Former Miss Israel and model, Yityish Titi Aynaw is in SA. On Thursday, 15 March, we sat down with her for the latest installment of the Celeb Interview.
Aynaw, who was crowned Miss Israel in 2013, is visiting South Africa as an honoured guest of the South African Friends of Israel, and was in SA to speak to a broad section of SA communities, sharing her story, inspiring the young and old, and partaking in several community development projects.
How did you get to be Miss Israel?
So basically I really did not plan that – I know everybody is saying that, but I literally did not plan to be Miss Israel, it was not part of my plan. My best friend, who is really short, and I am really tall compared to her, over the years, at school, always encouraged me to go to beauty contests, saying that I was going to win, including the wonderful prizes on offer, specifically a car. So in many ways my entry to Miss Israel was about the car, because I wanted the car.
How was the experience leading up to Miss Israel and after?
The experience was amazing. A bit about my background, I was actually quite a tomboy before the contest, so I did not even know how to even walk in high heels, I did not know how to do makeup. And I remember during the first day of the audition, there were about two thousand girls, and I think there were only about seven black girls, and the rest were white and different, from Russia, Ukraine, Morocco, from all over the world basically, which is typical of Israel.
And I recall going inside, I was in my t-shirt, a really simple t-shirt and flip flops, no makeup and my hair was not done. I saw the other girls, and by the way I am really tall, like 1.82m, and for the best part of my life I thought I was tall, until I was in the competition, that is perhaps the first time I fell very short. Because all the girls were about my height, but they were also wearing high heels, and I was like oh my God, what is going on here?
The auditions lasted for about four months, and I started doing photo-shoots, learning how to do make-up, and also wonderful things like community service. After four months, I was actually the last black Israeli in the competition. And on the final day of the four months, the big day, which was beamed on TV, and people voting for you online, reducing the contestants from 20, to 10, to 5, and then when it is was the top five, they asked me a question. The questioned posed to me was, why did you enter the competition? And I said, well, first of all, my best friend needs a car. It was all about the car.
You know what is amazing about Israel, is that we are a multicultural society; we have immigrants from all over the world. So in the history of Miss Israel, we already crowned an Arabic Miss Israel, a Russian Miss Israel, a Moroccan Miss Israel, and in my answer actually, I said the Ethiopian community in Israel had already spent enough time without a Miss Israel, and now was the time to a crown a Black Miss Israel, because black is also beautiful. And I guess they liked my answer, because I won.
So yeah, it was crazy I really didn’t plan that. And now I was finding myself doing interviews with BBC, CNN, and taking interviews from Japan, Germany, all over the world – for something that started being just about a car.
At the same time, I was the first black person in Israel to be on magazine covers, and I also stared modeling, and I was actually the first person to be the face of two companies in Israel, and be like on Billboards as black model in Israel – it really opened a lot of doors for me and others. Actually, a year after my reign, the competition was much blacker than before, and had a lot of Olim [immigrants on Aliyah to Israel]. In many ways I am happy to have opened the Israeli fashion industry to black beauty – they started to embark on campaigns to recruit black girls. So it was good for me, and my community, and Israel at large.
So how is it being an Ethiopian in a multicultural Israel?
For my community I can say there is discrimination in Israel, it is not only the Ethiopian community that experiences this though, this is true for Russians, Moroccans, because every couple of years, we have new people, so current citizens always need to get used to new immigrants. And generally, if we have problems of this nature we report them, as Israelis, not only as black people. Israel is a democratic country, so we have the opportunity to change what may bother us at any given time.
I also had some adjustment to do. In my culture, the Ethiopian culture, we are taught to be quiet, be respectful. But in Israel, if you don’t speak up, you don’t exist. So for a lot of Ethiopians, myself included, we had to adjust in many areas, unlike other immigrants from Europe or the US for example – because many of us came from villages. For example, the first time that I got off an airplane, and I saw Israel, everything seemed so fast, so weird, so big, like a movie of the future. This is what Israel was for me, because I came from a village. So we had a lot of things to learn as a community.
And at the country level, there has also been a lot of firsts for the Ethiopian community in Israel, for example, a couple years ago, we had the first Ethiopian judge, the first black Miss Israel and so on. In the end, Israel is really a country that gives you opportunity; you have an opportunity to be whatever you want to be.
How would you encourage South Africans, whose lives may mirror your experiences of where and how you grew up, and they perhaps want to achieve the level of success you have?
First of all, my success did not come from being Miss Israel. My success came from school, from me successfully integrating as an immigrant, to the point that I was a First Officer of more than 300 soldiers in the army, being in charge, a leader. It is one thing to be beautiful, you need to be educated, and you need to be smart. Your mind is your best weapon. Beauty can fade, and many other things can fade, but what you have in your mind will stay with you forever.
So first of all, I would advise everyone to get an education, and stay focused. I grew up without my parents, which was a big thing to struggle with, but I knew what I needed to do because I had goals. So many look at my life, and say wow, what a success story, but behind that there was struggle, a lot of crying to be good, and staying in school. So I had to be focused, on what I wanted in life, and being consistent in my actions. In the final analysis, have dreams, and do everything you can for those dreams, because no matter where you come from, if you fight for something, at the end of the day you are going to achieve it, and you are going to win.
So should we expect to see you a lot more in South Africa after this visit, especially in the fashion industry here?
I definitely want to come back. I went on Safari at Madikwe Game Reserve, it was heaven on earth. The best place I have ever been, which is not something I say lightly as I travel a lot. The food here is also perfect for me, because it is healthy and tasty, and I actually wish I had more time here.
But next time I am here, I want to see more modeling agencies, and try to set up something here.
