Beta Israel are also called Ethiopian Jews. Beta Israel is a Jewish society or community that developed and resided for several years in the region of the Aksum Empire and the Ethiopian Empire, which is now divided between the present-day Tigray and Amhara regions of Ethiopia. Most of society emigrated to Israel in the late 20th century. Beta Israel resided in Ethiopia in the Northern and Northwestern regions, in more than 450 small villages spread over a vast territory, with populations that were Muslim and mainly Christian. Beta Israel was concentrated primarily on present-day North Gondar Zone, Shire Inda Selassie, Wolqayit, Dembia, Tselemti, Segelt, Quara, and Belesa.
They practiced Haymanot religious practices, which people acknowledge as the Israelite faith that differs from Rabbinic Judaism. Beta Israel appears to have been far away from mainstream Jewish societies or communities for a millennium. They suffered persecutions, and a significant portion of the community unwillingly converted to Christianity during the 19th century and the 20th century. Those who converted were called the Falash Mura. People consider the Beta Abraham Christian community to have historical connections or links to Beta Israel.
Beta Israel made contact with Jewish societies in the later 20th century. Following this, a rabbinic discussion ensued over whether or not the Ethiopian Jews or Beta Israel were Jews. After constitutional discussions and halakhic, Israeli officials decided that the Israeli Law of Return was to target or apply to Beta Israel. The American authorities and Israeli government mounted Aliyah transport operations. These activities included Operation Brothers in Sudan between 1979-1990 and in the 1990s from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital city.
By the end of 2008, over 100000 people of Ethiopian descent in Israel, including over 80000 people born in Ethiopia and 38500 native-born Israelis with one parent born in Ethiopia or Eritrea. The Ethiopian Jewish community in Israel comprises Beta Israel and, to a smaller extent of Falash Mura.
The Religion of Beta Israel
Haymanot is the term for the faith that people use in the Jewish religion in the community. The Ethiopian Orthodox Christians also use it for their religion.
Mashafa Kedus is the name for their religious works or literature. The script or writing language is Ge’ez, which is also the Ethiopian Orthodox Church’s liturgical language. The most sacred book is the Orit, which comprises the Octateuch: 5 Books of Moses with Judges, Ruth, and Joshua. The rest of the holy book, the Bible, has secondary significance. They are the Book of Lamentations from the canon and a section of the Book of Jeremiah. Deuterocanonical books that also compose the canon are Judith, Sirach, Esdras, Megabyan, Jubilees, Baruch, Tobit, Enoch, and the testaments of Isaac, Jacob, and Abraham.
Essential non-Biblical writings include The Conversation of Moses, Death of Aharon, Death of Moses, Precepts of Sabbath, Students, Book of Horus, Father Elijah, Book of Angels, Book of Priest, and Homily on Abraham and Sarah in Egypt. Others are The Acts of Susanna and In the Beginning, God Created. Zena Ayhud and Falasfa are two books that are not sacred but have had significant influence.
Under a subtopic on prayer house, Beta Israel’s synagogue is called masjid or bet maqdas.
Dietary Laws
Beta Israel Kashrut law is based primarily on the books of Deuteronomy, Jubilees, and Leviticus. Forbidden and permitted animals and their signs appear in Leviticus 11 verse 3-8 and Deuteronomy 14 verse 4-8. Forbidden birds are in Leviticus 11 (13-23) and Deuteronomy 14 (12-20). The permitted fish signs are on Leviticus 11 verse 9-12 and Deuteronomy 14: 9 to 10. The Supreme being has forbidden the eating of insects and larvae in Leviticus 11 verse 41 to 42. The Ethiopian Jews should not eat or consume the food of non-jews. A Kahen consumes only the meat he has slaughtered himself, which his hosts prepare for themselves and him. The community ostracized or excluded the Beta Israel, who broke the taboos and had to go through a purification process. Purification included fasting for a day or several days, consuming only uncooked chickpeas that the Kahen provided, and ritual purification before going into the village. Unlike other Ethiopians, Beta Israel don’t consume raw meat dishes such as gored or kitfo.
The Calendar and Holidays of Beta Israel
The Beta Israel calendar is a lunar calendar of more than ten months, each 30 or 29 days alternatively. Every four years, there’s a leap year, which adds a full month of 30 days. The calendar is a mixture or a combination of the old calendar of Alexandrian Jewry, Book of Enoch, Book of Jubilees, Abu Shaker, and the Ge’ez calendar. According to the counting of Kushta: 1571 to Jesus Christ, people count the years, 7071 to the Gyptians and 6642 to the Hebrews. According to this, counting the year 5771 in the Rabbinical Hebrew calendar is 7082 in this calendar.
Holidays in the Haymanot are divided into monthly, daily, and annually. Monthly holidays are primarily memorial days to the yearly holiday. These are new moon festival on the 1st day of every month, asart on the 10th day to celebrate Yom Kippur, twelve on the 12th day to commemorate Shavuot, asra ammest on the 15th day to commemorate or celebrate Sukkot and Passover and soma maleya, a fast on the last day of each month. Daily holidays include the Monday fast, Thursday fast, Friday fast, and the Sabbath.
The Culture of Beta Israel (Languages)
Beta Israel once spoke Kayla and Qwara, both of which are Agaw languages. Now, they speak Amharic and Tigrinya. Both are Semitic languages. Ge’ez is their liturgical language. Ge’ez is also Semitic. Since the 1950s, they have taught Hebrew in their learning institutions or schools. Beta Israel living or residing in the State of Israel today use Modern Hebrew as a daily language.
The Origins of Beta Israel (According to Oral Traditions)
Most of Beta Israel’s accounts of their origins stress or emphasize that they stem from the ancient migration of some part of the Tribe of Dan to Ethiopia, perhaps at the Exodus time. Other timelines include perhaps the later crisis in Judea. For example, at the period or time of the split of the Northern Empire of Israel from the southern Empire of Judah after King Solomon’s demise or at the period of the Babylonian Exile. Other Beta Israel take their origins as the Christian record of Menelik’s return to the Ethiopian land. Historical records consider Menelik as the 1st Solomonic Emperor of Ethiopia. There is a traditional belief that he was King Solomon’s son of ancient Israel and the ancient Queen of Sheba, also called Queen Makeda.
About the Ethiopian Jews in Israel
The Ethiopian Beta Israel society in Israel today consists of over 120150 people. This is over 1% of the Israeli population. Most of this population are the immigrants and the descendants who came to Israel in 1984 and 1991. Famine and civil war in Ethiopia prompted the Israeli authority to mount the rescue operations. The rescues were within the context of Israel’s national mission to collect Diaspora Jews and bring them to the Jewish motherland.
Over time, the Ethiopian Jews in Israel left the government-owned mobile home camps that they initially resided and settled in several towns and cities throughout Israel, with the Israeli government’s encouragement to grant new immigrants loans or mortgages.
Like other immigrant Jews’ groups who made Aliyah to Israel, the Ethiopian Jews have had to overcome challenges or obstacles to integrating into Israeli society. At first, the main barriers that the Ethiopian Jewish community faced in Israel arose from communication barriers and discrimination, including manifestations of racism acts. Unlike Russian immigrants, the Ethiopian immigrants came from an impoverished country.
Over the years, there has been progress in the integration of Beta Israel into the Israeli community, mainly resulting from serving in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). This has resulted in an increase in opportunities for Ethiopian Jews after they come from the army. Despite the progress, the Israeli community has not integrated the Ethiopian Jews well into the Israeli-Jewish society. They remain on a lower educational and economic level than average or ordinary Israelis. The rate of Ethiopians who have left school and juvenile delinquency has surged. There are also high cases of suicide and depression among the Ethiopian community.
In 1996, an event known as the blood bank affair occurred and demonstrated the discrimination and racism against the Ethiopian community in Israeli society. Blood banks wouldn’t use Ethiopian blood out of the fear of HIV from their blood. Several people in Israeli society continue with racism and discrimination acts against Ethiopians. In 2015, Israeli Ethiopians showed in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem against racism after a film was out, showing Israeli police brutally beating up an Israeli soldier of Ethiopian descent.
Some interviewed students of Ethiopian roots affirm that they do not feel being part of the Israeli society because of discrimination towards them. Several scholars such as Ben-Eliezer have been researching or exploring how cultural racism, discrimination, and exclusion have led to metaphorically sending most of the new generation of Ethiopian Jews back to the African continent. They say this because many new generations have been repossessing their customary Ethiopian names, Ethiopian culture, Ethiopian music, and Ethiopian language.
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