolation and excitement. They had never heard of the holiday of Purim before, and dressing up for Purim seemed to young Yossi as a symbol of his ability to belong in society. He even wrestled with whether to spend their grocery money not on food but on a ninja costume.

He wrote a short story as an adult looking back on his childhood of his first Purim. Yarden, a passionate artist, found the manuscript and was struck by the desire to illustrate it. At the assembly, Yossi read aloud excerpts of his book to students while Yarden showed students her illustrations and explained how she decided to use different techniques to capture different moments. For example, because a major theme throughout the story is the racial and cultural divide, she limited her palette to mostly black and white, using color sparingly to emphasize certain ideas. Depending on the chapter, she switched up her style to suit the story and narrative voice, such as making her drawings less detailed when words were sparing and simplistic, and switching to paint in order to capture the natural landscape of his village.

To make the program even more impactful, they presented a live demonstration of the collaborative artistic process. Yossi read aloud a chapter of his book while, before everyone’s eyes, Yarden painted a scene from scratch. He unfolded a tale about his grandmother while a haunting representation of his village emerged from Yarden’s canvas. Students were truly amazed and moved by the presentation, and asked thoughtful questions. For example, they asked why Yossi’s family wanted to go to Israel, to which Yossi explained the powerful Zionism of Ethiopian Jews, who even pray annually on their holiday of Sigd to return to Jerusalem.