Emmy® Award‑winning writer and director Gideon Raff is the creator of the Israeli series “Hatufim” (“Prisoners of War”), the highest rated drama series in Israel which won nine Israeli Emmy® Awards, including Best Director and Best Drama Series. This year “Hatufim” was ranked number one by The New York Times in their list of The 30 Best International TV Shows of the Decade. The show’s American adaptation, “Homeland,” is now in its final season. Raff is the creator of FX's “Tyrant” and co‑creator of “Dig” for USA Network.

Raff wrote and directed the feature film “The Red Sea Diving Resort” based on the events of Operation Moses in which Ethiopian Jews were covertly moved from refugee camps in Sudan to Israel during the 1980s.

Raff’s most recent highly acclaimed show “The Spy,” based on the life of Eli Cohen with an outstanding performance from Sacha Baron Cohen, is now playing on Netflix.

Gideon Raff is also a bestselling author in Israel and an animal rights activist.

Naftali Aklum was born in Ethiopia in 1979, the youngest of 12 siblings. His parents were among the first to make aliyah (immigration to Israel) via Sudan.

His brother Ferede, the first Ethiopian Jew to make the journey to Jerusalem via Sudan, wrote a letter requesting assistance to make aliyah, which found its way to Prime Minister Menachem Begin. This set-in motion the remarkable secret operation known as “Operation Moses.”