Editing Beta Israel (section)

{{Short description|Jewish community associated with modern-day Ethiopia}}
{{Distinguish|Beit Yisrael}}
{{Distinguish|text=the [[Bene Israel]], a Jewish community in India}}
{{Cleanup tense|date=January 2024}} 
{{Infobox ethnic group
| group            = Beta Israel
| image            = Ethiopian Jews rescued by American Association for Ethiopian Jews (AAEJ) (8339300997).jpg
| caption          = A 1983 photo of Jewish Ethiopian migrants soon after their arrival in Israel
| population       = '''173,500'''
| regions          = 
| region1          = {{flag|Israel}}
| pop1             = 160,500 (2021)
| ref1             = <ref name="The Ethiopian Population In Israel">[[Israel Central Bureau of Statistics]]: [https://www.cbs.gov.il/he/mediarelease/DocLib/2020/358/11_20_358e.docx The Ethiopian Community in Israel]</ref>
| region2          = {{flag|Ethiopia}}
| pop2             = 12,000 (2021)
| ref2             = <ref name="jns.org">{{Cite web|url=https://www.jns.org/work-goes-on-efforts-to-bring-last-of-ethiopian-jews-to-israel/|title=Work goes on: Efforts to bring last of Ethiopian Jews to Israel|first=Eliana|last=Rudee|date=May 24, 2021|website=JNS.org}}</ref>
| region3          = {{flag|United States}}
| pop3             = 1,000 (2008)
| ref3             = <ref>{{cite web |last=Mozgovaya |first=Natasha |url=http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1077094.html |title=Focus U.S.A.-Israel News – Haaretz Israeli News source |publisher=Haaretz.com |date=2008-04-02 |access-date=2010-12-25 |archive-date=2010-02-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100205220535/http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1077094.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>
| languages        = '''Predominant:'''<br />[[Amharic]], [[Modern Hebrew]], [[Tigrinya language|Tigrinya]]<br />'''Historical:'''<br />[[Agaw languages]] ([[Kayla dialect|Kayla]], [[Qwara dialect|Qwara]]), [[Ethio-Semitic languages|Ethiosemitic languages]] ([[Geʽez]]), [[Jewish languages]] ([[Biblical Hebrew]], [[Aramaic]])<ref>{{Cite book |last=Shalom |first=Dr Sharon |title=From Sinai to Ethiopia, Introduction, A Short History of Ethiopian Jewry 12 |date=2016 |publisher=[[Gefen]] |page=12}}</ref>
| religions        = '''Majority:'''<br />[[Judaism]] ([[Haymanot]])<br />'''Minority:'''<br />[[Christianity in Ethiopia|Christianity]] ([[Crypto-Judaism]]){{Efn|The [[Falash Mura]] are of the Jewish ethnicity, but left the Jewish religion to become Christians (both voluntarily and involuntarily) around the 19th century. However, Israeli officials have said that the community reverted to Judaism upon [[Aliyah|immigrating to Israel]]. The [[Beta Abraham]] is similar to the Falash Mura but continued to secretly practice Judaism after nominally converting to Christianity. Both communities are regarded as part of the Beta Israel.}}
| native_name      = {{nobold|{{lang|he|{{Script/Hebrew|בֵּיתֶא יִשְׂרָאֵל}}|rtl=yes}}&nbsp;([[Hebrew language|Hebrew]])<br />{{lang|gez|ቤተ እስራኤል}}}}&nbsp;([[Geʽez]])
| native_name_lang = he
| related_groups   = Other [[Jews]] (i.e., [[Jewish diaspora]] and [[Jewish Israelis]]), [[Habesha peoples]], [[Agaw people|Agaw peoples]]<ref name="Lopez1">{{Cite journal |last1=López |first1=Saioa |last2=Tarekegn |first2=Ayele |last3=Band |first3=Gavin |last4=van Dorp |first4=Lucy |last5=Bird |first5=Nancy |last6=Morris |first6=Sam |last7=Oljira |first7=Tamiru |last8=Mekonnen |first8=Ephrem |last9=Bekele |first9=Endashaw |last10=Blench |first10=Roger |last11=Thomas |first11=Mark G. |last12=Bradman |first12=Neil |last13=Hellenthal |first13=Garrett |date=2021-06-11 |title=Evidence of the interplay of genetics and culture in Ethiopia |journal=Nature Communications |language=en |volume=12 |issue=1 |pages=3581 |doi=10.1038/s41467-021-23712-w |issn=2041-1723|doi-access=free |pmid=34117245 |pmc=8196081 |bibcode=2021NatCo..12.3581L }}</ref>
}}
{{Jews and Judaism sidebar|Communities}}{{History of Ethiopia}}{{History of Eritrea}}{{Contains special characters|Ethiopic}}'''Beta Israel''',{{Efn|({{langx|he|בֵּיתֶא יִשְׂרָאֵל}}, ''Bēteʾ Yīsrāʾēl''; {{langx|gez|ቤተ እስራኤል}}, {{lang|gez-Latn|Beta ʾƏsrāʾel}}, modern ''Bēte 'Isrā'ēl'', ''[[Encyclopaedia Aethiopica|EAe]]'': ''Betä Ǝsraʾel'', "House of Israel" or "Community of Israel"<ref>For the meaning of the word "Beta" in the context of social/religious is "community", see James Quirin, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=xBQ2YgEACAAJ& The Evolution of the Ethiopian Jews]'', 2010, p. xxi</ref>)}} or '''Ethiopian Jews''',{{Efn|({{langx|he|יְהוּדֵי אֶתְיוֹפְּיָה}}: ''Yehudey Etyopyah;'' [[Amharic language|Amharic]]: የኢትዮጵያ ይሁዲዎች, ''yä-Itəyop'əya Yəhudiwoč'')}} is a [[Jewish]] group originating from the territory of the [[Amhara Region|Amhara]] and [[Tigray Region|Tigray]] regions in northern [[Ethiopia]], where they are spread out across more than 500 small villages over a wide territory, alongside predominantly [[Christianity in Ethiopia|Christian]] and [[Islam in Ethiopia|Muslim]] populations.<ref>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.</ref> Most of them were concentrated mainly in what is today [[North Gondar Zone]], [[Shire Inda Selassie]], [[Welkait|Wolqayit]], [[Tselemti]], Dembia, Segelt, [[Qwara Province|Quara]], and Belesa.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Shalom |first=Dr Sharon |title=From Sinai to Ethiopia, Introduction, A Short History of Ethiopian Jewry 12 |date=2016 |publisher=[[Gefen]] |page=12}}</ref> After the founding of the [[Israel|State of Israel]], most of the Beta Israel [[Aliyah|immigrated there]] or were evacuated through several initiatives by the Israeli government starting from [[1979]].<ref>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)</ref> 

The [[ethnogenesis]] of the Beta Israel is disputed with [[Genetic studies of Jews|genetic studies]] showing them to cluster closely with non-Jewish [[Amhara people|Amharas]]<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Kivisild |first1=Toomas |last2=Reidla |first2=Maere |last3=Metspalu |first3=Ene |last4=Rosa |first4=Alexandra |last5=Brehm |first5=Antonio |last6=Pennarun |first6=Erwan |last7=Parik |first7=Jüri |last8=Geberhiwot |first8=Tarekegn |last9=Usanga |first9=Esien |date=November 2004 |title=Ethiopian Mitochondrial DNA Heritage: Tracking Gene Flow Across and Around the Gate of Tears |journal=American Journal of Human Genetics |volume=75 |issue=5 |pages=752–770 |doi=10.1086/425161 |issn=0002-9297 |pmc=1182106 |pmid=15457403}}</ref><ref name="plaster12">{{Cite thesis |last=C.A. |first=Plaster |title=Variation in Y chromosome, mitochondrial DNA and labels of identity on Ethiopia |date=2011-09-28 |access-date=2018-06-27 |type=Doctoral |url=http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1331901/ |website=discovery.ucl.ac.uk}}</ref> and [[Tigrayans]]<ref name="Behar201022">{{cite journal |author1=Doron M. Behar |author2=Bayazit Yunusbayev |author3=Mait Metspalu |author4=Ene Metspalu |author5=Saharon Rosset |author6=Jüri Parik |author7=Siiri Rootsi; Gyaneshwer Chaubey |author8=Ildus Kutuev |author9=Guennady Yudkovsky |author10=Elza K. Khusnutdinova |author11=Oleg Balanovsky |author12=Olga Balaganskaya |author13=Ornella Semino |author14=Luisa Pereira; David Comas |author15=David Gurwitz |display-authors=4 |date=July 2010 |title=The genome-wide structure of the Jewish people |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/44657170 |journal=Nature |volume=466 |issue=7303 |pages=238–42 |bibcode=2010Natur.466..238B |doi=10.1038/nature09103 |pmid=20531471 |s2cid=4307824 |author16=Batsheva Bonne-Tamir |author17=Tudor Parfitt |author18=Michael F. Hammer |author19=Karl Skorecki |author20=Richard Villems}}</ref> with no indications of gene flow with [[Yemenite Jews]] in spite of their geographic proximity.<ref name="maternal12">{{Cite journal |last1=Non |first1=Amy L. |last2=Al-Meeri |first2=Ali |last3=Raaum |first3=Ryan L. |last4=Sanchez |first4=Luisa F. |last5=Mulligan |first5=Connie J. |date=2010-12-09 |title=Mitochondrial DNA reveals distinct evolutionary histories for Jewish populations in Yemen and Ethiopia |journal=American Journal of Physical Anthropology |volume=144 |issue=1 |pages=1–10 |doi=10.1002/ajpa.21360 |issn=0002-9483 |pmid=20623605 |quote=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.}}</ref> 

Beta Israel appears to have been lastingly isolated from the more mainstream [[Jewish ethnic divisions|Jewish communities]], and has historically practiced a divergent non-[[Talmud]]ic form of [[Judaism]] that is similar in some respects to [[Karaite Judaism]]. The religious practices of [[Ethiopian Jews in Israel|Israeli Beta Israel]] are referred to as ''[[Haymanot]]''. Having suffered persecution by the authorities and being exposed to [[Christian mission|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-Judaism|crypto-Jewish]] offshoot of the Beta Israel community.

The Beta Israel first made extensive contact with other [[Jewish history|Jewish]] communities in the early 20th century, after which a comprehensive [[Rabbinic authority|rabbinic debate]] ensued over their [[Jewish identity|Jewishness]]. Following ''[[Halakha|halakhic]]'' and constitutional discussions, Israeli authorities decided in 1977 that the Beta Israel qualified on all fronts for the Israeli [[Law of Return]].<ref name=JPOST/><ref name=Approv/> 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.<ref>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)</ref><ref>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.</ref> 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.<ref>[http://www.intelligence.org.il/ShowItem.aspx?ItemID=4ddc5a52-e59d-4c80-bda8-2ea14c38f5c0&lang=HEB The Rescue of Ethiopian Jews 1978–1990] (Hebrew); "[http://news.walla.co.il/?w=/9/801454 Ethiopian Immigrants and the Mossad Met] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203071959/http://news.walla.co.il/?w=%2F9%2F801454 |date=2013-12-03 }}" (Hebrew)</ref><ref name="isn.ethz.ch">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</ref>

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 Jews in Israel|Ethiopian Jewish community in Israel]]) born in Israel with at least one parent born in Ethiopia or [[Eritrea]] (formerly a part of Ethiopia).<ref name="haaretz.com">[http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1128399.html] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100225102929/http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1128399.html|date=2010-02-25}}, ''Ha'aretz''</ref> 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.<ref name="The Ethiopian Population In Israel"/> 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.