Miss Israel, Yityish Titi Aynaw, ‘Titi’ to her friends, visited Northern New Jersey for a series of speaking engagements wearing a Megemeria pendant necklace. Aynaw, the first Ethiopian Israeli to win Miss Israel, is aware of Yvel’s Megemeria philanthropic program and publicly wore the pendant necklace she selected which was made by her fellow Ethiopians, the students of the Megemeria School of Jewelry in the Yvel Design Center in Jerusalem.
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- Yitish Aynaw wearing the Megemeria ‘Am Echad’
The 24K gold plated brass medallion pendant which Miss Aynaw was seen wearing in North Jersey is inscribed with the words ‘Am Echad’ (‘One Nation’) in the native Ethiopian language of Amharic. The Megemeria students designed this necklace with the idea that the entire Jewish race is One Nation and should unite together always in solidarity and strength, no matter the color of one’s skin or the nation of one’s birth.
The pendant is part of a 24K gold-plated brass fashion jewelry collection designed by the students at the Megemeria (‘Genesis’ in Amharic) School of Jewelry in the Yvel Design Center in Jerusalem. The philanthropic school, founded in 2011 by Isaac and Orna Levy, the owners and designers of Yvel, and supported by Yedid, the Association for Community Empowerment in Israel, trains Ethiopian Israeli immigrants in the arts and crafts of jewelry design and production. Students earn a stipend while attending and achieve certification in the jewelry trade, as well as job placement upon graduation. Students also learn Hebrew and Israeli heritage to aid them with their cultural integration experience. The program is effectively changing lives for the better within the vulnerable Ethiopian immigrant community and is creating proud and productive citizens for the future Israeli economy.
