Beejhy Barhany

Beejhy Barhany was born in Ethiopia, raised in Israel, and has been a resident of Harlem for the past 20 years. She is a chef, writer, and advocate who comes from a community of Ethiopian Jews whose traditions, rituals, and cuisine were long marginalized or misunderstood. Barhany takes inspiration from the cultures she is a part of and celebrates how they come together in her cooking. Her book, Gursha: Timeless Recipes for Modern Kitchens, from Ethiopia, Israel, Harlem, and Beyond: A Cookbook, weaves together recipes, stories, and traditions from the intersection of the African and Jewish diasporas. Barhany is the founding owner and executive chef of Tsion Cafe, an Ethiopian and Israeli restaurant in Harlem’s historic Sugar Hill neighborhood. In 2003, she founded the BINA Cultural Foundation, a cultural organization dedicated to the empowerment of the Beta Israel (Ethiopian Jewish) community within the United States. She is a frequent cooking teacher and speaker at Jewish cultural events in the New York area. She lives with her husband and two children in Harlem.