Back Beta Israel Afrikaans ቤተ እስራኤል Amharic بيتا إسرائيل Arabic بيتا اسرائيل ARZ Бета израел Bulgarian Beta Israel Breton Beta Israel Catalan Falašové Czech Beta Esrael Danish Beta Israel German
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_(8339300997).jpg) A 1983 photo of Jewish Ethiopian migrants soon after their arrival in Israel | |
| Total population | |
| 173,500 | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
 Israel | 160,500 (2021)[1] |
 Ethiopia | 12,000 (2021)[2] |
 United States | 1,000 (2008)[3] |
| Languages | |
| Predominant: Amharic, Modern Hebrew, Tigrinya Historical: Agaw languages (Kayla, Qwara), Ethiosemitic languages (Geʽez), Jewish languages (Biblical Hebrew, Aramaic)[4] | |
| Religion | |
| Majority: Judaism (Haymanot) Minority: Christianity (Crypto-Judaism)[a] | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Other Jews (i.e., Jewish diaspora and Jewish Israelis), Habesha peoples, Agaw peoples[5] | |
| Part of a series on |
| Jews and Judaism |
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| History of Ethiopia |
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Beta Israel,[b] or Ethiopian Jews,[c] are a Jewish group originating from the territory of the Amhara and Tigray regions in northern Ethiopia, where they were spread out across more than 500 small villages over a wide territory, alongside predominantly Christian and Muslim populations.[7] Most of them were concentrated mainly in what is today North Gondar Zone, Shire Inda Selassie, Wolqayit, Tselemti, Dembia, Segelt, Quara, and Belesa.[8] After the founding of the State of Israel, most of the Beta Israel immigrated there or were evacuated through several initiatives by the Israeli government starting from 1979.[9]
The ethnogenesis of the Beta Israel remains a matter of dispute, with genetic studies showing them to cluster closely with non-Jewish Amharas[10][11] and Tigrayans[12] with no indications of gene flow with Yemenite Jews in spite of their geographic proximity.[13]
Beta Israel appears to have been lastingly isolated from the more mainstream Jewish communities, and has historically practiced a divergent 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 by the authorities and being exposed to Christian missionaries, a significant portion of the Beta Israel community converted to 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 early 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.[14][15] 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.[16][17] 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.[18][19]
By the end of 2008, 119,300 Ethiopian Jews were 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).[20] 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.[1] 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.
- ^ a b Israel Central Bureau of Statistics: The Ethiopian Community in Israel
- ^ Rudee, Eliana (May 24, 2021). "Work goes on: Efforts to bring last of Ethiopian Jews to Israel". JNS.org.
- ^ Mozgovaya, Natasha (2008-04-02). "Focus U.S.A.-Israel News – Haaretz Israeli News source". Haaretz.com. Archived from the original on 2010-02-05. Retrieved 2010-12-25.
- ^ Shalom, Dr Sharon (2016). From Sinai to Ethiopia, Introduction, A Short History of Ethiopian Jewry 12. Gefen. p. 12.
- ^ López, Saioa; Tarekegn, Ayele; Band, Gavin; van Dorp, Lucy; Bird, Nancy; Morris, Sam; Oljira, Tamiru; Mekonnen, Ephrem; Bekele, Endashaw; Blench, Roger; Thomas, Mark G.; Bradman, Neil; Hellenthal, Garrett (2021-06-11). "Evidence of the interplay of genetics and culture in Ethiopia". Nature Communications. 12 (1): 3581. Bibcode:2021NatCo..12.3581L. doi:10.1038/s41467-021-23712-w. ISSN 2041-1723. PMC 8196081. PMID 34117245.
- ^ For the meaning of the word "Beta" in the context of social/religious is "community", see James Quirin, The Evolution of the Ethiopian Jews, 2010, p. xxi
- ^ Weil, Shalva. (2012) "Ethiopian Jews: the Heterogeneity of a Group", in Grisaru, Nimrod, and Witztum, Eliezer. Cultural, Social and Clinical Perspectives on Ethiopian Immigrants in Israel, Beersheba: Ben-Gurion University Press, pp. 1–17.
- ^ Shalom, Dr Sharon (2016). From Sinai to Ethiopia, Introduction, A Short History of Ethiopian Jewry 12. Gefen. p. 12.
- ^ Weil, Shalva (1997) "Collective Designations and Collective Identity of Ethiopian Jews", in Shalva Weil (ed.) Ethiopian Jews in the Limelight, Jerusalem: NCJW Research Institute for Innovation in Education, Hebrew University, pp. 35–48. (Hebrew)
- ^ Kivisild, Toomas; Reidla, Maere; Metspalu, Ene; Rosa, Alexandra; Brehm, Antonio; Pennarun, Erwan; Parik, Jüri; Geberhiwot, Tarekegn; Usanga, Esien (November 2004). "Ethiopian Mitochondrial DNA Heritage: Tracking Gene Flow Across and Around the Gate of Tears". American Journal of Human Genetics. 75 (5): 752–770. doi:10.1086/425161. ISSN 0002-9297. PMC 1182106. PMID 15457403.
- ^ C.A., Plaster (2011-09-28). Variation in Y chromosome, mitochondrial DNA and labels of identity on Ethiopia. discovery.ucl.ac.uk (Doctoral). Retrieved 2018-06-27.
- ^ Doron M. Behar; Bayazit Yunusbayev; Mait Metspalu; Ene Metspalu; et al. (July 2010). "The genome-wide structure of the Jewish people". Nature. 466 (7303): 238–42. Bibcode:2010Natur.466..238B. doi:10.1038/nature09103. PMID 20531471. S2CID 4307824.
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Non, Amy L.; Al-Meeri, Ali; Raaum, Ryan L.; Sanchez, Luisa F.; Mulligan, Connie J. (2010-12-09). "Mitochondrial DNA reveals distinct evolutionary histories for Jewish populations in Yemen and Ethiopia". American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 144 (1): 1–10. doi:10.1002/ajpa.21360. ISSN 0002-9483. PMID 20623605.
Our mitochondrial DNA study of Jewish populations in the HOA and Arabia sheds light on the history of two religiously defined groups formed relatively recently in these geographic regions. We found no identical haplo- types shared between Yemenite and Ethiopian Jewish populations despite their geographic proximity. Our data on Yemenite Jews suggest possible maternal descent from ancient Israeli exiles and also demonstrate shared African and Middle Eastern ancestry with little evidence for large-scale conversion of local Yemeni. In contrast, our data on Ethiopian Jews suggest maternal descent primarily from the local Ethiopian population.
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Approvwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Weil, Shalva. (2008) "Zionism among Ethiopian Jews", in Hagar Salamon (ed.) Jewish Communities in the 19th and 20th Centuries: Ethiopia, Jerusalem: Ben-Zvi Institute, pp. 187–200. (Hebrew)
- ^ Weil, Shalva 2012 "Longing for Jerusalem Among the Beta Israel of Ethiopia", in Edith Bruder and Tudor Parfitt (eds.) African Zion: Studies in Black Judaism, Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp. 204–217.
- ^ The Rescue of Ethiopian Jews 1978–1990 (Hebrew); "Ethiopian Immigrants and the Mossad Met Archived 2013-12-03 at the Wayback Machine" (Hebrew)
- ^ Weil, Shalva. (2011) "Operation Solomon 20 Years On", International Relations and Security Network (ISN).http://www.isn.ethz.ch/isn/Current-Affairs/ISN-Insights/Detail?ord538=grp1&ots591=eb06339b-2726-928e-0216-1b3f15392dd8&lng=en&id=129480&contextid734=129480&contextid735=129244&tabid=129244
- ^ [1] Archived 2010-02-25 at the Wayback Machine, Ha'aretz
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