Former Mossad agent to speak about Israel’s daring ‘Operation Moses’ mission

Learn the real story behind the Netflix spy thriller film “Red Sea Diving Resort” on Jan. 13, when Gad Shimron, a former Mossad agent, relates his personal recollections about the covert operation that brought Ethiopian Jews to Israel. 

In 1977, Israel’s Mossad spy agency was given an assignment far different from its usual cloak-and-dagger activities. It was ordered by then Prime Minister Menachem Begin to rescue thousands of Jewish Ethiopian refugees in Sudan and bring them to the Jewish state.

No stranger to actions in enemy countries, Mossad established a covert forward base in a deserted holiday village in Sudan, then deployed a handful of operatives to launch and oversee the exodus of the refugees to Israel, by sea and by air, in the early 1980s. This became known as “Operation Moses.”

Shimron’s book, “Mossad Exodus: The Daring Undercover Rescue of the Lost Jewish Tribe,” offers a thrilling firsthand account of how the Mossad team in Sudan brought it off, despite great personal risk. The book tells how the agents ran a partying vacation spot for wealthy tourists by day and stole through the Sudanese desert to rescue desperate refugees by night. Shimron also tells of the CIA’s later involvement in the mission, especially when the Israelis had to be smuggled out of Sudan while being hunted by Libyan secret service agents.

“Operation Moses” was just the beginning. The latest wave of immigration from Ethiopia resumed in December. Many thousands are still waiting, in limbo and harsh conditions, to join their families in Israel. Most left their homes and villages long ago to wait in Gondar and Addis Ababa, two Ethiopian cities with strong Jewish communities.

Over the past 40 years, the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island and other Jewish federations have worked together with The Jewish Agency for Israel and the Israeli government to bring more than 92,000 Ethiopians to Israel.

To RSVP and receive a link for Shimron’s Zoom presentation, please visit jewishallianceri.org/shimron. The free program will take place Wednesday, Jan. 13, at 5 p.m.

The program is part of the Israeli Culture Series, held the second Wednesday of each month. For more information, contact Or Cohen at ocohen@jewishallianceri.org or 401-864-3786.

LARRY KATZ (lkatz@jewishallianceri.org) is director of Jewish life and learning at the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island.