The Beta Israel of Ethiopia history The central legend of Beta Israel Judaism is the story of King Solomon and Queen Sheba. As told extensively and proudly in the Ethiopian "Book of the Glory of Kings," the Kebra Nagast, (based upon several Biblical verses about Solomon and Sheba in the Torah [1 Kings 10:1-13 and 2 Chronicles 9:1-12]), the African Queen Sheba went to Solomon and shared his bed, returning to Abyssinia carrying his son. When Sheba’s son, Menelik, became curious about his father he traveled to Israel where he visited Solomon. Upon leaving, Menelik stole the coveted Ark of the Covenant, bringing it back with him to the Abyssinian capital of Axum. Thus, according to the Ethiopian Jews, Axum became the true center of Zion. Some historians believe that the true ancestor of the Beta Israel is not the legendary son of Solomon and Sheba but Dan, progenitor of one of the Lost Tribes of Israel, who migrated through the Nile valley to the ancient African kingdom of Cush. Others believe that the Falashas are not genetic descendants of Israel but that they adopted Judaism well over two thousand years ago as either Yemenite or Egyptian traders flooded the Horn of Africa. Since the fourth century A.D. when King Ezana declared Christianity the official religion of his kingdom, Beta Israel have been outsiders in the Abyssinian (Ethiopian) community. Ethiopian Christians have long ascribed to the Beta Israel magic powers, accusing them of turning themselves at night into hyenas and of raiding Christian homes to steal possessions and kill Christian children. Ethiopian Christians have also stigmatized Beta Israel as "Christ Killers" and have always kept them far away from political power. The Beta Israel didn’t fare much better in the international Jewish community. Despite some oblique Biblical references to Jews from the African kingdom of Cush and occasional rumors spread by merchants of a Jewish nation in the Horn of Africa, the Beta Israel had virtually no contact with other Jews from the fourth century until sixteenth century Portuguese traders reported their existence to the West. Though the traders told tall tales of the African’s ancient Biblical rituals, the Western Jewish community rejected the idea that the Beta Israel had any real claim to Hebrew lineage. Nineteenth century Jewish scholar Joseph HaLevy and his pupil, Jacques Faitlovitch, were almost alone in bringing the Beta Israel cause to the Jewish community. Their unrelenting crusade to convince Orthodox Rabbinate to recognize the Beta Israel community culminated in the 1973 decree by Israel’s Sephardic Chief Rabbi, Ovadia Yossef, that that the Falashas were descendants of the Tribe of Dan and should be allowed to emigrate to Israel under the Law of Return, Israel’s immigration statute that guarantees citizenship to any "verifiable" Jew. In 1975 his Ashkenazic counterpart, Rabbi Shlomo Goren, concurred, and soon thereafter the Israeli Parliament agreed. A few Beta Israel began to migrate to Israel in the ’70s and early ‘80s, but the real emigration came in 1985 when Israel airlifted 15,000 Jews out of the midst of a harsh Ethiopian civil war in Operation MosesThree months later, Operation Sheba brought 500 more Falashas to Israel, but Ethiopia and Sudan closed the borders, holding almost 15,000 Falasha refugees in camps. In 1991 American diplomats convinced an advancing rebel army to stay out of Addis Ababa for three days so that Israel could airlift many of the remaining Jews to safety through Operation Solomon. ethiopia
| history | today | more info
|
