Esti Elias was born in Ambover, Ethiopia. Her father, Ya’akov Elias, was brought to Israel by the Jewish Agency in the late 1950s to study at the Kfar Batya Youth Village. He played an essential role in the future aliyah of the Ethiopian Jewish community.

However, his leadership took a tremendous personal toll. Ya’akov was accused of being a “Zionist spy” and spent two and a half years in an Ethiopian prison. Esti’s father and brother managed to leave the country, while Esti stayed behind with her mother and other siblings. In 1985, at the age of seven, Esti, her infant brother and her older sister were clandestinely taken in the middle of the night to board a plane to Israel. As Esti got on the plane, she realized that her mother was not coming with them.“You go,” her mother said as Esti and her brother sobbed uncontrollably. “I will join you later.”

Six months later the entire family was reunited in Israel and they began their new lives. “I remember being shocked at seeing so many white people,” says Esti. “And the appliances were like something from another world.”

In the army, Esti encountered racism for the first time when she was chosen for a position of teacher-guide over one of her comrades. The fellow soldier accused Esti of getting the job only because she was Ethiopian. “This hurt very much,” says Esti sadly, “but I knew that I really had better qualifications.”

Determined to go to college, Esti worked to save money. While attending a benefit for Ethiopians, she was discovered by a modeling agent — thus beginning her modeling career. At the same time, she was accepted to law school at the Ono Academic College. With the help of a Jewish Agency supported Student Authority Scholarship, Esti is now in her last year of law school.

“I am so grateful for all of the people who have supported me,” says Esti. “But
there is so much work to be done in the Ethiopian community. If we invest more in
Ethiopian youth, we can give them equal opportunities to succeed.”