Beta Israel

The Beta Israel, or Ethiopian Jews, are a Jewish group originating in the Amhara and Tigray regions of northern Ethiopia, where they were historically spread out across more than 500 small villages. The majority were concentrated in what is today North Gondar Zone, Shire Inda Selassie, Wolqayit, Tselemti, Dembia, Segelt, Quara, and Belesa. Following its conception, most of the Beta Israel have immigrated to Israel, including through several Israeli government initiatives from 1979.

The ethnogenesis of the Beta Israel is disputed with genetic studies showing them to cluster closely with non-Jewish Amharas and Tigrayans with no indications of gene flow with Yemenite Jews in spite of their geographic proximity.

The Beta Israel appears to have been lastingly isolated from broader Jewish communities, having 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.

Due to Christian missionary activity, and persecution by the authorities, a significant portion of the Beta Israel community converted to Christianity during the 19th and 20th centuries. Those who converted to Christianity later became 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. 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. 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.

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). 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. The Ethiopian Jewish community in Israel is mostly composed of Beta Israel (practicing both Haymanot and Rabbinic Judaism), but includes smaller numbers of Falash Mura who left Christianity and began practicing Rabbinic Judaism upon their arrival in Israel.