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The Beta Israel, or Ethiopian Jews, are a Jewish group originating in the Amhara Region and Tigray Region regions of northern Ethiopia, where they were historically spread out across more than 500 small villages.Weil, Shalva. (2012) "Ethiopian Jews: the Heterogeneity of a Group", in Grisaru, Nimrod, and Witztum, Eliezer. Cultural, Social and Clinical Perspectives on Ethiopian Immigrants in Israel, Beersheba: Ben-Gurion University Press, pp. 1–17. The majority were concentrated in what is today North Gondar Zone, Shire Inda Selassie, Welkait, Tselemti, Dembia, Segelt, Qwara Province, and Belesa. A large wave of Aliyah from Ethiopia starting in the 1980s brought most Beta Israel to Israel, and several Israeli government initiatives have facilitated their emigration.Weil, Shalva (1997) "Collective Designations and Collective Identity of Ethiopian Jews", in Shalva Weil (ed.) Ethiopian Jews in the Limelight, Jerusalem: NCJW Research Institute for Innovation in Education, Hebrew University, pp. 35–48. (Hebrew) The majority of Beta Israel now live in Israel.
The ethnogenesis of the Beta Israel is disputed with genetic studies showing them to cluster closely with non-Jewish Amhara people and Tigrayans with no indications of gene flow with Yemenite Jews in spite of their geographic proximity.
The Beta Israel appears to have been lastingly isolated from broader Jewish communities, having historically practiced a divergent non- form of Judaism that is similar in some respects to Karaite Judaism. The religious practices of Israeli Beta Israel are referred to as Haymanot.
Due to Christian missionary activity, and persecution by the authorities, a significant portion of the Beta Israel community converted to Christianity during the 19th and 20th centuries. Those who converted to Christianity later became known as the Falash Mura. The larger Christian Beta Abraham community is considered to be a Crypto-Judaism offshoot of the Beta Israel community.
The Beta Israel first made extensive contact with other Jewish history communities in the early 20th century, after which a comprehensive rabbinic debate ensued over their Jewish identity. Following Halakha and constitutional discussions, Israeli authorities decided in 1977 that the Beta Israel qualified on all fronts for the Israeli Law of Return. Thus, the Israeli government, with support from the United States, began a large-scale effort to conduct transport operations and bring the Beta Israel to Israel in multiple waves.Weil, Shalva. (2008) "Zionism among Ethiopian Jews", in Hagar Salamon (ed.) Jewish Communities in the 19th and 20th Centuries: Ethiopia, Jerusalem: Ben-Zvi Institute, pp. 187–200. (Hebrew)Weil, Shalva 2012 "Longing for Jerusalem Among the Beta Israel of Ethiopia", in Edith Bruder and Tudor Parfitt (eds.) African Zion: Studies in Black Judaism, Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp. 204–217. These activities included Operation Banyarwanda, Operation Brothers, which evacuated the Beta Israel community in Sudan between 1979 and 1990 (including Operation Moses in 1984 and Operation Joshua in 1985), and Operation Solomon in 1991. The Rescue of Ethiopian Jews 1978–1990 (Hebrew); " Ethiopian Immigrants and the Mossad Met " (Hebrew)Weil, Shalva. (2011) "Operation Solomon 20 Years On", International Relations and Security Network (ISN).http://www.isn.ethz.ch/isn/Current-Affairs/ISN-Insights/Detail?ord538=grp1&ots591=eb06339b-2726-928e-0216-1b3f15392dd8&lng=en&id=129480&contextid734=129480&contextid735=129244&tabid=129244
By the end of 2008, 119,300 Ethiopian Jews were living in Israel, including nearly 81,000 born in Ethiopia and about 38,500 (about 32% of the Ethiopian Jewish community in Israel) born in Israel with at least one parent born in Ethiopia or Eritrea (formerly a part of Ethiopia).[3] , Ha'aretz At the end of 2019, there were 155,300 Jews of Ethiopian descent in Israel. Approximately 87,500 were born in Ethiopia, and 67,800 were born in Israel with parents born in Ethiopia. The Ethiopian Jewish community in Israel is mostly composed of Beta Israel (practicing both Haymanot and Rabbinic Judaism), but includes smaller numbers of Falash Mura who left Christianity and began practicing Rabbinic Judaism upon their arrival in Israel.
The name (lit. "Jews") is rarely used in the community, as Ethiopian Christians had used it as a derogatory term; however, the term has increased in usage in the 20th century as the Beta Israel strengthened its ties with other Jewish communities. The term (lit. "Hebrew") was used to refer to the (lit. "free man," see Chewa regiments) in the community, in contrast to the (lit. "slave").Salamon, Beta Israel, p. 135, n. 20 (Hebrew) The term (lit. "Torah-true") was also used to refer to Beta Israel; since the 19th century, it has been used in contrast to the term Falash Mura (converts).
The colloquial Ethiopian/Eritrean term or , which means "landless", "wanderers", or "exiles", was given to the community in the 15th century by the Emperor Yeshaq I; after they were conquered by the Ethiopian Empire, its use is now considered offensive. The term Zagwe is also used for Beta Israel, although it is considered derogatory, as it associates the community with the Agaw people of the Zagwe dynasty, who largely practice traditional African religion.
Deuterocanonical books that also makeup part of the Beta Israel canon are the Sirach, Book of Judith, Esdras 1 and 2, the Meqabyan, Jubilees, Book of Baruch (including 4 Baruch), Book of Tobit, Book of Enoch, and the Testaments of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Many of these books differ substantially from the similarly numbered and named texts in Koine Greek and Hebrew (such as the Book of Maccabees), though some of the Ge'ez works are dependent on those texts. Others appear to have different ancient literary and oral origins. Ethiopian Orthodox Christians also use many texts used by the Beta Israel but other rabbinic Jewish groups but not other Christian groups.
Essential non-Biblical writings include the Mota Aron ("Death of Aaron"), Mota Musé ("Death of Moses"), Nagara Muse ("The Conversation of Moses"), Təʾəzazä Sänbät ("Commandments of the Sabbath"), Arde'et ("Disciples"), Gorgoryos ("Apocalypse of Gorgorios"), Ezra ("Apocalypse of Ezra"), Barok ("Apocalypse of Baruch"), Mäṣḥafä Sa'atat ("Book of Hours"), Fālasfā ("Philosophers"), Abba Elias ("Father Elijah"), Mäṣḥafä Mäla'əkt ("Book of Angels"), Dərsanä Abrəham Wäsara Bägabs ("Homily on Abraham and Sarah in Egypt"), Gadla Sosna ("The Story of Susanna"), and Baqadāmi Gabra Egzi'abḥēr ("In the Beginning God Created").
Ethiopian Jews were forbidden to eat the food of non-Jews. A Kahen eats only meat he has slaughtered himself, which someone else may prepare. Someone else may also eat meat that a Kahen has slaughtered. Those who break these taboos are ostracized and must undergo a purification process that includes fasting for one or more days, eating only uncooked chickpeas provided by the Kahen, and ritual purification, before entering the village.
Unlike other Ethiopians, Beta Israel do not eat raw meat dishes such as kitfo or gored gored.Shelemay, Music, p. 42
Beta Israel holidays include (New Year in Nissan), (Passover), (Shavuot, lit. "harvest"), (Rosh Hashana, lit. "blowing holiday", compare in Hebrew), (Yom Kippur), and (Sukkot, lit. "tabernacles holiday"). Other holidays unique to Beta Israel include (a fast before Shavuot, lit. "harvest fast"), the fourth sabbath of the fifth month, and an additional and in Kislev. The most notable of the holidays unique to Beta Israel is Sigd, or (lit. "supplication"), celebrated on the 29th day of Cheshvan, and recognized as an official state holiday in Israel since 2009. Yedioth Ahronoth Ethiopian Sigd Made Official State Holiday. July 2, 2008. The month of Cheshvan also includes a holiday for the day Moses saw the face of God on the 1st, a holiday for the reception of Moses by the Israelites on the 10th, and a fast on the 12th. The month of Elul also has additional holidays for the Beta Israel— (lit. "year rotate") on the 1st, (lit. "Elul fast") between the 1st–9th, (lit. "our atonement") on the 10th, and (lit. "eighteenth") on the 28th. The fast in Tammuz (), the fast for Tisha B'Av (), the fast in Tevet (), and the Fast of Esther () are multi-day fasts while they are only one day in rabbinical Jewish tradition.Aešcoly, Book of the Falashas, pp. 62–70 (Hebrew); Shelemay, Music, Ritual, and Falasha History, pp. 44–57; Leslau, Falasha Anthology, pp. xxviii–xxxvi; Quirun, The Evolution of the Ethiopian Jews, pp. 146–150
The first of each month is celebrated as (lit. "new moon festival") (compare Rosh Chodesh), and the last of each month is a fast called (compare Yom Kippur Katan). There are also monthly celebrations commemorating the main annual holidays, asärt (lit. "ten") on the tenth day to commemorate Yom Kippur, (lit. "twelve") for commemorating Shavuot, and (lit. "fifteen") for Passover and Sukkot.
Shabbat is called . There are also weekly fasts on Monday (), Thursday (), and Friday ().
A Pentecontad calendar, an ancient calendar that is attested in the Bible, as well as in the Dead Sea Scrolls is still in use among the Ethiopian Jews.Y. Ziv, Halachot Shabbat of Beta Israel according to Te'ezaza Sanbat (Ph.D. diss., Bar-Ilan University, 2009), 16 In this calendar, each fifty-day period was made up of seven weeks of seven days and seven Sabbaths, with an extra fiftieth day, known as the atzeret (meaning "assembly" or "day of assembly" in Hebrew).
In this Ethiopian tradition,
Eldad was a Jewish man who appeared in Egypt and created a stir in that Jewish community (and elsewhere in the Mediterranean Jewish communities he visited) with claims that he had come from a Jewish kingdom of pastoralists far to the south. The only language Eldad spoke was a hitherto unknown dialect of Hebrew. Although he strictly followed the Mosaic commandments, his observance differed in some details from Rabbinic halakhah. Some observers thought that he might be a Karaite, although his practice also differed from theirs. He carried Hebrew books that supported his explanations of halakhah. He cited ancient authorities in the scholarly traditions of his people, which helped persuade rabbinic authorities of the day of the validity of his practices, even if they differed from their traditional teachings.On this, also see the remarkable testimony of Hasdai ibn Shaprut—the Torah scholar and princely Jew of Cordoba—concerning Eldad's learning, in his letter to Joseph, King of the Khazars, around 960 CE., reproduced in Franz Kobler, ed., Letters of Jews Through the Ages, Second Edition (London: East and West Library, 1953), vol. 1: p. 105. Eldad said that the Jews of his own kingdom descended from the tribe of Dan (which included the Biblical war hero Samson) who had fled the civil war in the Kingdom of Israel between Solomon's son Rehoboam and Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and resettled in Egypt. From there, they moved southwards up the Nile into Ethiopia. The Beta Israel says this confirms that they are descended from these Danites.Elkan N. Adler, ed., Jewish Travellers in the Middle Ages: 19 Firsthand Accounts (New York: Dover, 1987), p. 9.
Some Beta Israel assert that their Danite origins go back to the time of Moses when some Danites parted from other Jews right after the Exodus and moved south to Ethiopia. Eldad the Danite speaks of at least three waves of Jewish immigration into his region, creating other Jewish tribes and kingdoms. The earliest wave 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.Elkan N. Adler, ed., Jewish Travellers in the Middle Ages: 19 Firsthand Accounts (New York: Dover, 1987), pp. 12–14. Other Ethiopian Jews who appeared in the Mediterranean world over the succeeding centuries and persuaded rabbinic authorities there that they were of Jewish descent also referred to the Mosaic and Danite origins of Ethiopian Jewry—and so could, if slaves, be ransomed by Jewish communities, join synagogues, marry other Jews, etc.See Salo Baron, Social and Religious History of the Jews, Second Edition (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1983), Vol. XVIII: 372. The Mosaic claims of the Beta Israel, in any case, like those of the Zagwe dynasty, are ancient.The testimony of James Bruce, Travels in Abyssinia, 1773, repeats these accounts of Mosaic antiquity for the Beta Israel.
Other sources tell of many Jews who were brought as prisoners of war from ancient Israel by Ptolemy I and settled on the border of his kingdom with Nubia (Sudan). Another tradition asserts that the Jews arrived either via the old Qwara province in northwestern Ethiopia, or via the Atbara River, where the Nile tributaries flow into Sudan. Some accounts specify the route taken by their forefathers on their way upriver to the south from Egypt.http://www.nacoej.org/history.htm
Eldad's was not the only medieval testimony about Jewish communities living far to the south of Egypt. Obadiah ben Abraham Bartenura wrote in a letter from Jerusalem in 1488:
Rabbi David ibn Zimra of Egypt (1479–1573) also held the Ethiopian Jewish community to be similar in many ways to the Karaites, writing:
In the same responsum, he concludes that if the Ethiopian Jewish community wished to return to rabbinic Judaism, they would be received and welcomed into the fold, just as the Karaites who returned to the teachings of the in the time of Rabbi Abraham ben Maimonides.
Reflecting the consistent assertions made by Ethiopian Jews they dealt with or knew of, and after due investigation of their claims and their Jewish behavior, a number of Jewish legal authorities, in previous centuries and in modern times, have ruled Halakha (according to Jewish legal code) that Beta Israel are indeed Jews, the descendants of the tribe of Dan, one of the Ten Lost Tribes.Weil, Shalva. 1991 Beyond the Sambatyon: the Myth of the Ten Lost Tribes, Tel-Aviv: Beth Hatefutsoth, the Nahum Goldman Museum of the Jewish Diaspora. They believe that 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 16th-century scholar David ibn Zimra (Radbaz), who explained elsewhere in a responsa concerning the status of a Beta Israel slave:
In 1973, Ovadia Yosef, the Sephardi chief rabbi of Israel ruled, based on the writings of David ben Solomon ibn Abi Zimra and other accounts, that the Beta Israel were Jews and should be brought to Israel. Two years later this opinion was confirmed by a number of other authorities who made similar rulings, including the Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Israel Shlomo Goren. In 1977, the law was passed granting the right of return.
Some notable posek (religious law authorities) from Non-Zionism Ashkenazi Jews circles placed a safek (legal doubt) over the Jewish peoplehood of Beta Israel. Such voices include Rabbi Elazar Shach, Rabbi Yosef Shalom Eliashiv, Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, and Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, it is important to note they placed this as a protective measure to remove any doubt, thus they saw them as undoubtedly Jewish after Mikveh themselves.Rabbi Eliezer Waldenberg, Tzitz Eliezer, Volume 17, subject 48, page 105.Michael Ashkenazi, Alex Weingrod. Ethiopian Jews and Israel, Transaction Publishers, 1987, p. 30, footnote 4. Similar doubts were raised within the same circles towards the Bene Israel and to Russian immigrants to Israel during the 1990s Post-Soviet aliyah.Rabbi Eliezer Waldenberg, Tzitz Eliezer, p. 104
In the 1970s and early 1980s, the Beta Israel were required to undergo a modified conversion ceremony involving immersion in a mikveh (ritual bath), a declaration accepting Rabbinic law, and, for men, a hatafat dam brit (symbolic recircumcision).Ruth Westheimer, Steven Kaplan. Surviving Salvation: The Ethiopian Jewish Family in Transition, NYU Press, 1992, pp. 38–39. Avraham Shapira later waived the hatafat dam brit was unnecessary as they were already circumised.איינאו פרדה סנבטו, Operation Moshe , מוסף Haaretz 11.3.2006 More recently, Shlomo Amar has ruled that descendants of Ethiopian Jews who were anusim are "unquestionably Jews in every respect".Israel Association for Ethiopian Jews, דו"ח מעקב – סוגיית זכאותם לעלייה של בני הפלשמורה , 21 January 2008, p. 9 With the consent of Ovadia Yosef, Amar ruled that it is forbidden to question the Jewishness of this community, pejoratively called Falash Mura in reference to their having converted.Netta Sela, הרב עמאר:הלוואי ויעלו מיליוני אתיופים לארץ, ynet, 16 January 2008Emanuela Trevisan Semi, Tudor Parfitt. Jews of Ethiopia: The Birth of an Elite, Routledge, 2005, p. 139.
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 of Songs 1:5). The complete guide to the Bible by Stephan M. Miller, p. 175 Rather, the narrative records that she was impressed with Solomon's 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 not mentioned in the Bible. Hezekiah later makes reference to the Ark in .
The Kebra Negast asserts that the Beta Israel are descended from a battalion of men of Judah who fled southward down the Arabian coastal lands from Judea after the breakup of the 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 Gudit (or "Yudit", 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 southernerTaddesse Tamrat, Church and State in Ethiopia: 1270–1527 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1972), pp. 38–39 or a usurping Christian Aksumite Queen.Knud Tage Andersen, "The Queen of Habasha in Ethiopian History, Tradition and Chronology", Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Vol. 63, No. 1 (2000), p. 20. However, she clearly supported Jews, since she founded the Zagwe dynasty, who governed from around 937 to 1270 CE. According to the Kebra Nagast, Jewish, Christian and pagan kings ruled in harmony at that time. Furthermore, the Zagwe dynasty claimed legitimacy (according to the Kebra Nagast) by saying it was descended from Moses and his Ethiopian wife.
Most of the Beta Israel consider the Kebra Negast to be a legend. As its name expresses, "Glory of Kings" (meaning the Christian Aksumite kings), it was 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. The writing of this polemic shows that criticisms of the Aksumite claims of authenticity were current in the 14th century, two centuries after they came to power. Many Beta Israelis believe that they are descended from the tribe of Dan, and most reject the "Solomonic" and "Queen of Sheba" legends of the Aksumites.Wolf Leslau, "Introduction", to his Falasha Anthology, Translated from Ethiopic Sources (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1951), p. xliii. Also see Steven Kaplan, "A Brief History of Beta Israel", in The Jews of Ethiopia: A People in Transition (Tel Aviv and New York: Beth Hatefutsoth and The Jewish Museum, 1986), p. 11.
Around 18% of Ethiopian Jews are bearers of E-P2 (xM35, xM2); in Ethiopia, most of such lineages belong to E-M329, which has been found in ancient DNA isolated from a 4,500 year old Ethiopian fossil. Such haplotypes are frequent in Southwestern Ethiopia, especially among Omotic languages-speaking populations.
The rest of the Beta Israel mainly belong to haplotypes linked with the E-M35 and J-M267 haplogroups, which are more commonly associated with Ethiosemitic and Cushitic-speaking populations in Northeast Africa. Further analysis show that the E-M35 carried by Ethiopian Jews is primarily indigenous to the Horn of Africa rather than being of origin. Altogether, this suggests that Ethiopian Jews have diverse patrilineages indicative of indigenous Northeast African, not Middle Eastern, origin.
A 2010 study by Behar et al. on the genome-wide structure of Jews observed that "Ethiopian Jews (Beta Israel) and Indian Jews (Bene Israel and Cochini) cluster with neighbouring autochthonous populations in Ethiopia and western India, respectively, despite a clear paternal link between the Bene Israel and the Levant. These results cast light on the variegated genetic architecture of the Middle East, and trace the origins of most Jewish Diaspora communities to the Levant." According to the study of Behar et al. Ethiopian Jews are clustered with the Ethiosemitic-speaking Amhara and Tigrayans rather than the Oromos.
The Beta Israel are autosomally closer to other populations from the Horn of Africa than to any other Jewish population, including Yemenite Jews. A 2012 study by Ostrer et al. concluded that the Ethiopian Jewish community was founded about 2,000 years ago, probably by only a relatively small number of Jews from elsewhere, with local people joining the community, causing Beta Israel to become genetically distant from other Jewish groups.Sharon Begley: Genetic study offers clues to history of North Africa's Jews. Reuters, August 7, 2012.
In the 1930s, Jones and Monroe argued 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, Cult image, Pesach, Niddah, 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."A. H. M. Jones and Elizabeth Monroe, A History of Ethiopia (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1935), p. 40.
Richard Pankhurst summarized the various theories offered about their origins, as of 1950. He said that the first members of this community were:
According to Pankhurst, traditional Ethiopian scholars have said "We were Jews before we were Christians". He said that more recent hypotheses were more compelling—especially those of the Ethiopian scholars Dr Taddesse Tamrat and Dr Getachew Haile—and instead emphasized the conversion of Christians to the Beta Israel faith, suggesting the Beta Israel were culturally and ethnically an Ethiopian sect.
According to Menachem Waldman, a major wave of emigration from the Kingdom of Judah to Kush and Abyssinia dates to the Assyrian siege of Jerusalem in the beginning of the seventh century BCE. 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 the Simien Mountains.Menachem Waldman, גולים ויורדים מארץ יהודה אל פתרוס וכוש – לאור המקרא ומדרשי חז'ל, Megadim E (1992), pp. 39–44.
In 1987, Steven Kaplan wrote:
Richard Pankhurst summarized the state of knowledge on the subject in 1992 as follows: "The early origins of the Falashas are shrouded in mystery, and, for lack of documentation, will probably remain so for ever."Richard Pankhurst, "The Falashas, or Judaic Ethiopians, in Their Christian Ethiopian Setting", African Affairs, 91 (October 1992), pp. 567–582 at p. 567.
Some Ethiopian Jewish practices disagree with rabbinic practice but do match the practices of late Second Temple sects, suggesting that Ethiopian Jews may possess a tradition from ancient Jewish groups whose beliefs have become extinct elsewhere."Ethiopian Judaism nearly identical to that practiced during Second Temple Period." YNET
Another early reference to the Beta Israel is found in a Christian Ethiopian hagiography which is known as the Gädl (Life) of Abba Yafqarana Egzi', a 14th-century Ethiopian saint. This work contains an account of a Christian monk by the name of Qozmos, who, following a dispute with his abbot, renounced Christianity, and joined a group of people who followed "the religion of the Jews". Qozmos then led the Jews of Semien province and Tselemt to attack the Christians of Dembiya. Eventually, this revolt was defeated by Emperor Dawit I who dispatched troops from Tigray to crush the rebellion.
As a result, a lively debate has arisen in Israel about the Falash Mura, mainly between the Beta Israel community in Israel and their supporters and those opposed to a potential massive emigration of the Falash Mura people. The government's position on the matter remained quite restrictive, but it has been subject to numerous criticisms, including criticisms by some clerics who want to encourage these people's return to Judaism.
During the 1990s, the Israeli government finally allowed most of those who fled to Addis Ababa to immigrate to Israel.Stephen Spector, Operation Solomon: the daring rescue of the Ethiopian Jews, p. 190. Some did so through the Law of Return, which allows an Israeli parent of a non-Jew to petition for his/her son or daughter to be allowed to immigrate to Israel. Others were allowed to immigrate to Israel as part of a humanitarian effort.
The Israeli government hoped that admitting these Falash Mura would finally bring emigration from Ethiopia to a close, but instead prompted a new wave of Falash Mura refugees fleeing to Addis Ababa and wishing 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 Orthodox religious conversions in Ethiopia of Falash Mura by Israeli Rabbis, after which they can then immigrate to Israel as Jews. Although the new position is more open, and although the Israeli governmental authorities and religious authorities should in theory allow immigration to Israel of most of the Falash Mura wishing to do so (who are now acknowledged to be descendants of the Beta Israel community), in practice, however, that immigration remains slow, and the Israeli government continued to limit, from 2003 to 2006, immigration of Falash Mura to about 300 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.
On 14 November 2010, the Israeli cabinet approved a plan to allow an additional 8,000 Falash Mura to immigrate to Israel.
On November 16, 2015, the Israeli cabinet unanimously voted in favor of allowing the last group of Falash Mura to immigrate over the next five years, but their acceptance will be conditional on a successful Jewish conversion process, according to the Interior Ministry.Reuters November 16, 2015 In April 2016, they announced that a total of 10,300 people would be included in the latest round of Aliyah, over the following 5 years. By May 2021 300 Falasha had been brought to Israel joining 1,700 who had already immigrated; an estimated 12,000 more are in Ethiopia.
Over time, the Ethiopian Jews in Israel moved out of the government owned mobile home camps which they initially lived in and settled in various cities and towns throughout Israel, with the encouragement of the Israeli authorities who grant new immigrants generous government loans or low-interest mortgages.
Similarly to other groups of immigrant Jews who made aliyah to Israel, the Ethiopian Jews have had to overcome obstacles to integrate into Israeli society.Weil, Shalva 1994 'The Cultural Background of the Ethiopian Immigrants and the Transfer to Israeli Society', in Gila Noam (ed.), Achievements and Challenges in the Absorption of Ethiopian Immigrants: the Contribution of Research to the Evaluation of the Process of Absorption (Lectures and Discussions from a National Conference, 8–9 November 1993) Jerusalem. (Hebrew). Initially the main challenges faced by the Ethiopian Jewish community in Israel arose from communication difficulties (most of the Ethiopian population could not read nor write in Hebrew, and many of the older members could not hold a simple conversation in Hebrew), and discrimination, including manifestations of racism, from some parts of Israeli society.Weil, Shalva 1999 'Collective Rights and Perceived Inequality: The Case of Ethiopian Jews in Israel', in Tim Allen and John Eade(eds) Divided Europeans: Understanding Ethnicities in Conflict, The Hague, London, and Boston: Kluwer Law International, pp. 127–44. Unlike Russian immigrants, many of whom arrived educated and skilled, Ethiopian immigrantsWeil, Shalva 1991 One-Parent Families among Ethiopian Immigrants in Israel, Jerusalem: NCJW Research Institute for Innovation in Education, Hebrew University. (Hebrew) came from an impoverished agrarian country, and were ill-prepared to work in an industrialized country. Efforts to increase social standing, and integration, have included scholarship programs such as the nursing training supported by La'Ofek and Hadassah International.
Over the years, there has been significant progress in the integration of young Beta Israels into Israeli society, primarily resulting from serving in the Israeli Defense Forces, alongside other Israelis their age. This has led to an increase in opportunities for Ethiopian Jews after they are discharged from the army.
Despite progress, Ethiopian Jews are still not well assimilated into Israeli-Jewish society. They remain, on average, on a lower economic and educational level than average Israelis. The rate of Ethiopians who have dropped out of school has increased dramatically as well as the rate of juvenile delinquency, and there are high incidences of suicide and depression among this community. Also, while marriages between Jews of different backgrounds are very common in Israel, marriages between Ethiopians and non-Ethiopians are not very common. According to a 2009 study, 90% of Ethiopian-Israelis – 93% of men and 85% of women, are married to other Ethiopian-Israelis. A survey found that 57% of Israelis consider a daughter marrying an Ethiopian unacceptable and 39% consider a son marrying an Ethiopian to be unacceptable. Barriers to intermarriage have been attributed to sentiments in both the Ethiopian community and Israeli society generally. A 2011 study showed that only 13% of high school students of Ethiopian origin felt "fully Israeli".
In 1996, an event called the "blood bank affair" took place that demonstrated the discrimination and racism against Ethiopians in Israeli society. Blood banks would not use Ethiopian blood out of the fear of HIV being generated from their blood. Discrimination and racism against Israeli Ethiopians is still perpetuated. In May 2015, Israeli Ethiopians demonstrated in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem against racism, after a video was released, showing an Israeli soldier of Ethiopian descent that was brutally beaten up by the Israeli police. Interviewed students of Ethiopian origin affirm that they do not feel accepted in Israeli society, due to a very strong discrimination towards them. Many scholars such as Ben-Eliezer have been exploring how the discrimination, cultural racism, and exclusion have resulted in metaphorically sending many of the new generation of Ethiopian Jews "back to Africa". They say this because many of the new generation have been reclaiming their traditional Ethiopian names, Ethiopian language, Ethiopian culture, and Ethiopian music.
Many Ethiopian Jews whose ancestors converted to Christianity have been returning to the practice of Judaism. The Israeli government can thus set quotas on their immigration and make citizenship dependent on their conversion to Orthodox Judaism.
The actual term "Falash Mura" has no clear origin. It is believed that the term may come from the Agaw and means "someone who changes their faith."
In the Achefer woreda of the Mirab Gojjam Zone, roughly 1,000–2,000 families of Beta Israel were found. There may be other such regions in Ethiopia with significant Jewish enclaves, which would raise the total population to more than 50,000 people.
On February 16, 2003, the Israeli government applied Resolution 2958 to the Falash Mura, which grants maternal descendants of Beta Israel the right to immigrate to Israel under the Israeli Law of Return and to obtain citizenship if they convert to Judaism.
Early accounts
History
Religion
Aliyah
Society
Terminology
Throughout its history, the community has been referred to by numerous names. According to tradition, the (literally, 'house of Israel' in Ge'ez) community originated in the 4th century CE, when they refused to convert to Christianity during the rule of Abreha and Atsbeha (identified with Se'azana and Ezana), the monarchs of the Kingdom of Aksum who embraced Christianity.James Bruce, Travels To Discover The Source Of The Nile in the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 (in five Volumes), Vol. II, Printed by J. Ruthven for G. G. J. and J. Robinson, 1790, p. 485 This name contrasted with , the term for the church in Ge'ez, literally meaning "house of Christianity".Hagar Salamon, The Hyena People – Ethiopian Jews in Christian Ethiopia, the University of California Press, 1999, p. 21 Since the 1980s, it has also become the official name used in the scholarly and scientific literature to refer to the community.Quirun, The Evolution of the Ethiopian Jews, pp. 11–15; Aešcoly, Book of the Falashas, pp. 1–3; Hagar Salamon, Beta Israel and their Christian neighbors in Ethiopia: Analysis of key concepts at different levels of cultural embodiment, Hebrew University, 1993, pp. 69–77 (Hebrew); Shalva Weil, "Collective Names and Collective Identity of Ethiopian Jews" in Ethiopian Jews in the Limelight, Hebrew University, 1997, pp. 35–48 The term , meaning "Israelites", is also used by the community to refer to its members.
Religion
Haymanot (Ge'ez: ሃይማኖት) is the colloquial term for "faith" which is used as a term for the Judaism by the Beta Israel community,Weil, Shalva. (1989) The Religious Beliefs and Practices of Ethiopian Jews in Israel, 2nd edn, Jerusalem: NCJW Research Institute for Innovation in Education, Hebrew University. (Hebrew) although Ethiopian Orthodox Christians also use it as a term for their own religion.
Texts
(lit. "Holy Scriptures") is the name for the religious literature of the Beta Israel. These texts are written in Geʽez, which is also the liturgical language of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. The holiest book is the Octateuch, known as the [[Orit]] among Ethiopian Jews: the [[Five Books of Moses|Torah]] plus Joshua, Judges and Ruth. The Beta Israel scriptures also include the Book of Lamentations and Book of Jeremiah, which are also found in the Orthodox Tewahedo biblical canon.
Prayer houses
The synagogue is called the masjid (place of worship), it is also called the bet maqdas (Holy house) or the ṣa lot bet (Prayer house).
Dietary laws
Beta Israel kashrut law is based mainly on the books of Leviticus, Deuteronomy, and Jubilees. Leviticus 11:3–8 and Deuteronomy 14:4–8 list permitted and forbidden land animals and their signs. Leviticus 11:13–23 and Deuteronomy 14:12–20 list forbidden birds. Leviticus 11:9–12 and Deuteronomy 14:9–10 list the signs of permitted fish. Insects and larvae are forbidden in Leviticus 11:41–42. Gid hanasheh is forbidden in Genesis 32:33. Mixtures of milk and meat are not prepared or eaten, but benefiting from them is permitted—Haymanot use a literal interpretation of the verses Exodus 23:19, Exodus 34:26, and Deuteronomy 14:21, "shalt not seethe a kid in its mother's milk", similar to Karaite Judaism; whereas, under Rabbinic Judaism, any benefit from mixing dairy products with meat is banned.
Calendar and holidays
The Beta Israel calendar is a lunar calendar of 12 months, each 29 or 30 days alternately. Every four years, there is a leap year which adds a full month (30 days). The calendar is a combination of the ancient calendar of Alexandrian Jewry, Book of Jubilees, Book of Enoch, Abu Shaker, and the Ethiopian calendar.Quirun 1992, p. 71Weil, Shalva 1998 'Festivals and Cyclical Events of the Year', (149–160) and 'Elementary School', (174–177) in John Harrison, Rishona Wolfert and Ruth Levitov (eds) Culture – Differences in the World and in Israel: A Reader in Sociology for Junior High Schools, University of Tel-Aviv: Institute of Social Research and Ministry of Education, PedagogicAdministration. (Hebrew) The years are counted according to the counting of Kushta: "1571 to Jesus Christ, 7071 to the Ancient Egypt, and 6642 to the Hebrews";Aešcoly, Book of the Falashas, p. 56 according to this counting, the year 5771 () in the Hebrew calendar is the year 7082 in this calendar.
Culture
Languages
The Beta Israel once spoke Qwara dialect and Kayla dialect, both of which are Agaw languages. Now, they speak Tigrinya and Amharic, both Semitic languages. Their liturgical language is Geʽez, also Semitic.Weil, Shalva 1987 'An Elegy in Amharic on Dr. Faitlovitch' Pe'amim33: 125–127. (Hebrew) Since the 1950s, they have taught Hebrew language in their schools. Those Beta Israel residing in the State of Israel now use Modern Hebrew as a daily language.
Origins
Oral traditions
Many of Beta Israel's accounts of their own origins state that they stem from the very ancient migration of some portion of the Tribe of Dan to Ethiopia, which was led by the sons of Moses, perhaps at the time of the Exodus. Alternative timelines include the later crises in Judea, e.g., the split of the northern Kingdom of Israel from the southern Kingdom of Judah after the death of King Solomon or the Babylonian Exile.Wolf Leslau, "Introduction", to his Falasha Anthology, Translated from Ethiopic Sources (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1951), p. xliii. Also see Steven Kaplan, "A Brief History of Beta Israel", in The Jews of Ethiopia: A People in Transition (Tel Aviv and New York: Beth Hatefutsoth and The Jewish Museum, 1986), p. 11. Kaplan writes that "Scholars remain divided (about Beta Israel's origins) ... It has been suggested, for example, that the Jews of Ethiopia are descendants of (1) of the Ten Lost Tribes, especially the tribe of Dan; (2) Ethiopian Christians and pagans who assumed a Jewish identity; (3) Jewish immigrants from South Arabia (Yemen) who intermarried with the local population; or (4) Jewish immigrants from Egypt who intermarried with the local population." For more on the Mosaic and Danite claims of traditionalist Beta Israel, see Salo Baron, Social and Religious History of the Jews, Second Edition (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, and New York: Columbia University Press, 1983) Vol. XVIII: p. 373. Other Beta Israel take as their basis the Christian account of Menelik I's return to Ethiopia.Budge, Queen of Sheba, Kebra Negast, §§ 38–64. Menelik is considered the first Solomonic Emperor of Ethiopia, and is traditionally believed to be the son of Solomon of ancient Israel, and Makeda, ancient Queen of Sheba (in modern Ethiopia). Though all the available traditionsWeil, Shalva. 1991 The Changing Religious Tradition of Ethiopian Jews in Israel: a Teachers' Guide, Jerusalem: The Ministry of Education & Culture & NCJW Research Institute for Innovation in Education, Hebrew University. (Hebrew) correspond to recent interpretations, they reflect ancient convictions. According to Jon Abbink, three different versions are to be distinguished among the traditions that were recorded by the priests of the community.Abbink, "The Enigma of Esra'el Ethnogenesis: An Anthro-Historical Study", Cahiers d'Etudes africaines, 120, XXX-4, 1990, pp. 412–420.
Tribe of Dan
One of Beta Israel's origin stories is that they descend from a group of Danite that immigrated after the split of the Kingdom of Israel, through Egypt. To prove the antiquity and authenticity of their claims, the Beta Israel cite the 9th-century CE testimony of Eldad ha-Dani (the Danite).
Rabbinic views
When the 9th-century Jewish traveler Eldad ha-Dani claimed he descended from the tribe of Dan, he also reported 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. Despite some skeptical critics, his authenticity has been generally accepted in current scholarship. His descriptions were consistent and even the originally doubtful rabbis of his time were finally persuaded. Specific details may be uncertain; Steven Kaplan has noted Eldad's lack of detailed reference to Ethiopia's geography and any Ethiopian language, although he claimed the area as his homeland.Steven Kaplan, "Eldad Ha-Dani", in Siegbert von Uhlig, ed., Encyclopaedia Aethiopica: D-Ha (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2005), p. 252. Medieval travelers' accounts typically are vague in such matters, and are not presented as geographical treatises; moreover, Ethiopians, Sudanese, and Somalians do not all know all the tribal languages around them. In earlier times, the different ethnic groups would have been even more insular. In any case, the "Letter of Eldad the Danite" summarized his experiences.
...Lo! The matter is well-known that there are perpetual wars between the kings of Kush, which has three kingdoms; part of which belonging to the Ishmaelites, and part of which to the Christians, and part of which to the Israelites from the tribe of Dan. In all likelihood, they are from the sect of Sadducees and Boethusians, who are now called Karaite Judaism, since they know only a few of the Mitzvah, but are unfamiliar with the Oral Law, nor do they light the Shabbat candles. War ceases not from amongst them, and every day they take captives from one another..., s.v. Part VII, responsum # 9 (first printed in Livorno 1652; reprinted in Israel, n.d.) ()
Companions of Menelik from Jerusalem
According to one account, the Beta Israel originated in the kingdom of Israel and they were the contemporaries rather than the descendants of King Solomon and Menelik.Jankowski, Königin von Saba, 65–71.
Ethiopian national history
The Ethiopian history described in the Kebra Nagast 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) per and . The legend relates that Menelik, as an adult, returned to his father in Jerusalem, and later resettled in Ethiopia. He took with him the Ark of the Covenant. Budge, Queen of Sheba , Kebra Negast, chap. 61.Weil, Shalva. 1989 Beta Israel: A House Divided. Binghamton State University of New York, Binghamton, New York.
Genetics
Several DNA studies have been done on the Beta Israel.
Paternal lineages
According to Cruciani et al. (2002), haplogroup A is the most common paternal lineage among Ethiopian Jews. The clade is carried by around 41% of Beta Israel males and are primarily associated with Nilo-Saharan and Khoisan-speaking populations. However, the A branches carried by Ethiopians Jews are principally of the A-Y23865 variety, which formed about 10,000 years ago and is localized to the Ethiopian highlands and the Arabian peninsula. The difference with some Khoisan is 54,000 years, and with others 125,000 years.
Maternal lineages
A 2011 mitochondrial DNA study focused on maternal ancestry sampling 41 Beta Israel found them to carry 51.2% macro-haplogroup L typically found in Africa. The remainder consisted of Eurasian-origin lineages such as 22% R0, 19.5% M1, 5% W, and 2.5% U. However, no identical haplotypes were shared between the Yemenite and Ethiopian Jewish populations, suggesting very little gene flow between the populations and potentially distinct maternal population histories. The maternal ancestral profile of the Beta Israel is similar to those of highland Ethiopian populations, such as the Amhara people.
Autosomal ancestry
The Ethiopian Jews' Autosome DNA has been examined in a comprehensive study by Tishkoff et al. (2009) on the genetic affiliations of various populations in Africa. According to Bayesian clustering analysis, the Beta Israel generally grouped with other Ethiosemitic and Cushitic-speaking populations inhabiting the Horn of Africa. Also see Supplementary Data.
Scholarly views
Early views
Early secular scholars considered the Beta Israel to be the direct descendants of Jews who lived in ancient Ethiopia, 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.For a discussion of this theory, see Edward Ullendorff, Ethiopia and the Bible (Oxford: University Press for the British Academy, 1968), pp. 16ff, 117. According to Ullendorff, individuals who believed in this origin included President Yitzhak Ben-Zvi of Israel. In 1829, Marcus Louis wrote that the ancestors of the Beta Israel related to the Asmach, which were also called Sembritae ("foreigners"), an Egyptian regiment numbering 240,000 soldiers and mentioned by Greek geographers and historians. The Asmach emigrated or were exiled from Elephantine to Kush in the time of Psamtik I or Psamtik II and settled in Sennar and Ethiopian Empire. It is possible that Shebna's party from Rabbinic accounts was part of the Asmach.Louis Marcus, "Notice sur l'époque de l'établissement des Juifs dans l'Abyssinie", Journal Asiatique, 3, 1829. see also Herodotus, Histories, Book II, Chap. 30; Strabo, Geographica, Book XVI, Chap. 4 and Book XVII, Chap. 1; Pliny the Elder, Natural History, Book VI, Chap. 30
1980s and early 1990s
According to Jacqueline Pirenne, numerous Sabaeans left southern Arabia and crossed over the Red Sea to Ethiopia to escape from the Assyrians, who had devastated the kingdoms of Israel and Judah in the 8th and 7th centuries BCE. She says that a second major wave of Sabeans crossed over to Ethiopia in the 6th and 5th centuries BCE to escape Nebuchadnezzar II, and that this wave also included Jews fleeing from the Babylonian takeover of Judah. In both cases, the Sabeans are assumed to have departed later from Ethiopia to Yemen.Pirenne, "La Grèce et Saba après 32 ans de nouvelles recherches", L'Arabie préislamique et son environnement historique et culturel, Colloquium Univ. of Strasbourg, 1987; cf. Stuart Munro-Hay, Aksum: An African Civilization of Late Antiquity (Edinburgh: University Press, 1991), p. 65.
Recent views
By 1994, modern scholars of Ethiopian history and Ethiopian Jews generally supported one of two conflicting hypotheses for the origin of the Beta Israel, as outlined by Steven Kaplan:Steven Kaplan, On the Changes in the Research of Ethiopian Jewry , Pe'amim 58 (1994), pp. 137–150. (Hebrew)
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History
The earliest recorded mention of the Beta Israel comes from the Royal Chronicle of Emperor Amda Seyon which dates back to the early 14th century AD. According to this source, the Emperor sent troops to pacify the people "like Jews" in the regions of Semien province, Tselemt, Tsegede and Wegara.Steven Kaplan, "Betä Əsraʾel", in Siegbert von Uhlig, ed., Encyclopaedia Aethiopica: A–C (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2003), p. 553.
Immigration to Israel
+ Aliyah from Ethiopia compared to the total Aliyah to IsraelIsraeli Central Bureau of Statistics, Immigrants, by Period of Immigration, Country of Birth and Last Country of Residence from the Statistical Abstract of Israel 2007-No.58
! Years Total Immigration
to Israel687,624 297,138 427,828 267,580 153,833 956,319 181,505 86,855 16,633 16,892 16,557 16,968
Beta Israel Exodus
The emigration of the Beta Israel community to Israel was officially banned by the Communist Derg government of Ethiopia during the 1980s, although it is now known that General Mengistu collaborated with Israel in order to receive money and arms in exchange for granting the Beta Israel safe passage during Operation Moses.
Emigration via Addis Ababa
In April 2019 an estimated 8,000 Falasha were waiting to leave Ethiopia.
On February 25, 2020, 43 Falasah arrived in Israel from Ethiopia.
The Falash Mura's difficulties in immigrating to Israel
In 1991, the Israeli authorities announced that the emigration of the Beta Israel to Israel was about to conclude, because almost all of the community had been evacuated. Nevertheless, thousands of other Ethiopians began leaving the northern region to take refuge in the government controlled capital, Addis Ababa, who were Jewish converts to Christianity and asking to immigrate to Israel. As a result, a new term arose which was used to refer to this group: "Falash Mura". The Falash Mura, who weren't part of the Beta Israel communities in Ethiopia, were not recognized as Jews by the Israeli authorities, and were therefore not initially allowed to immigrate to Israel, making them ineligible for Israeli citizenship under Israel's Law of Return.
Population
Ethiopian Jews in Israel
The Ethiopian Beta Israel community in Israel today comprises more than 159,500 people. They are a little more than 1 percent of the Israeli population. Most of this population are the descendants and the immigrants who came to Israel during Operation Moses (1984) and Operation Solomon (1991).Weil, Shalva 2004 Saving the Lost Tribe: The Rescue and Redemption of the Ethiopian Jews by Asher Naim, reviewed in Studies in Contemporary Jewry, An Annual, New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press 20: 385–87. Civil war and famine in Ethiopia prompted the Israeli government to mount these dramatic rescue operations. The rescues were within the context of Israel's national mission to gather diaspora Jews and bring them to the Jewish homeland. Some immigration has continued up until the present day. Today 81,000 Ethiopian Israelis were born in Ethiopia, while 38,500 or 32% of the community are native born Israelis.
Converts
Falash Mura
Falash Mura is the name given to those of the Beta Israel community in Ethiopia who converted to Christianity under pressure from Christian missionaries during the 19th century and the 20th century. This term consists of 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.
Beta Abraham
Slaves
Slavery was practiced in Ethiopia as in much of Africa until it was formally abolished in 1942. After the slave was bought by a Jew, he went through conversion ( giyur), and became property of his master.Hagar Salamon, "Reflections of Ethiopian Cultural Patterns on the Beta Israel Absorption in Israel: The "Barya" case" in Steven Kaplan, Tudor Parfitt & Emnuela Trevisan Semi (Editors), Between Africa and Zion: Proceedings of the First International Congress of the Society for the Study of Ethiopian Jewry, Ben-Zvi Institute, 1995, , pp. 126–27
In popular culture
Monuments
National memorials to the Ethiopian Jews who died on their way to Israel are located in Kiryat Gat, and at the National Civil Cemetery of the State of Israel in Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.
Ethiopian Heritage Museum
In 2009, plans to establish an Ethiopian Heritage Museum dedicated to the heritage and culture of the Ethiopian Jewish community were unveiled in Rehovot. The museum will include a model of an Ethiopian village, an artificial stream, a garden, classrooms, an amphitheater, and a memorial to Ethiopian Zionist activists and Ethiopian Jews who died en route to Israel.
Café Shahor Hazak
Strong Black Coffee (" Café Shahor Hazak"; קפה שחור חזק) is an Ethiopian-Israeli hip hop duo. The duo were a nominee for the 2015 MTV Europe Music Awards Best Israeli Act award.
Falash Mura
Terminology
The original term that the Beta Israel gave to the converts was "Faras Muqra" ("horse of the raven") in which the word "horse" refers to the converts and the word "raven" refers to the missionary Martin Flad who used to wear black clothes.Gerrit Jan Abbink (1984). 9789090008202, Institute for Cultural and Social Anthropology. . ISBN 9789090008202 Can also be found
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> here and archived
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> here. This term derived the additional names Falas Muqra, Faras Mura and Falas Mura. In Hebrew the term "Falash Mura" (or "Falashmura") is probably a result of confusion over the use of the term "Faras Muqra" and its derivatives and on the basis of false cognate it was given the Hebrew meaning Falashim Mumarim ("converted Falashas").
History
In 1860, Henry Aaron Stern, a Jewish convert to Christianity, traveled to Ethiopia in an attempt to convert the Beta Israel community to Christianity.
Conversion to Christianity
For years, Ethiopian Jews were unable to own land and were often persecuted by the Christian majority of Ethiopia. Ethiopian Jews were afraid to touch non-Jews because they believed non-Jews were not pure. They were also ostracized by their Christian neighbors. For this reason, many Ethiopian Jews converted to Christianity to seek a better life in Ethiopia. The Jewish Agency's Ethiopia emissary, Asher Seyum, says the Falash Mura "converted in the 19th and 20th century, when Jewish relations with Christian rulers soured. Regardless, many kept ties with their Jewish brethren and were never fully accepted into the Christian communities. When word spread about the aliyah, many thousands of Falash Mura left their villages for Gondar and Addis Ababa, assuming they counted."
Return to Judaism
The Falash Mura did not refer to themselves as members of the Beta Israel, the name for the Ethiopian Jewish community, until after the first wave of immigration to Israel. Beta Israel by ancestry, the Falash Mura believe they have just as much of a right to return to Israel as the Beta Israel themselves. Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef, a major player in the first wave of Beta Israel immigration to Israel, declared in 2002 that the Falash Mura had converted out of fear and persecution and therefore should be considered Jews.
Aliyah to Israel
Today, Falash Mura who move to Israel must undergo conversion on arrival, making it increasingly more difficult for them to get situated into Israeli society. The Beta Israel who immigrated and made Aliyah through Operation Moses and Operation Solomon were not required to undergo conversion because they were accepted as Jews under the Law of Return.
Controversy
Today, both Israeli and Ethiopian groups dispute the Falash Mura's religious and political status. The Israeli government fears that these people are just using Judaism as an excuse to leave Ethiopia in efforts to improve their lives in a new country. Right-wing member of the Israeli Knesset Bezalel Smotrich was quoted saying, "This practice will develop into a demand to bring more and more family members not included in the Law of Return. It will open the door to an endless extension of a family chain from all over the world," he wrote, according to Kan. "How can the state explain in the High Court the distinction it makes between the Falashmura and the rest of the world?" Although the government has threatened to stop all efforts to bring these people to Israel, they have still continued to address the issue. In 2018, the Israeli government allowed 1,000 Falash Mura to immigrate to Israel. However, members of the Ethiopian community say the process for immigration approval is poorly executed and inaccurate, dividing families. At least 80 percent of the tribe members in Ethiopia say they have first-degree relatives living in Israel, and some have been waiting for 20 years to immigrate.
Notable Beta Israelis
Pre-20th century
20th century – present
Academia
Arts and entertainment
Fashion and modeling
Journalism
Military and security
Politics
Sports
Religion
Affiliated groups
See also
Notes
Further reading
General
Other reading
External links
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