Beta Israel

Beta Israel, or Ethiopian Jews, is a Jewish diaspora group that lived for thousands of years in the territory of the Kingdom of Aksum and its successor the Ethiopian Empire, which is currently divided between the Amhara Region and Tigray Region in modern-day Ethiopia. After the founding of the State of Israel in 1948, most of the Beta Israel immigrated there or were evacuated through several initiatives by the Israeli government. Historically, Beta Israel lived in northern and northwestern Ethiopia, where they were spread out across more than 500 small villages over a wide territory, alongside predominantly Christian and Muslim populations. Most of them were concentrated mainly in what is today North Gondar Zone, Shire Inda Selassie, Wolqayit, Tselemti, Dembia, Segelt, Quara, and Belesa.
Beta Israel appeared to have been isolated from the more mainstream Jewish communities for at least a millennium, and they practiced a non-Talmudic form of Judaism that is similar in some respects to Karaite Judaism. The religious practices of Israeli Beta Israel are referred to as Haymanot. Having suffered persecution in Ethiopia, a significant portion of the Beta Israel community was forced into Christianity during the 19th and 20th centuries; those who converted to Christianity then came to be known as the Falash Mura. The larger Christian Beta Abraham community is considered to be a crypto-Jewish offshoot of the Beta Israel community.
The Beta Israel first made extensive contact with other Jewish communities in the late 20th century, after which a comprehensive rabbinic debate ensued over their Jewishness. Following halakhic 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. 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.
By the end of 2008, there were 119,300 Ethiopian Jews 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). 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), and to a smaller extent, of Falash Mura who left Christianity and began practicing Rabbinic Judaism upon their arrival to Israel.
Throughout its history, the community has been referred to by numerous names. According to tradition, the Beta Israel (literally, 'house of Israel' in Ge'ez) community had their origins 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. This name contrasted with Beta Kristiyan, the term for the church in Ge'ez, literally meaning "house of Christianity". Since the 1980s, it has also become the official name used in the scholarly and scientific literature to refer to the community. The term Esra'elawi, meaning "Israelites", is also used by the community to refer to its members.
The name Ayhud (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 Ibrawi (lit. "Hebrew") was used to refer to the chawa (lit. "free man") in the community, in contrast to the barya (lit. "slave"). The term Oritawi (lit. "Torah-true") was also used to refer to the Beta Israel; since the 19th century, it has been used in contrast to the term Falash Mura (converts).
The colloquial Ethiopian/Eritrean term Falasha or Felasha, 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 the Beta Israel, although it is considered derogatory, as it associated the community with the Agaw people of the Zagwe dynasty, who largely practice traditional African religion.
Haymanot (Ge'ez: ሃይማኖት) is the colloquial term for "faith" which is used as a term for the Jewish religion by the Beta Israel community, although Ethiopian Orthodox Christians also use it as a term for their own religion.
Mäṣḥafä Kedus (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 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.
Deuterocanonical books that also make up part of the Beta Israel canon are the Book of Sirach, Book of Judith, Esdras 1 and 2, the Books of Meqabyan, Book of 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").
The synagogue is called the masgid (place of worship), it is also called the bet maqdas (Holy house) or the ṣa lot bet (Prayer house).
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.
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, the Beta Israel do not eat raw meat dishes such as kitfo or gored gored.
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. The years are counted according to the counting of Kushta: "1571 to Jesus Christ, 7071 to the Gyptians, and 6642 to the Hebrews"; according to this counting, the year 5771 (Hebrew: ה'תשע"א) in the Rabbinical Hebrew calendar is the year 7082 in this calendar.
Beta Israel holidays include ba'āl lisan (New Year in Nissan), fāsikā (Passover), mã'rar (Shavuot, lit. "harvest"), 'āl Matqe (Rosh Hashana, lit. "blowing holiday", compare zikhron teru'ah in Hebrew), astasreyo (Yom Kippur), and ba'āla maṣallat (Sukkot, lit. "tabernacles holiday"). Other holidays unique to Beta Israel include ṣomä mã'rar (a fast before Shavuot, lit. "harvest fast"), the fourth sabbath of the fifth month, and an additional ṣomä mã'rar and mã'rar in Kislev. The most notable of the holidays unique to Beta Israel is Sigd, or měhlělla (lit. "supplication"), celebrated on the 29th day of Cheshvan, and recognized as an official state holiday in Israel since 2009. 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—awd amet (lit. "year rotate") on the 1st, ṣomä lul (lit. "Elul fast") between the 1st–9th, anākel astar'i (lit. "our atonement") on the 10th, and asartu wasamantu (lit. "eighteenth") on the 28th. The fast in Tammuz (ṣomä tomos), the fast for Tisha B'Av (ṣomä ab), the fast in Tevet (ṣomä tibt), and the Fast of Esther (ṣomä astēr) are multi-day fasts while they are only one day in rabbinical Jewish tradition.
The first of each month is celebrated as yačaraqā ba'āl (lit. "new moon festival") (compare Rosh Chodesh), and the last of each month is a fast called ṣomä mälěya (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, asrã hulat (lit. "twelve") for commemorate Shavuot, and asrã ammest (lit. "fifteen") for Passover and Sukkot.
Shabbat is called Sanbat. There are also weekly fasts on Monday (ṣomä säňňo), Thursday (ṣomä amus), and Friday (ṣomä 'arb).
The Beta Israel once spoke Qwara and Kayla, both of which are Agaw languages. Now, they speak Tigrinya and Amharic, both Semitic languages. Their liturgical language is Geʽez, also Semitic. Since the 1950s, they have taught Hebrew in their schools. Those Beta Israel residing in the State of Israel now use Modern Hebrew as a daily language.
Many of the 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, were 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. Other Beta Israel take as their basis the Christian account of Menelik's return to Ethiopia. Menelik is considered the first Solomonic Emperor of Ethiopia, and is traditionally believed to be the son of King Solomon of ancient Israel, and Makeda, ancient Queen of Sheba (in modern Ethiopia). Though all the available traditions correspond to recent interpretations, they reflect ancient convictions. According to Jon Abbink, three different versions are to be distinguished among the traditions which were recorded by the priests of the community.
One of the 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).
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 own people, which helped persuade rabbinic authorities of the day of the validity of his practices, even if they differed from their own traditional teachings. 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 say this confirms that they are descended from these Danites.
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. 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. The Mosaic claims of the Beta Israel, in any case, like those of the Zagwe dynasty, are ancient.
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.
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.
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 Rabbanites 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 own Jewish behaviour, a number of Jewish legal authorities, in previous centuries and in modern times, have ruled halakhically (according to Jewish legal code) that the Beta Israel are indeed Jews, the descendants of the tribe of Dan, one of the Ten Lost Tribes. 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 responsum 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 poskim (religious law authorities) from non-Zionist Ashkenazi circles placed a safek (legal doubt) over the Jewish peoplehood of the 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 undoubtably Jewish after immersing themselves. Similar doubts were raised within the same circles towards the Bene Israel and to Russian immigrants to Israel during the 1990s Post-Soviet aliyah.
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). Avraham Shapira later waived the hatafat dam brit was unnecessary as they were already circumised. More recently, 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 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.
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.
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 1 Kings 10:1–13 and 2 Chronicles 9:1–12. 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.
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). 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 2 Kings 19:15.
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 southerner or a usurping Christian Aksumite Queen. 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 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 Israel believe that they are descended from the tribe of Dan, and most reject the "Solomonic" and "Queen of Sheba" legends of the Aksumites.
A number of DNA studies have been done on the Beta Israel.
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 is 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.
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-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 Ethio-Semitic 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 Levantine origin. Altogether, this suggests that Ethiopian Jews have diverse patrilineages indicative of indigenous Northeast African, not Middle Eastern, origin.
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.
The Ethiopian Jews' autosomal 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 Ethio-Semitic and Cushitic-speaking populations inhabiting the Horn of Africa.
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 Ethio-Semitic-speaking Amhara and Tigrayans rather than the Cushitic-speakers.
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.
According to a 2020 study by Agranat-Tamir et al., the DNA of the Ethiopian Jews is mostly of East African origin, but about 20% of their genetic makeup is of Middle Eastern Semitic people origin and shows similarity to modern Jewish and Arab populations and Bronze Age Canaanites.
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. 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 Abyssinia. It is possible that Shebna's party from Rabbinic accounts was part of the Asmach.
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, 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. 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 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.
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.
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."
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:
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.
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, Tselemt, Tsegede and Wegara.
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 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.
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.
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.
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. 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. 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.
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). 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.
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. 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. Unlike Russian immigrants, many of whom arrived educated and skilled, Ethiopian immigrants 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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. 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").
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 1860, Henry Aaron Stern, a Jewish convert to Christianity, traveled to Ethiopia in an attempt to convert the Beta Israel community 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."
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.