Beta Israel

Beta Israel

בֵּיתֶא יִשְׂרָאֵל‎ (Hebrew) ቤተ እስራኤል (Geʽez)
Religious ceremony of Ethiopian Jews in Gondar, 1932
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, Tigrinya, Modern Hebrew Historical: Jewish languages (Kayla, Qwara), Biblical Hebrew, Geʽez
Religion
Majority: Judaism Minority: Christianity (Crypto-Judaism)[a]
Related ethnic groups
Other Jews (i.e., Jewish diaspora and Jewish Israelis), South Semitic speakers,[4] Qemant people

Part of a series on the
History of Ethiopia
Early history Prehistory   Dʿmt 980 – 400 BC
Middle Ages Aksum 100 – 940 AD Zagwe dynasty 900–1270 Early Solomonic period 1270–1529 Amda Seyon's Expansions 1314–1344
Early modern history Ethiopian–Adal War 1527–1543 Oromo migrations 1543 – 17th cent. Habesh Eyalet 1557 – 17th cent. Gondarine period 1632–1769 Zemene Mesafint 1769–1855 Ottoman border conflict 1832–1848
Modern history Unification 1855–1913 Menelik's Invasions 1878–1904 First Italo–Ethiopian War 1895–1896 Modernization 1913–1974 World War I 1914–1918 Second Italo–Ethiopian War 1935–1936 Italian East Africa 1936–1941 World War II 1941 Italian guerrilla war 1941–1943 Federation with Eritrea 1952–1962 Eritrean Independence War 1961–1991 Ethiopian Civil War 1974–1991 Ogaden War 1977–1978
Recent history Eritrean–Ethiopian War 1998–2000 Eritrean border conflict 1998–2018 Police massacre 2005 War in Somalia 2006–2009 East Africa drought 2011–2012 Oromo protests 2014–2016 Ethiopian civil conflict 2018–present Tigray War 2020–2022
Topics Economic history Emperor Aristocracy Military Army of the Empire Expansion Currency Aksumite Famines
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Part of a series on the
History of Eritrea
Pre-colonial Prehistory Land of Punt (c. 2500–980 BC) Kingdom of Dəmot (c. 980–400 BC) Aksumite Empire (c. 150 BC–AD 960) Sultanate of Dahlak (960–1557) Zagwe Dynasty (c. 1137–1270) Ethiopian Empire (1270–1974) Dankali Sultanate (c. Late 13th century–18th century) Sultanate of Aussa (1734–1936)
Colonial Eyalet-i Habeş (1554–1872) Italian Eritrea (1882–1936) Eritrea Governorate of Italian East Africa (1936–1941) East African Campaign of World War II (1940–1941) British Military Administration (1941–1952)
Post-Colonial Autonomy within Ethiopia (1952–1962) Eritrean War of Independence (1961–1991) Annexation as the Eritrea Province (1962–1993) Ethiopian Civil War (1974–1991)
State of Eritrea 1990s in Eritrea Eritrean–Ethiopian War (1998–2000) 2000s in Eritrea 2010s in Eritrea
Eritrea portal
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The Beta Israel,^[b] or Ethiopian Jews,^[c] are an African community of the Jewish diaspora. They coalesced in the Kingdom of Aksum and the Ethiopian Empire, which is currently divided between the Amhara Region and Tigray Region in modern-day Ethiopia. After the founding of the State of Israel in 1948, most of the Beta Israel immigrated to Israel or were evacuated from Africa through several initiatives by the Israeli government.^[6]

Historically, the Beta Israel lived in northern and northwestern 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.

For at least a millennium, the Beta Israel appear to have been isolated from the more mainstream Jewish communities, and practice a 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 in Ethiopia, a significant portion of the Beta Israel community was forced into 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 late 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.^[8][9] 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.^[10][11] These activities included 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.^[12][13]

By the end of 2008, there were 119,300 Jews from Ethiopia in Israel, including nearly 81,000 born in Ethiopia and about 38,500 born in Israel (about 32% of the community) with at least one parent born in Ethiopia or Eritrea, which was formerly a part of Ethiopia.^[14] At the end of 2019, there were 155,300 Jews of Ethiopian descent in Israel. Approximately 87,500 were Israelis who were born in Ethiopia, and 67,800 were born-and-raised Israelis with fathers 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.

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