The Jews of Ethiopia, who call themselves Beta Israel (“House of Israel”), lived for many centuries in the highlands of northern Ethiopia, around Gondar and in Tigray, cut off from the rest of the Jewish world. They kept a Judaism based on the Bible, read in the ancient Ethiopian language Ge’ez, and led by priests called kessim. Between 1977 and the 1990s almost the entire community moved to Israel, in rescue operations that brought tens of thousands across Sudan and, in 1991, by airlift from Addis Ababa. Beta Israel is a community of its own, neither Sephardi nor Mizrahi. See also Indian Jews.
Origins
Beta Israel tradition traces the community to the tribe of Dan, which is said to have reached Ethiopia by way of Egypt; another legend links it to emissaries of King Solomon who came with the Queen of Sheba. These traditions cannot be confirmed, and historians still debate when and how the community formed. The name Falasha, used by others for centuries, is considered offensive by the community.
Religion and community
Beta Israel Judaism developed without the Talmud. Its scriptures, the Orit, were read in Ge’ez, and its religious life was led by kessim. Its most distinctive festival is Sigd, held on the 29th of Heshvan, 50 days after Yom Kippur: the community fasts, recites Psalms and renews its covenant with God, and in Ethiopia climbed a mountain to recall the giving of the Torah at Sinai. In 2008 the Knesset made Sigd an Israeli state holiday, and each year thousands gather for it in Jerusalem.
Recognition and aliyah
- 1973. Israel’s Sephardi Chief Rabbi, Ovadia Yosef, ruled that the Beta Israel are Jews according to halakha, citing earlier rabbinic rulings. Israel recognized their right to immigrate under the Law of Return soon after.
- Operation Moses (1984–1985). Between November 1984 and January 1985, about 6,500 Ethiopian Jews were flown to Israel from refugee camps in Sudan. Thousands more had died of hunger and disease on the journey and in the camps, by most estimates between 2,000 and 5,000. Operation Joshua brought out 494 who remained in Sudan in 1985.
- Operation Solomon (1991). On May 24–25, 1991, as Ethiopia’s government collapsed, 34 Israeli planes flew 14,325 Beta Israel from Addis Ababa to Israel in about 36 hours.
- Falash Mura. Descendants of Beta Israel who had converted to Christianity have continued to immigrate in smaller numbers, many of them returning to Judaism in Israel.
The community today
About 160,000 Ethiopian Jews and their descendants live in Israel (2021). The community has faced discrimination and poverty, and has also produced leaders in public life, the army, sport and the arts.
Notable people
- Pnina Tamano-Shata b. 1981 · Wuzaba, near Gondar Came to Israel in Operation Moses; first Ethiopian-born woman in the Knesset (2013) and minister of immigrant absorption (2020–2022).
Sources and further reading
- Steven Kaplan, The Beta Israel (Falasha) in Ethiopia: From Earliest Times to the Twentieth Century (NYU Press, 1992).
- “Beta Israel” and “Sigd”, Wikipedia.
Revised October 2026 to correct errors in an earlier version of this page.
