Rabbi Dr. Sharon (Zewde) Shalom (born 1973 in Ethiopia) is a rabbi, lecturer and Jewish author. He is a Rav of one of the Tzohar “Open Communities” in Kiryat Gat. He was born Zaude Tesfay in a Jewish community in the North of Ethiopia. He works as a Rabbi in the Merkaz Shapira Or Meofir special program for Ethiopian emigrants. He lectures in Jewish ritual and tradition at Ono Academic College in Israel,[1]and wrote From Sinai to Ethiopia: the Halachic World and Ethiopian Jewish Thought.

Rabbi Dr. Sharon Shalom made aliyah to Israel on his own in 1982 at the age of eight under Operation Bat Galim, operated by the Mossad and the IDF commandos. Rabbi Sharon Shalom received his PhD in Jewish philosophy from Bar-Ilan University and his rabbinic ordination from Yeshivat Har Etzion in Gush Etzion. Today he serves as rabbi of Congregation Kedoshei Yisrael in Kiryat Gat. He currently serves as a lecturer at Orot Yisrael College in Elkanah and at Bar-Ilan University. Dr. Shalom lives with his wife, Aliza, and their five children in Kiryat Gat.