I'm Aiton Weinstein. And I'm Naor Menninger, and you're listening to Two Nice Jewish Boys.

This podcast is made in collaboration with the Jewish Journal.

Most American or European high school students know about the American Civil War,

the Holocaust, or even the French Revolution. Most don't know about the American Civil War, the Holocaust, or even the French Revolution.

Most don't know about the 30 years of civil war that ravaged the Horn of Africa in the latter part of the last century.

Conflicts that together claim the lives of over a million Africans.

Much of these conflicts were inner war within Ethiopia, but the greater conflict extended

beyond. In 1991, finally, peace came to the region, and thanks, much thanks to the ad hoc

peace committee founded by Professor Ephraim Isaac. Professor Isaac's accomplishments are too

numerous to list and his life story too great to paraphrase.

But suffice it to say that he was the first African studies professor in the United States at Harvard University,

and he had the privilege of meeting Martin Luther King Jr. So without further ado, we are thrilled to be joined by Professor Ephraim Isaac.

Hello. Thank you so much for joining us.

Thank you very much, Aitan.

Thank you very much now.

So let's start way back when you arrived in the beginning of the 1960s to the United States of America.

What brought you there?

Yes, thank you very much.

I actually came in 1958 and then I studied some music and then I

went back to Ethiopia for a year and I after that went to Harvard University to the Divinity

School where I received my first Harvard degree, Bachelor of Religion, Divinity.

And then I continued at Harvard in the field of Near Eastern languages and civilizations.

...