On August 27, 2013, model Tahounia Rubel became the first Ethiopian winner of Israeli reality show HaAh HaGadol. 

HaAh HaGadol is a modeled after the American series Big Brother. In the show, the contestants, or “housemates,” live together in an isolatedhouse. Everything they say and do is recorded for the show, and the cameras remain on 24 hours a day. Contestants have no access to the internet, television, or news about the outside world. Periodically, the contestants choose two of their housemates to face the possibility of being “evicted,” or voted out. The audience then decides which of the two will go home. The last housemate remaining wins a cash prize. 

Model Tahounia Rubel was born on February 20, 1988, in Ethiopia. When she was three, she and her family immigrated to Israel under Operation Solomon, the airlift of 14,500 Jews from Ethiopia to Israel.  

Rubel competed in season five of HaAh HaGadol in 2013, when she was 25 years old. Season five was the show’s longest and largest to that point, featuring a total of 23 housemates and lasting 115 days.  

Rubel was the only Black contestant. Father and son contestants Roni and Gili Maili were both hostile and sometimes racist towards Rubel, with Roni commenting, “once the lights are off [she is] nowhere to be found.” The Mailis also expressed homophobic views about contestants Anat Tzaig and Levana Gogman. For these reasons, they were eventually “ejected” from the competition by the producers. 

In the end, Rubel beat the 22 other contestants and walked away with the prize of 1,000,000 shekels.  

Sources: 

“Big Brother (Israeli Season 5).” Wikipedia, May 26, 2022. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Brother_(Israeli_season_5).  

“Big Brother (Israeli TV Series).” Wikipedia, December 12, 2022. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Brother_(Israeli_TV_series).  

Caspi, David. “Racism, Homophobia Stir Controversy on Israeli 'Big Brother.'” The Hollywood Reporter, July 11, 2013. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/racism-homophobia-stir-controversy-israeli-583215/.  

“Really Annoying 'Reality' Shows.” The Jerusalem Post, May 30, 2013. Accessed March 17, 2023. https://www.jpost.com/Arts-and-Culture/Entertainment/Really-annoying-reality-shows-314844.  

“Tahounia Rubel.” IMDb.  Accessed March 17, 2023. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm6013742/bio.