Photo Mazi Melesa

Speaker's home base: New York, NY

Mazi Melesa was born in Ethiopia in 1979. In 1991, when she was twelve, she came with her family to Israel as part of Operation Solomon. For the first few months in Israel, she lived with her family at the Ethiopian absorption center in Netanya. There, she learned Hebrew and studied Israeli culture. After a few months, she enrolled in the boarding school. When she finished six years at the boarding school, she graduated with a high school diploma, and began her army service. After completing her army service, she attended Haifa University to study occupational therapy. In the last two years of her studies, she occupied the position of chairperson of the National Ethiopian Students Organization. As chairwoman, her major concern was to get involved in the affairs of Ethiopian community, addressing the needs of Ethiopian immigrants.

In 2006 Mazi served as a Chief of staff for the 2006 elections campaign to the Knesset of ATID ECHAD party, the political party representing the socially and economically disadvantaged communities. Recently Mazi finished her Executive Master's Program in Diplomacy and Security at Tel Aviv University. Currently, she is representing the Ethiopian community through the office of NACOEJ and UJC.

Mazi who is married to Adalbert Pilip an Ashkenazi Jew from Ukraine who has completed his residency in Internal Medicine at Albert Einstein is now a proud mother to a beautiful son Liad. Liad represents a beautiful tree of life that blossomed from the seeds of hope and love of the Operation Solomon that took place more than 17 years ago.

The speaker's honorarium is $600. The Jewish Federations of North America subsidy is as follows:
Network: 50% of the total honorarium
Small and Intermediate: 25% of the total honorarium

Communities are fully responsible for: travel, local costs and miscellaneous out of pocket expenses (i.e. taxis and meals while traveling)

Current speaking topics include:
  • Personal Story
  • Ethiopia

Upcoming Community Events
New YorkNY10/5/20105:00 pm

Most Recent Communities Visited

Click here to search for another speaker