For decade the Falashas - the Black Jews of Ethiopia - have fascinated scholars. Are they really Jews and in what sense? How can their origins be explained? Since the Falashas' transfer to Israel in the much publicised Israeli air lifts the fascination has continued and and new factors are now being discussed. Written by the leading scholars in the field the essays in this collection examine the history, music, art, anthropology and current situations of the Ethopian Jews. Issues examined include their integration into Middle Eastern society, contacts between the Falasha and the State of Israel how the Falasha became Jews in the first place.

Series Information:
SOAS Centre of Near and Middle Eastern Studies

This book offers the results of the most recent research carried out in European and Israeli universities on Ethiopian Jews. With a special focus on Europe and the role played by German, English and Italian Jewish communities in creating a new Jewish Ethiopian identity, it investigates such issues as the formation of a new Ethiopian Jewish elite and the transformation of the identity from Ethiopian Falashas to the Jews of Ethiopia during the twentieth century.

The architect of the ingathering of the most problematic group of the Jewish diaspora was Jacques Faitlovitch. He was an adventurer, scholar and Zionist, a Polish-born Jew who lived in Paris and Palestine. His life was marked by his devotion to the cause of the Beta Israel, the black Jews of Ethiopia. Faitlovitch was an Ashkenazi Jew of the neo-Orthodox school and took up the task, already initiated by Joseph Hal vi, of assisting the Beta Israel, particularly in their struggle against the Protestant missionaries. He had close links with the chief Jewish institutions and with leading scholars and Ethiopian leaders, notably Emperor Haile Selasse.