Sheba and Solomon's Return: Ethiopian Children in Israel: Identity and Attachment(2016 Edition)

In the chaos of Ethiopia's war and massacre, Israel flew some eighty thousand Ethiopian Jews to Israel in the 1990's, Jews who date themselves from the time of King Solomon and Queen Sheba. Most were raised in preliterate, isolated, rural agrarian villages. This book tells their children's and their stories in their words. Over three years, Dr. Szajnberg worked with these six-year old children and their siblings and families in an after school program for Ethiopian children. They shared their stories, their art and their homes. The book studies their parents' life stories and attachment to their children and the children's accounts of their inner lives and their attachment to their parents. We learn how girls are thriving as boys lag; how most children and parents are insecurely attached to each other, a legacy of parental trauma in Ethiopia; that a minority of boys begin to bully other children; and how the dedicated teachers and parents are overcoming the generations of viscissitudes to build new lives in a new land.

About the Author :
Born in a German Displaced Persons camp, Nathan Szajnberg studied at the University of Chicago College and Medical School and completed psychiatric, child psychiatric and psychoanalytic training. He was the Freud Professor of Psychoanalysis at the Hebrew University during this study. He is the Wallerstein Research Fellow in Psychoanalysis of the San Francisco Psychoanalytic Center. Nathan is married to Yikun Wu and father of Natti, Yadid, Lily and Sonia.

Review :
Nathan Szajnberg spent three years among an Ethiopian/Israeli community and returns with the children's stories, their wishes and fears. The children's drawings and stories enliven the book. His findings on attachment, on parental transmission of childhood trauma and on the children's resourcefulness enlighten us. This work is one of a kind; a must read .... Paul Ekman, PhD Professor of Psychology Emeritus, University of California, San Francisco author of Emotions Revealed and Emotional Awareness (with the Dalai Lama). Nathan Szajnberg has seized a moment in history that may never again occur... an old culture from a third world community, Ethiopian Jews, who have relocated in ... Israel, but retain the effects of prearranged pubertal marriages, trauma...racial difference, and ties to complex past practices .... His text is peppered with heart felt impressionistic descriptions ... of trauma, and ... mismatched attachment. I learned every step of the way ... (A) wonderful insight into the interplay of culture, psychology and the effect of migration Theodore Shapiro, Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry, Weill Cornell Medical College I have lived and worked with Ethiopian Israeli youth in our Yemin Orde Village for almost 3 decades... This enchanting African Jewish tribe left the familiar landscape of their rural communities in Ethiopia...to reach the Jerusalem of their dreams. ... Adapting to the realities of the earthly, modern State of Israel proved to be an even greater challenge. Israel was ... founded ... to reach to the stars of our inner universe, to become inner lights to ourselves and among the nations. To fulfill another part of the Zionist dream, Israel must enable them to become an active, constructive part of our nation while retaining the valuable elements of Ethiopian Jewish culture. ...This book is a major step to helping the Ethiopian/Israelis thrive in this land. Chaim Peri, Retired Director Yemin Orde Youth Village An exciting, thought-provoking and stimulating book which ... reads like a novel. We could not put it down and eagerly followed the lives of the forty-six children, their parents, and their playful and moving interactions over three years with Dr. Szajnberg. This is his third book in the series supported by the Wallerstein Research Fellowship and well meets its goal of supporting psychoanalytic research. Dr. Szajnberg is a caring physician, a participant observer like his models Freud and Levy-Strauss, an empirical psychoanalyst using validated and reliable instruments, and a social activist pointing toward future interventions..... The author combines ... intensive, long-term investigation of a psychoanalyst ... and anthropologist with the empirical methods ... to arrive at striking findings, to question received knowledge, and to suggest crucial interventions in populations worldwide to facilitate ... growth in dislocated, traumatized and endangered groups. This engaging study ... will appeal to everyone. Like one of the Ethiopian children, we would like to keep Dr. Szajnberg with us for longer. The book will ... appeal to ...child workers and developmental researchers and ... refute those who believe that psychoanalysis is no longer relevant. Jack Novick, Ph.D, Training and Supervising Child and Adult Analyst, International Psychoanalytic Association; author of "Fearful Symmetry: The Development and Treatment of Sadomasochism." Kerry Kelly Novick, Training and Supervising Child and Adult Analyst, International Psychoanalytic Association; author of "Emotional Muscle: Strong Parents, Strong Children."