Beta Israel Israel Intervenes Ethiopian Enclave Recent

The Beta Israel (or "House of Israel"), known by outsiders by the pejorative term Falasha ('exiles' or 'strangers') are Jews of Ethiopian origin. Over 40,000 of them were migrated to Israel from the time of Israel's Operation Moses and Operation Solomon, continuing until the present time, under the provisions of the Law of Return ( 1950).

1 Israel intervenes

The Israeli government accepted the Beta Israel as "official" Jews in 1975Events January January 1 Watergate scandal: John N. Mitchell, H. Haldeman, John D. Ehrlichman are found guilty of the Watergate cover-up and are sentenced to 30 months to 8 years in jail on February 21 January 5 The Tasman Bridge in Tasmania, Australia, i; Israeli Prime Minister Menachem BeginMenachem Begin ( August 16, 1913 March 9, 1992) became the 6th Prime Minister of Israel in May 1977. He negotiated the Camp David Accords with Egyptian president Muhammad Anwar al-Sadat, for which they jointly received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1978. He gr obtained clear rulings from Chief Rabbi Ovadia YosefOvadia Yosef (born 1920) is an Orthodox Judaism rabbi, Talmud scholar and a recognized authority in halakha (Jewish Law). He is the former Chief Sephardic Rabbi of the State of Israel and current spiritual leader of the Shas political party in Israel. that they were legitimate descendants of the lost tribes. They were however required to undergo pro forma halakhicHalakha in Hebrew or Halakhah Halacha Halachah is the collective corpus of Jewish law, custom and tradition regulating all aspects of behavior. The name Halakha derives from the Hebrew halach meaning "going" or the "[correct] way"; thus a literal translat conversionsReligious conversion is the adoption of new religious beliefs that differ from the convert's previous beliefs; in some cultures (e. Judaism) conversion also signifies joining an ethnic group as well as adopting that group's religious beliefs. Conversion r to Judaism. "Operation Moses" came to an abrupt halt in 1985, leaving many Beta Israel still in Ethiopia.

Israel and Ethiopia came to an agreement in 1990 that would allow the remaining Beta Israel a chance to migrate to Israel. In 1991 however, the political and economic stability of Ethiopia deteriorated as rebels mounted attacks against and eventually won over the capital city of Addis Ababa. Worried about the fate of the Beta Israel during the transition period, the Israeli government along with several private groups prepared to covertly continue along with the migration. On Friday, May 24, Operation Solomon began. Over the course of 36 hours, a total of 34 El Al C-130 Hercules turboprop planes, with their seats removed to maximize passenger capacity, flew 14,325 Ethiopian Jews non-stop to Israel.

2 Ethiopian enclave

The Beta Israel come from a Jewish enclave in Ethiopia which is said to have lost contact with other Jewish communities until the 1860s. Popularly touted as a "lost tribe," the Beta Israel at first found many cultural barriers to acculturating in Israel.

3 Recent rabbinical rulings

Some scholarly rabbis knowledgeable with the Talmudic responsa over the centuries, assert that the Falashas are indeed the desendants of the tribe of Dan one of the Ten Lost Tribes originally part of the Biblical patriarch Jacob's twelve sons, the founders of the original Jewish Twelve Tribes. These people established a Jewish Kingdom which lasted for hundreds of years. With the rise of Christianity and later Islam, schisms arose and three kingdoms competed (probably others as well in Africa). Eventually, the Christian and Islamic Ethiopian kingdoms reduced the Jewish kingdom to a small impoverished section.

Other rabbis, halakhic authorities, such as the Tzitz Eliezer and Rabbi Moshe Feinstein maintained that the Jewishness of the Beta Israel was seriously suspect, and that conversion was mandatory, and no mere formality.

4 Traditions of the Beta Israel

Their tradition relates that they are descendants of Jews who came to Ethiopia with Menelik I, alleged to be the son of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. However, in the Bible there is no mention that the Queen of Sheba either married or had any sexual relations with King Solomon. Rather the narrative records that she was impressed with his wealth and wisdom, and they exchanged royal gifts, and then she returned to rule her people in " Kush" says the narrative. The "royal gifts" are interpreted by some as sexual contact, however.

5 Languages

They once spoke the Qwara language ( Kayla), a Cushitic language, but now they speak Amharic, a Semitic language. Their liturgical language, along with Hebrew, is Ge'ez. The term Falasha is considered pejorative and today they prefer the term Beta Israel for themselves.

6 DNA

Gerard Lucotte and Pierre Smets in Human Biology (vol 71, Dece 1999, pp. 989-993) studied the DNA of 38 unrelated Beta Israel males living in Israel and 104 Ethiopians living in regions located north of Addis Ababa and concluded that "the distinctiveness of the Y-chromosome haplotype distribution of Beta Israel Jews from conventional Jewish populations and their relatively greater similarity in haplotype profile to non-Jewish Ethiopians are consistent with the view that the Beta Israel people descended from ancient inhabitants of Ethiopia who converted to Judaism."

To all major forms of Judaism ( Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform), this does not matter, as Jewishness is not a question of genetics.

7 Scholars differ

Secular scholars are divided on when and how the Beta Israel came to accept Judaism: whether they are indeed the descendents of an Israeli tribe or whether they were converted by Jews living in Yemen, by the Jewish community in southern Egypt ( Elephantine), or even by the permanent Jewish community in Ethiopia implied in Isaiah 11:11 (ca 740 BCE)

8 Isolation

The utter isolation of the Beta Israel was reported by an explorer James Bruce, who published his Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile in Edinburgh in 1790. But in 1860 a Christian who converted from Judaism actually went to Ethiopia in order to attempt to convert the Beta Israel to Christianity.

8.1 Photos

Ethiopian Jews in the Sigd cermony

8.2 External links

Jews

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Beta Israel
Total population:	over 65,000 (est.)
Significant populations in:	Israel: 60,000 (est.) Ethiopia: 5,000 (est.)
Language	Traditionally, ( Kayla), more recently Amharic; Hebrew and Ge'ez as a liturgical language and now (in Israel) as a common language.
Religion	Judaism
Related ethnic groups	• Jews • African Jews • Beta Israel • Other Jewish groups

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