The Falashas

The Falashas PDF Author: David F. Kessler
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136304487
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 237

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Book Description
This third, revised edition comprises the whole of the original volume and is enhanced by the addition of a new preface and afterward which seek to reply to criticisms of the authors argument about the origins of the Falashas, and include some new thinking on the subject. Drawing on tradition and legend to reinforce his argument, the author again traces the source of the community to the Jewish settlements which existed in ancient Egypt (particularly at Elephantine on the Nile) and in the ancient Meroitic Kingdom, in present day Sudan known in the Bible as Cush. The story told in this book is remarkable, heroic and stimulating and makes a valuable contribution to our understanding of the history of the horn of Africa.

The Falashas

The Falashas PDF Author: David F. Kessler
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136304487
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 237

Get Book

Book Description
This third, revised edition comprises the whole of the original volume and is enhanced by the addition of a new preface and afterward which seek to reply to criticisms of the authors argument about the origins of the Falashas, and include some new thinking on the subject. Drawing on tradition and legend to reinforce his argument, the author again traces the source of the community to the Jewish settlements which existed in ancient Egypt (particularly at Elephantine on the Nile) and in the ancient Meroitic Kingdom, in present day Sudan known in the Bible as Cush. The story told in this book is remarkable, heroic and stimulating and makes a valuable contribution to our understanding of the history of the horn of Africa.

For Our Soul

For Our Soul PDF Author: Teshome Wagaw
Publisher: Wayne State University Press
ISBN: 0814344097
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 332

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Book Description
Between 1977 and 1992, practically all Ethiopian Jews migrated to Israel. This mass move followed the 1974 revolution in Ethiopia and its ensuing economic and political upheavals, compounded by the brutality of the military regime and the willingness—after years of refusal—of the Israeli government to receive them as bona fide Jews entitled to immigrate to that country. As the sole Jewish community from sub-Sahara Africa in Israel, the Ethiopian Jews have met with unique difficulties. Based on fieldwork conducted over several years, For Our Soul describes the ongoing process of adjustment and absorption that the Ethiopian Jewish immigrants, also known as Falasha or Beta Israel, experienced in Israel.

Surviving Salvation

Surviving Salvation PDF Author: Dr. Ruth K. Westheimer
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 9780814792537
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 180

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Book Description
Their mutual interest in the Ethiopian Jews, as well as a series of unique circumstances, led them to join forces to produce this engrossing and handsomely illustrated volume. But this is not a book about the journey of the Ethiopian Jews; rather it is a chronicle of their experiences once they reached their destination. In Ethiopia, they were united by a shared faith and a broad network of kinship ties that served as the foundation of their rural communal society. They observed a form of religion based on the Bible that included customs such as the isolation of women during menstruation, long abandoned by Jewish communities elsewhere in the world. Suddenly transplanted, they are becoming rapidly and aggressively assimilated. Thrust from isolated villages without electricity or running water into the urban bustle of modern, postindustrial society, Ethiopian Jews have seen their family relationships radically transformed.

Saving the Lost Tribe

Saving the Lost Tribe PDF Author: Asher Naim
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
This extraordinary history of the Falashas, the Black Jews of Ethiopia, is chronicled by the former Israeli ambassador to Ethiopia. Naim also recounts the rescue mission in 1991 that delivered them to the safety of Israel. 8-page full-color photo insert with b&w photos throughout.

The Beta Israel

The Beta Israel PDF Author: Steven B Kaplan
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 0814748481
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 341

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Book Description
...balanced and well informed...a striking piece of scholarship aimed at demythologizing the origins of the Ethiopian Falasha. -Foreign AffairsKaplan's definitive treatment will be of interest to students and scholars of Jewish history, African history, and comparative religion, as well as anyone interested in Jewish affairs and the modern Middle East. The Midwest Book ReviewKaplan's conceptualizations are judicious and clearly expressed...incisive and well documented... and provides essential background for the process of assimilation now taking lace in Israel. -The International Journal of African Historical Studies Kaplan's able interdisciplinary approach is of great value for persons interested in religion, civilization, and process of change. -Religious Studies Review Kaplan's well-written, lucid presentation make[s] this important, competent contribution accessible to all levels of readers. Highly recommended.ChoiceInsightful and thorough, a welcome contribution.Kay Kaufman Shelemay, Professor of Music, Harvard UniversityUndoubtedly the most detailed, most scholarly, and most dispassionate argument of Falasha history hitherto published. [T]his work deserves ... the most careful study by all those (and in particular in Israel) who have any practical or scholarly connection with the Beta Israel. -- Edward UllendorffEmeritus Professor of Ethiopian Studies, University of LondonFellow of the British AcademyGiven Kaplan's facility with both written and oral sources, he is in a unique position to synthesize and reconcile the new historical findings of ethnographers with the written sources and differing conclusions of earlier historians and linguists. His work is insightful and thorough, a welcome contribution. -- Kay Shelemay, Wesleyan University The origin of the Black Jews of Ethiopia has long been a source of fascination and controversy. Their condition and future continues to generate debate. The culmination of almost a decade of research, The Beta Israel (Falasha) in Ethiopia marks the publication of the first book-length scholarly study of the history of this unique community. In this volume, Steven Kaplan seeks to demythologize the history of the Falasha and to consider them in the wider context of Ethiopian history and culture. This marks a clear departure from previous studies which have viewed them from the external perspective of Jewish history. Drawing on a wide variety of sources including the Beta Israel's own literature and oral traditions, Kaplan demonstrates that they are not a lost Jewish tribe, but rather an ethnic group which emerged in Ethiopia between the 14th and 16th century. Indeed, the name, Falasha, their religious hierarchy, sacred texts, and economic specialization can all be dated to this period. Among the subjects the book addresses are their links with Ethiopian Christianity, the medieval legends concerning their existence, their wars with the Ethiopian emperors, their relegation to the status of a despised semi-caste, their encounters with European missionaries, and the impact of the Great Famine of 1888-1892. Kaplan's definitive treatment will be of interest to students and scholars of Jewish history, African history, and comparative religion, as well as anyone interested in Jewish affairs and the modern Middle East.

The Falashas

The Falashas PDF Author: David F. Kessler
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 113630455X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 238

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Book Description
This third, revised edition comprises the whole of the original volume and is enhanced by the addition of a new preface and afterward which seek to reply to criticisms of the authors argument about the origins of the Falashas, and include some new thinking on the subject. Drawing on tradition and legend to reinforce his argument, the author again traces the source of the community to the Jewish settlements which existed in ancient Egypt (particularly at Elephantine on the Nile) and in the ancient Meroitic Kingdom, in present day Sudan known in the Bible as Cush. The story told in this book is remarkable, heroic and stimulating and makes a valuable contribution to our understanding of the history of the horn of Africa.

The Hyena People

The Hyena People PDF Author: Hagar Salamon
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520923010
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 180

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Book Description
The Jews (Falasha) of northwestern Ethiopia are a unique example of a Jewish group living within an ancient, non-Western, predominantly Christian society. Hagar Salamon presents the first in-depth study of this group, called the "Hyena people" by their non-Jewish neighbors. Based on more than 100 interviews with Ethiopian immigrants now living in Israel, Salamon's book explores the Ethiopia within as seen through the lens of individual memories and expressed through ongoing dialogues. It is an ethnography of the fantasies and fears that divide groups and, in particular, Jews and non-Jews. Recurring patterns can be seen in Salamon's interviews, which thematically touch on religious disputations, purity and impurity, the concept of blood, slavery and conversion, supernatural powers, and the metaphors of clay vessels, water, and fire. The Hyena People helps unravel the complex nature of religious coexistence in Ethiopia and also provides important new tools for analyzing and evaluating inter-religious, interethnic, and especially Jewish-Christian relations in a variety of cultural and historical contexts.

From Falashas to Ethiopian Jews

From Falashas to Ethiopian Jews PDF Author: Daniel Summerfield
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351566342
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
In the light of the Israeli government's plan to halt Ethiopian immigration, this book provides original research into the transformation of the Falashas to Ethiopian Jews during the twentieth century which made them eligible for immigration into Israel, adding a new dimension to the question of 'Who is a Jew', namely the case of the 'manufactured Jew'.

Operation Solomon

Operation Solomon PDF Author: Stephen Spector
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0195346432
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 314

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Book Description
"Operation Solomon" was one of the most remarkable rescue efforts in modern history, in which more than 14,000 Ethiopian Jews were airlifted to Israel in little more than a day. In this riveting volume, Stephen Spector offers the definitive account of this incredible story, based on over 200 interviews and exclusive access to confidential documents. Written with the pace and immediacy of a novel, here is the dramatic story of the rescue of the dark-skinned Jews of Ethiopia. Spector recounts how 20,000 Jews were willingly lured from their ancestral villages to Addis Ababa, expecting to be taken quickly from there to the Holy Land. Instead, they became pawns in a struggle between the Israeli government and Ethiopia's repressive dictator, who tried to coerce Israel into selling him weapons he needed in a losing war against rebel armies. In the resulting stalemate, the Jewish community was forced to live for nearly a year in squalid hovels, vulnerable to the dangers of the city, including crime and HIV. Worse yet, the imminent collapse of Addis Ababa, with the rebels closing in on the capital, raised the threat of bloody street fighting or even a genocidal attack on the Jews, a small minority in a nation that is primarily Christian and Muslim. Spector describes the tense negotiations among Israelis, Ethiopians, and Americans, which became increasingly urgent as time ran low and the danger mounted. And he highlights the secret deals and sudden setbacks that nearly aborted the mission at the eleventh hour, even as Israeli jets sat on the runway in Ethiopia, waiting to take the Jews to the land for which they had yearned for generations. Recounting the full story for the first time, Operation Solomon is a stirring account of a heroic rescue achieved in the face of daunting odds.

Black Jews, Jews, and Other Heroes

Black Jews, Jews, and Other Heroes PDF Author: Howard M. Lenhoff
Publisher: Gefen Publishing House Ltd
ISBN: 9789652293657
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 356

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Book Description
Seldom has a small grassroots organization polarized American Jewry as did the American Association for Ethiopian Jews (AAEJ) and seldom has a grassroots organization been so successful. How were five governments persuaded that it was to their interest to allow the threatened Jews of Ethiopia to fulfill their dream of rejoining their brethren in Israel? From 1974 through 1991, active AAEJ members demonstrated that it was possible to rescue black Jews from Africa. They enlisted the support of college students, American Rabbis, editors of the Jewish press and other Zionists. Lenhoff's memoir provides many untold stories behind this historic drama: How Israeli Ethiopian Jews and Americans Jews worked secretly to rescue over 1,000 Ethiopian Jews. How Jerry Weaver masterminded Operation Moses - the first mass exodus of black Africans as free people - not as slaves. How two gutsy American women set up a situation allowing Israel to rescue 14,000 Ethiopian Jews in one day of Operation Solomon. There is more: the intrigues in Israel between the politics of religion and the Law of Return; the daring heroic adventures of courageous Ethiopian Jews as they trekked from Ethiopia to Sudan. These are the stories of activists who challenged the establishment and won! Black Jews, Jews, and Other Heroes is written from the first-hand experiences of one of the AAEJ's three Presidents, scholar-activist Howard Lenhoff. Lenhoff and Gefen Publishing House are especially pleased to present also as part of this book, the untold story of "righteous gentile," Jerry Weaver.