History of the Jews in Ethiopia
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The history of the Jews in Ethiopia refers to people in
Historical
Early history (325– 1270)
According to the Beta Israel tradition, the legendary Kingdom of Beta Israel, later called the Kingdom of Simien, was initially established after
According to Ethiopian legend, a Jewish Queen
According to Jewish traveler, Eldad ha-Dani, the Tribe of Dan established their own kingdom in Ethiopia, "They went by way of Egypt further down the upper Nile River and settled in Ethiopia, in East Africa. The Danites were great warriors, and after fighting many battles against native tribes, they established themselves securely, with a kingdom of their own." Marco Polo and Benjamin of Tudela also mention the existence of an Ethiopian Jewish community.[3]
Christian dominance (1270–1855)
The earliest recorded mention of the Beta Israel comes from the Royal Chronicle of Emperor
According to both Ethiopian written accounts and Beta Israel oral tradition, Emperor Yeshaq (1414–1429) began to exert religious pressure on the Beta Israel which sparked a revolt.[6] Following the defeat of the rebellion, Yeshaq divided the territories of the Jews into three provinces, which were controlled by commissioners appointed by him. He reduced the Jews' social status below that of Christians[5] and forced the Jews to convert or lose their land. It would be given away as rist, a type of land qualification that rendered it forever inheritable by the recipient and not transferable by the Emperor. Yeshaq decreed, "He who is baptized in the Christian religion may inherit the land of his father, otherwise let him be a Falāsī." This may have been the origin for the term "Falasha" (falāšā, "wanderer", or "landless person").[5] This term is considered derogatory to Ethiopian Jews.
In 1435,
In the mid 15th century, Ethiopian missionaries began to carry out evangelization efforts in Seimen and Tselemt. Later on, the Beta Israel revolted against the Emperor Zara Yaqob (1434–1468) in the region of Seimen, this revolt was put down ruthlessly and many Ethiopian Jews in Seimen were massacred. The chronicler documenting the reign of Zara Yaqob even goes so far as to proudly bestow upon the Emperor the title "Exterminator of the Jews".[5]
In the 16th century, the Chief Rabbi of Egypt, David ben Solomon ibn Abi Zimra (also called Radbaz, ca.1479-1573), proclaimed that in terms of halakha the Ethiopian Beta Israel community are ethnically Jewish.[8]
The Beta Israel is later mentioned in the Futuh al-Habasa, the history of the conquests of Imam Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi. According to this source, Emperor Dawit II took refuge in a royal stronghold of Bahr Amba on the Simien Mountains, while besieging the stronghold, the Imam came across the Jews of Simien. The chronicler describes the encounter between the Imam and the Beta Israel:
Jewish Abyssinians (once) controlled the district of
Semien. They are called, in their own language, Falasa, because they chant the praise of the One God and have faith in none other. They have no Prophet and no saint. For forty years the people of Bahr Amba had enslaved them and put them to work as servants. They tilled the fields for them. After the imam had won the victory over the patrician Sa'ul, all the Falasa came from deep valleys and even from mountain caves - because they did not dwell in the lowlands, but in the mountains and in caves. They said to the imam "For forty years there has been hatred between us and the people of Bahr Amba. Let us kill them now, those who are left. And let us occupy their strongholds now that you have conquered them. We will be sufficient to do this to them. So, remain in your camp, and what we will do to them will astonish you."[9]
After the death of
During the reign (1563–1597) of Emperor
The Ethiopian forces continued to pacify the Jews, culminating in the capture and execution of the Jewish rebel leader, Goshen. Following his death, many of the Beta Israel committed mass suicide.[12]In 1614 ,the Jews of Seimen rebelled against the Emperor Susenyos I. By 1624, the revolt had been quelled, and the conclusive defeat of a subsequent uprising the following year marked the end of the political autonomy of the Beta Israel.[10]
Gondar period (1632–1855)
After the Beta Israel autonomy in Ethiopia ended in the 1620s, Emperor Susenyos I confiscated their lands and forcibly baptized others.[10] In addition, the practice of any form of Jewish religion was forbidden in Ethiopia. As a result of this period of oppression, much traditional Jewish culture and practice was lost or changed.
Nonetheless, the Beta Israel community appears to have continued to flourish during this period. The capital of Ethiopia,
There were Jews in Ethiopia from the first. Some of them were converted to the law of Christ Our Lord; others persisted in their blindness and formerly possessed many wide territories, almost the whole Kingdom of Dambea and the provinces of Ogara and Seman. This was when the [Christian] empire was much larger, but since the [pagan and Muslim] Gallas have been pressing in upon them [from the east and south], the Emperors have pressed in upon them [i. e., the Jews to the west?] much more and took Dambea and Ogara from them by force of arms many years ago. In Seman, however, they defended themselves with great determination, helped by the position and the ruggedness of their mountains. Many rebels ran away and joined them till the present Emperor Setan Sequed [throne name of Susneyos], who in his 9th year fought and conquered the King Gideon and in his 19th year attacked Samen and killed Gideon. ... The majority and the flower of them were killed in various attacks and the remainder surrendered or dispersed in different directions. Many of them received holy baptism, but nearly all were still as much Jews as they had been before. There are many of the latter in Dambea and in various regions; they live by weaving cloth and by making zargunchos [spears], ploughs and other iron articles, for they are great smiths. Between the Emperor’s kingdoms and the Cafres [Negroes] who live next to the Nile outside imperial territory, mingled together with each other are many more of these Jews who are called Falashas here. The Falashas or Jews are ... of [Arabic] race [and speak] Hebrew, though it is very corrupt. They have their Hebrew Bibles and sing the psalms in their synagogues.[13]
The isolation of the Beta Israel community in Ethiopia was also reported by the Scottish explorer James Bruce who visited Gondar in the 18th century: "The only copy of the Old Testament, which they have, is the translation in Geez, the same made use of by the Abyssinian Christians, who are the only scribes, and sell these copies to the Falasha Jews; and no controversy, or dispute about the text, has ever yet arisen between the professors of the two religions. They have no Ketubah, or various readings; they have never heard of Talmud, Targum, or Cabala; neither have they any fringes or ribband upon their garments; nor is there, as far as I could learn, one scribe among them."[14]
The Beta Israel lost their relative economic advantage in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, during the
16th-century rabbinic view
Rabbi
...Lo! the matter is well-known that there are perpetual wars between the
Oral Law, nor do they light the Sabbath candle. War ceases not from amongst them, and every day they take captives from one another...[16]
In the same
Modern history
The contemporary history of the Beta Israel community begins with the reunification of Ethiopia in the mid-19th century during the reign of Tewodros II. At that time, the Beta Israel population was estimated at between 200,000 and 350,000 people.[17]
Christian missions and the Rabbinical reformation
Despite occasional contacts in an earlier stage, the West only became well-aware of the existence of the Beta Israel community when they came in contact through the Protestant missionaries of the "London Society for Promoting Christianity Amongst the Jews" which specialized in the conversion of Jews.[18] The organization began its operating in Ethiopia in 1859. The Protestant missionaries, who worked under the direction of a converted Jew named Henry Aaron Stern, converted many of the Beta Israel community to Christianity. Between 1859 and 1922, about 2,000 Beta Israel members converted to Ethiopian Christianity (they did not convert to Protestantism due to an agreement the Protestant missionaries had with the government of Ethiopia). The relatively low number of conversions is partly explained by the strong reaction to the conversions from religious leadership of the Beta Israel community[citation needed]. The Beta Israel members who were converted to Christianity are known today as "Falash Mura".
The Protestant missionaries' activities in Ethiopia provoked European Jewry. As a result, several European rabbis proclaimed that they recognized the Jewishness of the Beta Israel community, and eventually in 1868 the organization "Alliance Israélite Universelle" decided to send the Jewish-French Orientalist Joseph Halévy to Ethiopia in order to study the conditions of the Ethiopian Jews. Upon his return to Europe, Halévy made a very favorable report of the Beta Israel community in which he called for world Jewish community to save the Ethiopian Jews, to establish Jewish schools in Ethiopia, and even suggested to bring thousands of Beta Israel members to settle in Ottoman Syria (a dozen years before the actual establishment of the first Zionist organization).
Nevertheless, after a brief period in which the media coverage generated a great interest in the Beta Israel community, the interest among the Jewish communities worldwide declined. This happened mainly because serious doubts still remained about the Jewishness of the Beta Israel community, and because the Alliance Israélite Universelle organization did not comply with Halévy's recommendations[citation needed].
Between 1888 and 1892, northern Ethiopia experienced a devastating famine. The famine was caused by rinderpest that killed the majority of all cattle (see 1890s African rinderpest epizootic). Conditions worsened with cholera outbreaks (1889–1892), a typhus epidemic, and a major smallpox epidemic (1889–1890).
About one-third of the Ethiopian population died during that period.[19][20] It is estimated that between a half to two-thirds of the Beta Israel community died during that period.
The myth of the
Following his visit in Ethiopia, Faitlovitch created an international committee for the Beta Israel community, popularized the awareness of their existence through his book Notes de voyage chez les Falashas (1905),[27] and raised funds to enable the establishment of schools in their villages.
In 1908, the chief rabbis of 45 countries made a joint statement officially declaring that Ethiopian Jews were indeed Jewish.[28]
The Jewishness of the Beta Israel community became openly supported amongst the majority of the European Jewish communities during the early 20th century.
In 1921,
The Italian period, World War II and the post war period
In 1935, armed forces of the
The Italian regime showed hostility towards the Jews of Ethiopia. The racial laws which were enacted in Italy were also applied to Italian East Africa. Mussolini attempted to reach an agreement with Britain which would recognize Italian East Africa, during which Mussolini proposed to solve the "
When the
Early illegal emigration and the official Israeli recognition
Between the years 1965 and 1975, a relatively small group of Ethiopian Jews immigrated to Israel. The Beta Israel immigrants in that period were mainly a very few men who had studied and come to Israel on a tourist visa, and then remained in the country illegally.
Some supporters in Israel who recognized their Jewishness decided to assist them. These supporters began organizing associations, including one under the direction of Ovadia Hazzi, a Yemeni Jew and former sergeant in the Israeli army who married a wife from the Beta Israel community after the
In 1973, Ovadia Hazzi officially raised the question of the Jewishness of the Beta Israel to the Israeli Sephardi rabbi Ovadia Yosef. The rabbi, who cited a rabbinic ruling from the 16th century Radbaz and asserted that the Beta Israel are descended from the lost tribe of Dan, acknowledged their Jewishness in February 1973. This ruling was initially rejected by the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren, who eventually changed his opinion on the matter in 1974.
In April 1975, the Israeli government of Yitzhak Rabin officially accepted the Beta Israel as Jews, for the purpose of the Law of Return (an Israeli act that grants all the Jews in the world the right to immigrate to Israel).
Later on, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin obtained clear rulings from Ovadia Yosef that they were descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes. The Chief Rabbinate of Israel did, however, initially require them to undergo pro forma Jewish conversions, to remove any doubt as to their Jewish status.
Ethiopian Civil War
After a period of civil unrest, on September 12, 1974, a pro-communist military
As a result, the new regime gradually began to embrace anti-religious and anti-Israeli positions, as well as showing hostility towards the Jews of Ethiopia.[citation needed]
Towards the mid-1980s, Ethiopia underwent a
Concern for the fate of the Ethiopian Jews and fear for their well-being contributed eventually to the Israeli government's official recognition of the Beta Israel community as Jews in 1975, for the purpose of the Law of Return. Civil war in Ethiopia prompted the Israeli government to airlift most of the Beta Israel population in Ethiopia to Israel in several covert military rescue operations which took place from the 1980s until the early 1990s.
Ethiopia–Israel relations
Ethiopia has an embassy in Tel Aviv; the ambassador is also accredited to the Holy See, Greece and Cyprus. Israel has an embassy in Addis Ababa; the ambassador is also accredited to Rwanda and Burundi. Israel has been one of Ethiopia's most reliable suppliers of military assistance, supporting different Ethiopian governments during the Eritrean War of Independence.
In 2012, an Ethiopian-born Israeli, Belaynesh Zevadia, was appointed Israeli ambassador to Ethiopia.[36]
During the
In the early 1960s, Israel started helping the Ethiopian government in its campaigns against the
Ethiopian Prime Minister
Emigration to Israel
See also
References
- ^ Kaplan, The Beta Israel, p. 408
- ^ Kaplan, The Beta Israel, p. 500
- ^ Fauvelle-Aymar 2013, p. 383.
- ^ Pankhurst, Borderlands, p. 79.
- ^ a b c d Steven Kaplan, "Betä Əsraʾel", in Siegbert von Uhlig, ed., Encyclopaedia Aethiopica: A–C (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2003), p. 553.
- ^ Kaplan 2007, p. 501.
- ^ "אגרות ארץ ישראל - יערי, אברהם, 1899-1966 ("Eretz Yisrael - Yaari, Abraham, 1899-1966")". hebrewbooks.org. Tel-Aviv. 1943. p. 88 of 565.
- ^ Mitchell Geoffrey Bard, From tragedy to triumph: the politics behind the rescue of Ethiopian Jewry, p. 19.
- ISBN 9780972317269.
- ^ a b c d e f Kaplan, "Betä Əsraʾel", Aethiopica, p. 554.
- ^ "The Oromo of Ethiopia 1500-1800" (PDF).
- ^ Weil, Shalva 2005 'Gweshan', in Siegbert Uhlig (ed.) Encyclopedia Aethiopica, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2: 940.
- ^ History of High Ethiopia or Abassia, trans. and ed. C.F. Beckingham and G.W.B. Huntingford, London: Hakluyt Society, 1954, pp. 54–55
- ^ James Bruce, Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile, p. 409.
- ^ Samuel Gobat, Journal of Three years' Residence in Abyssinia, 1851 (New York: Negro Universities Press, 1969), p. 263
- OCLC 233235313)
- ^ אהרן זאב אשכולי, ספר הפלשים, עמ' 7
- ^ Weil, Shalva 2011 "Mikael Aragawi: Christian Missionary among the Beta Israel", inEmanuela Trevisan Semi and Shalva Weil (eds.) Beta Israel: the Jews ofEthiopia and Beyond, Venice: Cafoscarini Press, pp. 147–58.
- ^ "Famine Hunger stalks Ethiopia once again - and aid groups fear the worst". time.com. 21 December 1987. Archived from the original on February 11, 2009. Retrieved 12 September 2015.
- ^ El Niño and Drought Early Warning in Ethiopia Archived September 11, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Weil, Shalva 2009 'Beta Israel Students Who Studied Abroad 1905–1935' in: Aspen, Harald, Teferra, Birhanu, Bekele, Shiferaw and Ege, Svein (eds.) Research in Ethiopian Studies, Selected papers of the 16th International Conference of EthiopianStudies, Trondheim, July 2007, Wiesbaden, Harrasowitz Verlag:Aethiopistische Forschungen 72, pp. 84–92.
- ^ Weil, Shalva 2010 'Salomon Yeshaq' (499–500) in Siegbert Uhlig (ed.) Encyclopedia Aethiopica, Wiesbaden:Harrassowitz Verlag, 4.
- ^ Weil, Shalva 2010 Taamerat Ammanuel' (796–797), in Siegbert Uhlig (ed.) Encyclopedia Aethiopica,
- ^ Weil, Shalva 2003 'Abraham Adgeh', in Siegbert Uhlig (ed.)Encyclopedia Aethiopica, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 1: 48.
- ^ Weil, Shalva 1987 'In Memoriam: Yona Bogale' Pe’amim33: 140–144. (Hebrew)
- ^ Weil, Shalva 2006 'Tadesse Yacob of Cairo and Addis Abeba', International Journal of Ethiopian Studies 2(1–2): 233–43.
- ^ "Jacques Faïtlovitch". www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org.
- ^ "Timeline of Ethiopian Jewish History". www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org.
- ^ "Religion: Jews' Luck". Time. 1938-07-18. Archived from the original on October 4, 2008. Retrieved 2010-12-25.
- ^ "Vatican City: Pope to Get Jerusalem?". Time. 1940-07-08. Archived from the original on October 14, 2010. Retrieved 2010-12-25.
- ISBN 978-90-04-08855-9. Retrieved 2010-12-25 – via Google Books.
- ^ "Our Work – Conserving Natural Resources". World Wildlife Fund. Retrieved 12 September 2015.
- ^ Amdur, Michael (1990). The Jewish Community in Aden 1900–1967 (Hebrew). pp. 24–32.
- ISBN 9789004272910.
- ^ Kapelyuk, Amnon (21 February 1986). "Why do you harass the Falashas? – Asked the Jews of Addis Ababa". Yedioth Ahronot: 7.
- ^ "Foreign Ministry Names First Israeli of Ethiopian Origin as Ambassador". Haaretz. February 28, 2012.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Ethiopia-Israel
- ^ a b c d Pateman, Roy. Eritrea: even the stones are burning. Lawrenceville, NJ [u.a.]: Red Sea Press, 1998. pp. 96–97
- ^ Iyob, Ruth. The Eritrean Struggle for Independence: Domination, Resistance, Nationalism, 1941–1993. African studies series, 82. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995. p. 108
- ^ Perlez, Jane; Times, Special To the New York (November 5, 1989). "Ethiopian-Israeli Accord Eases Jewish Emigration". The New York Times – via NYTimes.com.
Works cited
- Fauvelle-Aymar, François-Xavier (April 2013). "Desperately Seeking the Jewish Kingdom of Ethiopia: Benjamin of Tudela and the Horn of Africa (Twelfth Century)". S2CID 163444188.
- Kaplan, Steve (2003). "Betä Əsraʾel". In Uhlig, Siegbert; Bausi, Alessandro; Crummey, Donald; Goldenberg, Gideon; Yemām, Bāya (eds.). Encyclopaedia Aethiopica. Vol. 1. Harrassowitz Verlag. p. 553.
- Thomson Gale. pp. 499–508.