Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Tale of Israeli Airlift Of Ethiopians Comes To The Big Screen

In the 1980s and 1990s, tens of thousands of Ethiopian Jews moved to Israel in two waves of mass immigration organized by the Israeli government. The most famous was in 1991, when 34 packed El Al passenger planes were used to covertly airlift 14,325 Beta Israel fleeing political violence in what was referred to as “Operation Solomon.”

Now, that dramatic tale will be told on the big screen. Gideon Raff, the creator of “Prisoners of War,” the Israeli series that “Homeland” is based on, is directing the drama, called “Red Sea Diving Resort.”

The movie will be funded by Canadian film house Bron Studios. Chris Evans, who is best known for his roles playing super heroes in movies based on Marvel Comics books, has been chosen to play Adi Kidron, an Israeli agent who “assembles a ragtag team to help with the exodus on the ground,” according to Deadline.

Contact Naomi Zeveloff at [email protected]

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.