![COINTELPRO: State of ISRAEL Racism or Genocide birth control & Beta Israel [Ethiopian] Black Women?](http://web.archive.org./web/20110828090515im_/http://i.ytimg.com/vi/DiISeeNQscM/0.jpg "COINTELPRO: State of ISRAEL Racism or Genocide birth control & Beta Israel [Ethiopian] Black Women?")
![The Great Mosque of Kairouan, erected in 670, is the oldest mosque in North Africa,[92] Kairouan, Tunisia.](http://web.archive.org./web/20110828090515im_/http://cdn4.wn.com/pd/29/23/4d7c8de405cd557ced65e356bbb3_grande.jpg "The Great Mosque of Kairouan, erected in 670, is the oldest mosque in North Africa,[92] Kairouan, Tunisia.")
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| Group | Beta Israel | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Caption | Shlomo Molla, Abatte Barihun | |||||
| Poptime | 125,000 - 130,000 | |||||
| Regions | 120,000 (2008)1.75% of the Israeli population | |||||
| Region1 | ||||||
| Pop1 | 3,188 - 8,700 | |||||
| Ref1 | ||||||
| Region2 | ||||||
| Pop2 | 1,000 | |||||
| Ref2 | ||||||
| Languages |
Beta Israel ( - Beyte (beyt) Israel, Ge'ez: ቤተ እስራኤል - Bēta 'Isrā'ēl, modern Bēte 'Isrā'ēl, EA: "Betä Əsraʾel", "House of Israel") also known as Ethiopian Jews (: yehudei itiyopya, Ge'ez: "የኢትዮጵያ አይሁድዊ", ye-Ityoppya Ayhudi), are the names of Jewish communities which lived in the area of Aksumite and Ethiopian Empires (Habesh or Abyssinia), nowadays divided between Amhara and Tigray Regions.
Nearly all of the Ethiopian Beta Israel community, more than 120,000 people, reside in Israel under its Law of Return, which gives Jews and those with Jewish parents or grandparents, and all of their spouses, the right to settle in Israel and obtain citizenship. The Israeli government has mounted rescue operations, most notably during Operation Moses (1984) and Operation Solomon (1991), for their migration when civil war and famine threatened the Jewish populations within Ethiopia. Some immigration has continued up through present day. Today 81,000 Ethiopian Israelis were born in Ethiopia, while 38,500 or 32% of the community are native born Israelis. The absorption of the Ethiopians into Israeli society marks a unique, and mostly successful attempt to incorporate a nonwhite group as equal citizens with full rights as part of a Western predominantly white country. The related Falasha Mura are the descendants of Beta Israel who converted to Christianity. Some are returning to the practices of Judaism, living in Falash Mura communities and observing halakha. Beta Israel spiritual leaders, including Chief Kes Raphael Hadane have argued for the acceptance of the Falasha Mura as Jews. This claim has been a matter of controversy within Israeli society.
EtymologyThroughout its history the community have been called a large number of names. "Beta Israel" originated in the 4th century, when the community was so named because they converted to Christianity during the rule of Ezana of Axum, the first monarch of the Aksumite Empire to embrace Christianity. This name wasn't originally attributed any negative meanings and the community have used it ever since as their official name. Since the 1980s it has also become the official name used in the scientific literature to describe the community.After the rise of the Solomonic dynasty (1270 AD), the Beta Israel community was also called Ayhudi ("Jews") until they were referred to by the derogatory term Falasha (Ge'ez: "Outcasts"), a term given to them by the emperor Yeshaq I of Ethiopia. Other terms by which the community have been known for include Buda (Ge'ez: "Evil eye"), Kayla (the Agaw language spoken by them), Tebiban ("possessor of secret knowledge"), Attenkun (Ge'ez: "Don't touch us") which is considered derogatory and the Hebrew Habashim, associated with the non-Jews Habesha people (Abyssinians).
CultureReligious traditionsThe holiest work is the Torah — Orit. All the holy writings, including the Torah, are handwritten on parchment pages that are assembled into a codex. The rest of the Prophets and the Hagiographa are of secondary importance. The language of their holy writings is Ge'ez.In addition to the Rabbinical Biblical canon, the Beta Israel hold sacred the books of Enoch, Jubilees, Baruch and the books of Ezra as well. The basic wording of Beta Israel Biblical writings was passed down through ancient translations like the Septuagint, which incorporates the Apocrypha (as called by Protestant Christians) including all the books noted by Catholics as Deuterocanon as well as other Rabbinical Jewish Apocrypha. The Beta Israel possess, but do not consider canonical, several other books, including the Arde'et, Acts of Moses, Apocalypse of Gorgorios, Meddrash Abba Elija, and biographies of the nation's forebears: Gadla Adam, Gadla Avraham, Gadla Ishak, Gadla Ya'kov, Gadla Moshe, Gadla Aaron, Nagara Musye, Mota Musye. in Ethiopia, near Gonder]] Leaders of the community consider especially important a book about the Shabbat and its precepts, Te'ezaza Sanbat (Precepts of the Sabbath). The leaders of the Beta Israel also read liturgical works, including weekday services, Shabbat and Festival prayers, and various blessings. Sefer Cahen deals with priestly functions, while Sefer Sa'atat (Book of the Hours) applies to weekdays and Shabbat. The Beta Israel religious calendar is set according to a treatise known as the Abu Shaker, which was written around 1257 CE. It covered the computation of Jewish holidays and chronological matters. The Abu Shaker lists civil and lunar dates for Jewish feasts, including Matqe' (New Year), Soma Ayhud or Badr (Yom Kippur), Masallat (Sucot), Fesh (Passover), and Soma Dehnat (Fast of Salvation) or Soma Aster (Fast of Esther). celebrating the Ethiopian Jewish holiday of Sigd in Jerusalem, 2008.]] The Beta Israel have a unique holiday, known as Sigd on the 29th of Cheshvan. Sigd or Seged is derived from the Semitic root, meaning "to bow or prostrate oneself." In the past the day was called Mehella. The acts of bowing and supplication are still known as mehella. Sigd celebrates the giving of the Torah and the return from exile in Babylonia to Jerusalem under Ezra and Nehemiah. Beta Israel tradition holds that Sigd commemorates Ezra's proclamation against the Babylonian wives (Ezra 10:10-12). In Ethiopia, the Sigd was celebrated on hilltops outside villages. The location was called by several names, including Ya'arego Dabr (Mountain for making prayers) and in Amharic Yalamana Tarrara (Mountain of Supplication). The Kessim, or elders of the community, drew a parallel between the ritual mountain and Mount Sinai. Another source described Sigd (calling it Amata Saww) as a new-moon holiday, after which the Kessim withdrew for a period of isolation. Sigd was declared a National Holiday in Israel in 2008 after lobbying by the Israel Association for Ethiopian Jewry Social contact between the Beta Israel and other Ethiopians was limited. It was not because of the laws of Kashrut, since all Ethiopians share the same food taboos. Ethiopian Jews were forbidden to eat the food of non-Jews. The Kessim were more strict about the prohibition against eating food prepared by non-Kessim. Beta Israel who broke these taboos were ostracized and had to undergo a purification process. Purification included fasting for one or more days and ritual purification before entering the village. Unlike other Ethiopians, the Beta Israel do not eat raw meat dishes like kitfo or gored gored.
LanguagesThe Beta Israel once spoke Qwara and Kayla, closely related Cushitic languages. Now they speak Amharic and Tigrinya, both Semitic languages. Their liturgical language is Ge'ez, also Semitic. Since the 1950s, they have taught Hebrew in their schools; in addition, those Beta Israel currently residing in the State of Israel use Hebrew as a daily language.
OriginsOral traditionTradition which recorded from the priests of the community:
Kebra NagastThe Ethiopian history described in the Kebra Negast, or "Book of the Glory of Kings," relates that Ethiopians are descendants of Israelite tribes who came to Ethiopia with Menelik I, alleged to be the son of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba (or Makeda, in the legend) (see and ). The legend relates that Menelik, as an adult, returned to his father in Jerusalem, and then resettled in Ethiopia, and that he took with him the Ark of the Covenant.In the Bible there is no mention that the Queen of Sheba either married or had any sexual relations with King Solomon (although some identify her with the "black and beautiful" in Song 1:5); rather, the narrative records that she was impressed with his wealth and wisdom, and they exchanged royal gifts, and then she returned to rule her people in Kush. However, the "royal gifts" are interpreted by some as sexual contact. The loss of the Ark is also not mentioned in the Bible. In fact, King Hezekiah later makes reference to the Ark in 2 Kings 19:15. The Kebra Negast asserts that the Beta Israel are descended from a battalion of men of Judah who fled southwards down the Arabian coastal lands from Judea after the breakup of the united Kingdom of Israel into two kingdoms in the 10th century BCE (while King Rehoboam reigned over Judah). Although the Kebra Nagast and some traditional Ethiopian histories have stated that Yodit (or "Gudit," Judith; another name given her was "Esato," Esther), a 10th century usurping queen, was Jewish, some scholars consider that it is unlikely that this was the case. It is more likely, they say, that she was a pagan southerner or a usurping Christian Aksumite Queen. However, she clearly supported Jews, since she founded the Zagwe Dynasty of rulers who governed from around 937 to 1270 C.E., in which, according to the Kebra Nagast itself, Jewish, Christian and even pagan kings ruled in harmony. Furthermore, the Zagwe dynasty legitimated itself (again, even according to the Kebra Nagast itself) through the claim that its lineage descended from Moses and his Ethiopian wife. Most of the Beta Israel consider the Kebra Negast legend to be a fabrication. As even its name proclaims, "Glory of Kings" (meaning the Christian Aksumite kings), it was originally written in the 14th century in large part to delegitimize the Zagwe dynasty, to promote instead a rival "Solomonic" claim to authentic Jewish Ethiopian antecedents, and to justify the Christian overthrow of the Zagwe by the "Solomonic" Aksumite dynasty, whose rulers are glorified. Quite evidently, as the writing of this polemic shows, criticisms of the Aksumite claims of authenticity were still current even in the 14th century, two centuries after they came to power. Instead, many Beta Israel believe that they are descended from the tribe of Dan, and most of them reject the "Solomonic" and "Queen of Sheba" legends of the Aksumites.
Tribe of DanTo prove the antiquity and authenticity of their own claims, the Beta Israel cite the 9th century testimony of Eldad ha-Dani (the Danite), from a time before even the Zagwean dynasty was established. Eldad was a Jewish man of dark skin who suddenly turned up in Egypt and created a great stir in the Egyptian Jewish community (and elsewhere in the Mediterranean Jewish communities he travelled to) with claims that he had come from a Jewish kingdom of pastoralists far to the south. The only language he spoke was a hitherto unknown dialect of Hebrew. Although he strictly followed the Mosaic commandments his observance differed in some details from Rabbinic halakhah, so that some thought he might be a Karaite, even if his practice differed from theirs too. He carried Hebrew books with him that supported his explanations of halakhah, and he was able to cite ancient authorities in the sagely traditions of his own people. He said that the Jews of his own kingdom derived from the tribe of Dan, which had fled the civil war in the Kingdom of Israel between Solomon's son Rehoboam and Jeroboam the son of Nebat, by resettling in Egypt. From there they moved southwards up the Nile into Ethiopia, and the Beta Israel say this confirms that they are descended from these Danites. Some Beta Israel, however, assert even nowadays that their Danite origins go back to the time of Moses himself, when some Danites parted from other Jews right after the Exodus and moved south to Ethiopia. Eldad the Danite does indeed speak of at least three waves of Jewish immigration into his region, creating other Jewish tribes and kingdoms, including the earliest wave that settled in a remote kingdom of the "tribe of Moses": this was the strongest and most secure Jewish kingdom of all, with farming villages, cities and great wealth. The Mosaic claims of the Beta Israel, in any case, like those of the Zagwe dynasty itself, are clearly very ancient.Other sources tell of many Jews who were brought as prisoners of war from ancient Israel by Ptolemy I and also settled on the border of his kingdom with Nubia (Sudan). Another tradition handed down in the community from father to son asserts that they arrived either via the old district of Qwara in northwestern Ethiopia, or via the Atbara River, where the Nile tributaries flow into Sudan. Some accounts even specify the route taken by their forefathers on their way upstream from Egypt.
Rabbinical viewsof the Chief Rabbinate of Israel to save the Jews of Ethiopia, 1921, signed by Chief Rabbis Abraham Isaac Kook and Jacob Meir.]] As mentioned above, the 9th century Jewish traveler Eldad ha-Dani claimed the Beta Israel descended from the tribe of Dan, and also mentioned other Jewish kingdoms around his own or in East Africa during this time. His writings probably represent the first mention of the Beta Israel in Rabbinic literature, and despite some skeptical critics his authenticity has been generally accepted in current scholarship. It is highly unlikely that someone would have developed a new Hebrew dialect all by himself, and written up books in Hebrew and readily added further traditions orally, giving a richly detailed differing sagely tradition; moreover, his descriptions remained consistent and even the originally doubtful rabbis of his time were finally persuaded. Nevertheless, specific details may be uncertain; one critic has highlighted Eldad's lack of detailed reference to Ethiopia's geography and any Ethiopian language, although he claimed the area as his homeland.Nevertheless, his was not the only medieval testimony to Jewish communities living far to the south of Egypt, which strengthens the credibility of Eldad the Danite's account as well. Rabbi Ovadiah Yare of Bertinoro wrote in letter from Jerusalem in 1488: I myself saw two of them in Egypt. They are dark-skinned... and one could not tell whether they keep the teaching of the Karaites, or of the Rabbis, for some of their practices resemble the Karaite teaching... but in other things they appear to follow the instruction of the Rabbis; and they say they are related to the tribe of Dan. Some Jewish legal authorities have also asserted that the Beta Israel are the descendants of the tribe of Dan, one of the Ten Lost Tribes. In their view, these people established a Jewish kingdom that lasted for hundreds of years. With the rise of Christianity and later Islam, schisms arose and three kingdoms competed. Eventually, the Christian and Muslim Ethiopian kingdoms reduced the Jewish kingdom to a small impoverished section. The earliest authority to rule this way was the Radbaz (Rabbi David ben Zimra, 1479–1573). Radbaz explains in a responsum concerning the status of a Beta Israel slave:
But those Jews who come from the land of Cush are without doubt from the tribe of Dan, and since they did not have in their midst sages who were masters of the tradition, they clung to the simple meaning of the Scriptures. If they had been taught, however, they would not be irreverent towards the words of our sages, so their status is comparable to a Jewish infant taken captive by non-Jews … And even if you say that the matter is in doubt, it is a commandment to redeem them. In 1973 Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, then the Chief Sephardic Rabbi, based on the Radbaz and other accounts, ruled that the Beta Israel were Jews and should be brought to Israel. He was later joined by a number of other authorities who made similar rulings, including the Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Shlomo Goren. Other notable poskim, from non-Zionist Ashkenazi circles, placed a halakhic safek (doubt) over the Jewishness of the Beta Israel. Such dissenting voices include rabbis Rabbi Elazar Shach, Rabbi Yosef Shalom Eliashiv, Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, and Rabbi Moshe Feinstein. Similar doubts were raised within the same circles towards Bene Israel Jews, and Russian immigrants to Israel in the 1990s. In the 1970s and early 80s the Beta Israel were forced to undergo a modified conversion ceremony involving immersion in a ritual bath, a declaration accepting Rabbinic law, and, for men, a "symbolic recircumcision". Chief Rabbi Avraham Shapira later waived the "symbolic recircumcision" demand, which is only required when the halakhic doubt is significant. More recently Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar has ruled that descendants of Ethiopian Jews who were forced to convert to Christianity are "unquestionably Jews in every respect". With the consent of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, Rabbi Amar ruled that it is forbidden to question the Jewishness of this community, pejoratively called Falashmura. At present, the Chief Rabbinate of Israel requires ritual immersion prior to marriage, from Jews of Ethiopian or any other ancestry alike.
DNA evidence) }} A 1999 study by Lucotte and Smets studied the DNA of 38 unrelated Beta Israel males living in Israel and 104 Ethiopians living in regions located north of Addis Ababa and concluded that "the distinctiveness of the Y-chromosome haplotype distribution of the Beta-Israel from conventional Jewish populations and their relatively greater similarity in haplotype profile to non-Jewish Ethiopians are consistent with the view that the Beta Israel people descended from ancient inhabitants of Ethiopia and not the Levant." This study confirmed the findings of a 1991 study by Zoossmann-Disken et al.. A 2000 study by Hammer et al. of Y-chromosome biallelic haplotypes of Jewish and non-Jewish groups suggested that "paternal gene pools of Jewish communities from Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East descended from a common Middle Eastern ancestral population," with the exception of the Beta Israel, who were "affiliated more closely with non-Beta Israel (non-Falasha) Ethiopians and other East Africans." A 2004 study by Shen et al reached similar conclusions, that the Beta Israel were likely descended from local Ethiopian populations.A 2001 study by the Department of Biological Sciences at Stanford University found a possible genetic similarity between 11 Ethiopian Falashas and 4 Yemenite Jews who took part in the testing. The differentiation statistic and genetic distances for the 11 Ethiopian Falashas and 4 Yemenite Jews tested were quite low, among the smallest of comparisons involving either of these populations. The 4 Yemenite Jews from this study may be descendants of reverse migrants of African origin who crossed Ethiopia to Yemen. The study result suggests gene flow between Ethiopia and Yemen as a possible explanation for the closeness. The study also suggests that the gene flow between Ethiopian and Yemenite Jewish populations may not have been direct, but instead could have been between Jewish and non-Jewish populations of both regions. A 2002 study of Mitochondrial DNA (which is passed through only maternal lineage to both men and women) by Thomas et al. showed that the most common mtDNA type found among the Ethiopian Falasha sample was present only in Somalia. This further supported the view that all Ethiopian Beta-Israel (Falashas) were of local or Ethiopian origin. A 2009 study of Autosomal DNA (which is inherited from both parents) by Tishkoff et al. observed that the Beta Israel were predominantly of the Cushitic genetic cluster, typically found in populations from East Africa. Furthermore, the Beta Israel had elevated levels of the European genetic cluster compared to the other examined Ethiopian and East African populations in the Global Structure Run. A 2010 study by Behar et al. on the Genome-wide structure of Jews observed that the Beta Israel had similar levels of the Middle Eastern genetic clusters as the Semitic-speaking Tigreans and Amharas. However, compared to the Cushitic-speaking Oromos, who are the largest ethnic group in Ethiopia, the Beta Israel had higher levels of Middle Eastern admixture.
Scholarly viewIn the past, secular scholars were divided on the origins of the Beta Israel; whether they were the descendants of an Israelite tribe, or converted by Jews living in Yemen, or by the Jewish community in southern Egypt at Elephantine. In the 1930s Jones and Monro argues that the chief Semitic languages of Ethiopia may suggest an antiquity of Judaism in Ethiopia. "There still remains the curious circumstance that a number of Abyssinian words connected with religion, such as the words for Hell, idol, Easter, purification, and alms– are of Hebrew origin. These words must have been derived directly from a Jewish source, for the Abyssinian Church knows the scriptures only in a Ge'ez version made from the Septuagint." Richard Pankhurst summarized the various theories offered about their origins as of 1950 that the first members of this community wereAccording to Menachem Waldman, a major wave of immigration from the Kingdom of Judah to present-day Ethiopia dates back to the Assyrian Siege of Jerusalem, in the beginning of the 7th century BC. Rabbinic accounts of the siege assert that only about 110,000 Judeans remained in Jerusalem under King Hezekiah's command, whereas about 130,000 Judeans led by Shebna had joined Sennacherib's campaign against Tirhakah, king of Kush. Sennacherib's campaign failed and Shebna's army was lost "at the mountains of darkness", suggestively identified with Semien Mountains. This account is supported by the letter of Aristeas (13), which also describes several later occasions in which Judean armies were sent against Ethiopian forces. According to Jacqueline Pirenne, numerous Sabaeans crossed over the Red Sea to Ethiopia to escape from the Assyrians, who had devastated the kingdoms of Israel and Judah in the eighth and 7th centuries BCE. She further states that a second major wave of Sabaeans crossed over to Ethiopia in the sixth and 5th centuries BCE to escape Nebuchadnezzar. This wave also included Jews fleeing from the Babylonian takeover of Judah. In 1987 Steven Kaplan stated: Although we don't have a single fine ethnographic research on Beta Israel, and the recent history of this tribe has received almost no attention by researchers, every one who writes about the Jews of Ethiopia feels obliged to contribute his share to the ongoing debate about their origin. Politicians and journalists, Rabbis and political activists, not a single one of them withstood the temptation to play the role of the historian and invent a solution for this riddle.Richard Pankhurst stated in 1992 "The early origins of the Falashas are shrouded in mystery, and, for lack of documentation, will probably remain so for ever." By 1994 modern scholars of Ethiopian history and Ethiopian Jews generally supported one of two conflicting hypotheses, as outlined by Kaplan: An ancient Jewish origin of the Beta Israel, as well as some ancient Jewish traditions later conserved by the Ethiopian Church. Kaplan lists Simon D. Messing, David Shlush, Michael Corinaldi, Menachem Waldman, Menachem Elon and David Kessler as supporters of this hypothesis.
HistoryAncient historyPolitical independence (4th century-1627)According to the Beta Israel tradition, the Jewish kingdom of Beta Israel, later called the kingdom of Gondar, was initially established after Ezana was crowned as the Emperor of Axum (in 325 AC). Ezana, who was educated in his childhood by the missioner Frumentius, declared Christianity as the religion of the Ethiopian empire after he was crowned. The inhabitants who practiced Judaism and refused to convert to Christianity began revolting - this group was referred to as "Beta Israel" by the emperor. Following civil war between the Jewish population and the Christian population the Beta Israel gathered in the more easily defensible mountains to the northwest of the Christianized region of the plains, and established their kingdom there. The kingdom was located in the Semien Mountains region and the Dembia region - situated to the north of Lake Tana and south of the Tekezé River. They made their main city at Gondar, crowned their first king, Phineas, a descendent of the Jewish High Priest Zadok, and started a period of territorial expansion eastward and southward.During the mid 9th century the empire of Aksum began a new expansion which led to an armed conflict between the Empire forces and the Beta Israel forces. The Beta Israel kingdom under King Gideon the fourth managed to defeat the Axum forces. Nevertheless, during the battle king Gideon was killed. As a result, Gideon's daughter Judith inherited the kingdom from her father and took command. .]] Queen Judith signed a pact with the Agaw tribes which were pagans. Around 960, The large tribal confederation led by Queen Judith, which included both forces of the Agaw tribes and the Beta Israel forces, invaded the capital of Axum and conquered and destroyed the city of Axum (including many churches and monasteries which were burned and destroyed) and imposed the Jewish rule over Axum. In addition, the Axumite throne was snatched and the forces of Queen Judith sacked and burned the Debre Damo monastery which at the time was a treasury and a prison for the male relatives of the emperor of Ethiopia, killing all of the potential heirs of the emperor. The Golden Age of the Beta Israel kingdom took place, according to the Ethiopian tradition, between the years 858-1270, in which the Jewish kingdom flourished. During that period the world Jewry heard for the first time the stories of Eldad ha-Dani who either visited the kingdom or heard many accounts of it in his own Jewish kingdom of pastoralists, which may have been located in the Sudan (since he speaks of the Mosaic kingdom lying on "the other side of the rivers of Ethiopia" in remote mountains) or in Somalia. Even Marco Polo and Benjamin of Tudela mention an independent Ethiopian Jewish kingdom in the writings from that period. This period ends with the rise of the Christian Solomonic dynasty - In 1270 the Christian Solomonic dynasty was "restored" after the crowning of a monarch who claimed descent from the single royal prince who managed to escape Queen Judith's uprising. For the next three centuries The Solomonic Dynasty emperors conducted several long ongoing series of armed confrontations with the Jewish Kingdom. In 1329, Emperor Amda Seyon campaigned in the northwest provinces of Semien, Wegera, Tselemt, and Tsegede, in which many had been converting to Judaism and where the Beta Israel had been gaining prominence. He sent troops there to fight people "like Jews" (Ge'ez ከመ:አይሁድ kama ayhūd). During the reign of Emperor Yeshaq (1414–1429) who invaded the Jewish kingdom, annexed it and began to exert religious pressure. Yeshaq divided the occupied territories of the Jewish kingdom into three provinces which were controlled by commissioners appointed by him. He reduced the Jews' social status below that of Christians After the execution of king Joram, King Radi became the leader of the Beta Israel kingdom. King Radi also fought against the Ethiopian Empire which at that period of time was ruled by Emperor Menas. The forces of the Jewish kingdom managed to conquer the area south of the kingdom and strengthened their defenses in the Semien Mountains. The battles against the forces of emperor Menas were successful as the Ethiopian empire forces were eventually defeated. During the reign of emperor Sarsa Dengel the Jewish kingdom was invaded and the forces of the Ethiopian empire besieged the kingdom, the Jews survived the siege, but at the end of the siege the King Goshen was executed and many of his soldiers as well as many other Beta Israel members committed mas suicides. During the reign of emperor Susenyos the Ethiopian empire waged war against the Jewish kingdom and managed to conquer the entire kingdom and annex it to the Ethiopian empire by 1627.
1627 - the mid-19th century, who ruled Ethiopia from 1632 to 1667, was built by many Ethiopian Jews.]] After the Beta Israel autonomy in Ethiopia ended in the 1620s, Emperor Susenyos confiscated their lands, sold many people into slavery and forcibly baptized others. In addition, Jewish writings and religious books were burned and the practice of any form of Jewish religion was forbidden in Ethiopia. As a result of this period of oppression, much traditional Jewish culture and practice was lost or changed.Nonetheless, the Beta Israel community appears to have continued to flourish during this period. The capital of Ethiopia, Gondar, in Dembiya, was surrounded by Beta Israel lands. The Beta Israel served as craftsmen, masons, and carpenters for the Emperors from the 16th century onwards. Such roles had been shunned by Ethiopians as lowly and less honorable than farming.
The protestant missions and the subsequent Jewish missionDespite occasional contacts in an earlier stage, the west only became well aware of the existence of the Beta Israel community when they came in contact with the Protestant missionaries of the "London Society for Promoting Christianity Amongst the Jews" which specialized in the conversion of Jews. The organization began its operating in Ethiopia in 1859. The Protestant missionaries, who worked under the direction of a converted Jew named Henry Aaron Stern, caused great damage to the Beta Israel community as they managed to convert many people to Christianity. Between 1859 and 1922, circa 2,000 Beta Israel members converted to Coptic Christianity (they did not to convert to Protestantism due to an agreement the Protestant missionaries had with the government of Ethiopia). The relative low amount of conversions is partly explained by the strong reaction to the conversions from religious leadership of the Beta Israel community. The Beta Israel members who were converted to Christianity are known today as "Falash mura".The Protestant missionaries activities in Ethiopia provoked European Jewry. As a result, several European rabbis proclaimed that they recognized the Jewishness of the Beta Israel community, and eventually in 1868 the organization "Alliance Israélite Universelle" decided to send the Jewish-French Orientalist Joseph Halévy to Ethiopia in order to study the conditions of the Ethiopian Jews. Upon his return to Europe, Halévy made a very favorable report of the Beta Israel community in which he called for world Jewish community to save the Ethiopian Jews, to establish Jewish schools in Ethiopia, and even suggested to bring thousands of Beta Israel members to settle in Ottoman Syria (a dozen of years before the actual establishment of the first Zionist organization). Nevertheless, after a brief period in which the media coverage generated a great interest in the Beta Israel community, the interest among the Jewish communities world wide declined. This happened mainly because serious doubts still remained about the Jewishness of the Beta Israel community and because the Alliance Israélite Universelle organization did not comply with Halévy's recommendations. Until 1904, the only continuous contacts between westerners and the Beta Israel community were those established with the Protestant missionaries. The activities of the Protestant missionaries organization was active in Ethiopia until 1920.
Great Famine of 1888-1892Between 1888 and 1892, northern Ethiopia experienced a devastating famine. The famine was caused by rinderpest that killed the majority of all cattle. Conditions worsened with cholera outbreaks (1889–92), a typhus epidemic, and a major smallpox epidemic (1889–90).About one-third of the Ethiopian population died during that period. It is estimated that between a half to two-thirds of the Beta Israel community died during that period.
Establishment of permanent links with the western Jewish communitiesduring a visit of Ethiopian Jewish children in his Tel-Aviv home, 1 May 1955]] The myth of the lost tribes in Ethiopia intrigued Jacques Faitlovitch, a former student of Joseph Halévy at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes in Paris. In 1904 Faitlovitch decided to lead a new mission in northern Ethiopia. Faitlovitch obtained funding from the Jewish philanthropist Edmond de Rothschild, traveled and lived among the Ethiopian Jews. In addition, Faitlovitch managed to disrupt the efforts of the Protestant missionaries to convert the Ethiopian Jews, who at the time attempted to persuade the Ethiopian Jews that all the Jews in the world believe in Jesus.Following his visit in Ethiopia, Faitlovitch created an international committee for the Beta Israel community, popularized the awareness of their existence through his book "Notes de voyage chez les Falashas", and raised funds to enable the establishment of schools in their villages. In 1908, the chief rabbis of 45 countries made a joint statement officially declaring that Ethiopian Jews were indeed Jewish. The Jewishness of the Beta Israel community became openly supported amongst the majority of the European Jewish communities during the early 20th century. In 1921 Abraham Isaac Kook, the first Ashkenazi chief rabbi of the British Mandate for Palestine, recognized the Beta Israel community as Jews.
The Italian period, World War II and the post war periodIn 1935 armed forces of the Kingdom of Italy headed by the fascist leader Benito Mussolini invaded and occupied Ethiopia. Ethiopia officially surrendered in 1936.The Italian regime showed hostility towards the Jews of Ethiopia. The racial laws which were enacted in Italy were also applied to the Italian eastern Africa. Mussolini attempted to reach an agreement with Britain which would recognize the Italian East Africa, during which Mussolini proposed to solve the "Jewish problem" in Europe and in Palestine by resettling the Jews in the north-west Ethiopia districts of Gojjam and Begemder along with the Beta Israel community. The proposed Jewish state was to be federally united with the Italian Empire. Nevertheless, Mussolini's plan never materialized. In 1940 the Italian forces executed 44 Beta Israel leaders who were accused of treason and leading a mutiny. In 1941 the Fascist Italian regime sent orders to Ethiopia to carry out the plans for the annihilation of the Beta Israel community, during the same time the Holocaust took place in Europe in which a genocide of approximately six million European Jews was carried out by Nazi Germany, with which the Kingdom of Italy had an alignment. The defeat of Italy to the Allies during the Ethiopian Liberation War prevented the implementation of these orders. When the State of Israel was established in 1948 many of the Ethiopian Jews began contemplating immigrating to Israel. Nevertheless, the Emperor Haile Selassie refused to grant the Ethiopian Jewish population permission to leave his empire.
Early illegal emigration and the official Israeli recognitionBetween the years 1965 and 1975 a relatively small group of Ethiopian Jews emigrated to Israel. The Beta Israel immigrants in that period were mainly very few men who have studied and came to Israel on a tourist visa and then remained in the country illegally.Several of their supporters in Israel, who recognized their Jewishness decided to assist them. These supporters began organizing in associations, among others under the direction of Ovadia Hazzi, a Yemeni Jew and former sergeant in the Israeli army who was married to a wife from the Beta Israel community since the Second World War. Several of those illegal immigrants managed to get get a regularization with the Israeli authorities through the assistance of these support associations. Some agreed to "convert" to Judaism, which helped them regulated their personal status and remain in Israel. People who get their regularization often brought their families to Israel as well. In 1973, Ovadia Hazzi officially raised the question of the Jewishness of the Beta Israel to the Israeli Sephardi Rabbi Ovadia Yosef. The rabbi, who cited a rabbinic ruling from the 16th century David ben Solomon ibn Abi Zimra and asserted that the Beta Israel are descended from the lost tribe of Dan, and eventually acknowledged their Jewishness in February 1973. This ruling was initially rejected by the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren, who eventually changed his opinion on the matter in 1974. In April 1975, the Israeli government of Yitzhak Rabin officially accepted the Beta Israel as Jews, for the purpose of the Law of Return (An Israeli act which grants all the Jews in the world the right to immigrate to Israel). Later on, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin obtained clear rulings from Chief Sephardi Rabbi Ovadia Yosef that they were descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes. The Chief Rabbinate of Israel did however initially require them to undergo pro forma Jewish conversions, to remove any doubt as to their Jewish status.
The rise of the Derg regime and the Great Famine of 1984–1985After a period of civil unrest on September 12, 1974, a pro-communist military junta, known as the "Derg" ("committee") seized power after ousting the emperor Haile Selassie I. The Derg installed a government which was socialist in name and military in style. Lieutenant Colonel Mengistu Haile Mariam assumed power as head of state and Derg chairman. Mengistu's years in office were marked by a totalitarian-style government and the country's massive militarization, financed by the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc, and assisted by Cuba. Communism was officially adopted by the new regime during the late 1970s and early 1980s.As a result, the new regime gradually began to embrace anti-religious and anti-Israeli positions as well as showing hostility towards the Jews of Ethiopia. Towards the mid 1980s Ethiopia underwent a series of famines, exacerbated by adverse geopolitics and civil wars, which eventually resulted in the death of hundreds of thousands. As a result, hundreds of thousands of Ethiopians, including of the Beta Israel community, became untenable and a large part tried to escape the war and famine to the neighboring Sudan. The deteriorating situation of the Ethiopian Jews and the real concern for their fate and well-being contributed eventually to the Israeli government officially recognition of the Beta Israel community as Jews in 1975, for the purpose of the Law of Return. Later on, The Civil war and famine in Ethiopia prompted the Israeli government to airlift most of the Beta Israel population in Ethiopia to Israel in several covert military rescue operations which took place between the 1980s until the early 1990s (see section below).
Massive emigration of the Beta Israeli community to IsraelThe emigration to Israel of the Beta Israel community was still officially banned by the Ethiopian government between the years 1973-1990. Despite the official ban, massive emigration took place in several waves during that period:
The difficulties of the Falash Mura in immigrating to IsraelIn 1991, the Israeli authorities announced that the emigration of the Beta Israel community to Israel was about to be resolved, thanks to the departure of almost all Jews in Ethiopia. Nevertheless, since then, thousands of people left the northern region of Ethiopia to take refuge in Addis Ababa, declaring themselves Jewish and asking to emigrate to Israel.As a result, a new term term became popularized which was used to refer to this group: "Falash Mura". These people, who weren't part of the Beta Israel communities in Ethiopia, are not recognized as Jews by the Israeli authorities, and therefore were initially not allowed to emigrate to Israel. The Israeli authorities consider these people either Christian or non-Jewish and therefore states that they are not eligible for Israeli citizenship by the Law of Return. As a result of the divergent views on the matter a lively debate has risen in Israel on this issue, mainly between the Ethiopian Jews in Israel and their supporters against the opponents to a potential massive emigration of the Falash Mura people. The government's position on the matter remained quite restrictive, but has been subject to numerous criticisms, including some clerics who want to encourage the return to Judaism of these groups said. During the 1990s, the Israeli government finally allowed most of those who fled to Addis Ababa to emigrate to Israel. Some did so through the Law of Return, which allows an Israeli parent of a non-Jew help his son or daughter emigrate to Israel, while others were allowed to immigrate to Israel as part of a humanitarian effort. The Israeli government hoped that by doing so they finally resolved the problem, but instead a new wave of Falash Murra refugees fled to Addis Ababa and demanded to immigrate to Israel. This led the Israeli government to harden its position on the matter in the late 1990s. In February 2003 the Israeli government decided to accept religious conversions organized by Israeli Rabbis, and that these people can then migrate to Israel as Jewish. Although the new position is more open, and although the Israeli governmental authorities and religious authorities should in theory allow emigration to Israel to most of the Falash Mura wishing to do so (whom are recognized as descendants of the Beta Israel community). In practice, however, that immigration remains slow, and the Israeli government continued to limit, from 2003 to 2006, the entry of about 300 Falash Mura immigrants per month. In April 2005, the Jerusalem Post stated that it had conducted a survey in Ethiopia, after which it was concluded that tens of thousands of Falash Mura still lived in rural northern Ethiopia. In 14 November 2010 the Israeli cabinet approved a plan to allow 8,000 Falasha Mura immigrate to Israel.
PopulationEthiopian Jews in Israel, 2006]] Nearly all of the Ethiopian Beta Israel community in Israel today comprises more than 121,000 people.
Falash Murain Gonder in 1996.]] Falash Mura is the name given to those of the Beta Israel community in Ethiopia who converted to Christianity under pressure from the mission during the 19th century and the 20th century. This term consists Jews who did not adhere to Jewish law, as well as Jewish converts to Christianity, who did so either voluntarily or who were forced to do so.One of the earliest dated references of the Beta Israel people in Ethiopian literature was in the Glorious Victories of Amda Seyon I which mentions a rebellion which occurred in the year 1332 in the province of Begemder of "the converts who are like Jews". In 1860 Henry Aaron Stern, a Jewish convert to Christianity, traveled to Ethiopia in an attempt to convert the Beta Israel community to Christianity. Many Ethiopian Jews whose ancestors converted to Christianity have been returning to the practice of Judaism. Such people are known as the Falash Mura. They have been admitted to Israel, although not as Jews. The Israeli government can thus set quotas on their immigration and make citizenship dependent on their conversion to Orthodox Judaism. Although no one knows precisely the population of the Falash Mura in Ethiopia, observers believe it is approximately 20,000-26,000 persons. Recently, some reporters and other travelers in remote regions of Ethiopia have noted finding entire villages where people claim they are Jewish or are Falash Mura, that is, Jews who have been practicing Christianity. In the Achefer woreda of the Mirab Gojjam Zone, roughly 1,000-2,000 families of Beta Israel were found. They have not petitioned to immigrate to the Jewish state. There may be other such regions in Ethiopia with significant Jewish enclaves, which would raise the total Jewish population to more than 50,000 people. Israel has approved the immigration of the Falash Mura at 300 per month. The Ethiopian Jewish community and its supporters have petitioned to increase this number to 600 per month, citing the high mortality rate among Jews waiting to emigrate from Ethiopia. An economic analysis conducted for the JAI by David Brodet, former director general of the Ministry of Finance, concluded that an increased rate of immigration to Israel "is highly logical and has economical and social advantages" over the present immigration rate.
Beta AbrahamThe earliest reference to the Jewish community in the historical region of Shewa comes from the 14th century missionary Zena Marqos. More Jews arrived to the region of Shewa from the regions of Fogera and Dembiya during the rule of Negasi Krestos and as a result a first wave of Jewish immigration began in the years 1692-1702. Negasi's grandson, the Meridazmach Abuye fought the forces of emperor Iyasu II, and later on held many of the emperor's soldiers in captivity. Eventually Abuye released some prisoners and appointed them to senior positions in the monarchy. Following this, a second Jewish migration wave began in 1730-1745, which was mainly prompted by the Jews will to improve their living conditions.There are quite a few surviving reports about the existence of a Jewish community in the Shewa region in the 19th century. The European missionary Charles Isenberg toured in 1839 in Shewa's capital Ankober and reported that there were Jews around the capital of Shewa and that they were the descendants of those who emigrated from the Fogera region in the Begemder province to Shewa. Isenberg also mentioned that when he spoke with an Ethiopian missionary from the Ethiopian Church on 17 October 1839 he reported that several Jews integrated in the village and converted to Christianity. This came after another report from 1842 by the British traveler Charles Johnson whom stated that the Jews' economic situation was better off than their Christian neighbors and that they were more skilled and described them as successful merchants. In 1908 Dr. Jacques Faitlovitch reported that there are Jews in Shewa whom are referred to by the derogatory name "Buda" by their neighbors. This community is concentrated mainly in the Northern Shewa Zone in the Amhara Region and has through the years adopted the name "Beta Abraham". The community is estimated to have about 150 thousand people today.
In popular cultureOver the years, various books and films had their plot focus on the history of the Beta Israel community or had Beta Israel characters who had a prominent role in the plot:The 2005 Israeli-French film "Go, Live, and Become" (), directed by Romanian-born Radu Mihăileanu focuses on Operation Moses. The film tells the story of an Ethiopian Christian child whose mother has him pass as Jewish so he can emigrate to Israel and escape the famine looming in Ethiopia. The film was awarded the 2005 Best Film Award at the Copenhagen International Film Festival.
See also
References
Further reading
External links
Category:Article Feedback Pilot Category:Ethnic groups in Israel Category:Ethnic groups in Ethiopia Category:Jews by country Category:Jewish ethnic groups Category:Jewish Ethiopian history This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
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![The Great Mosque of Kairouan, erected in 670, is the oldest mosque in North Africa,[92] Kairouan, Tunisia.](http://web.archive.org./web/20110828090515im_/http://cdn3.wn.com/pd/29/23/4d7c8de405cd557ced65e356bbb3_thumb.jpg "The Great Mosque of Kairouan, erected in 670, is the oldest mosque in North Africa,[92] Kairouan, Tunisia.")
