Themes of Unity and Division in Beta Israel Identity Formation

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Themes of Unity and Division in Beta Israel Identity Formation the Jewish community. Part of the Beta Israel’s identity formation has involved interacting with this feedback system and maintaining a level of distinction from Western Judaisms. The process of determining, as a group, how much they are willing and able to assimilate into mainstream Jewish culture has brought the Beta Israel together and has strengthened their sense of unity. Facing the prejudices enacted against them, as well as the temptation to relinquish their more singular beliefs, has intensified the Beta Israel’s feelings of community as they determine what it means to be a Beta Israel in the context of modern Judaism. Conclusion From the fourth century to the present, the Beta Israel have found themselves living within two larger societies that have marked them simultaneously as both marginal and integral. In Ethiopia, they were feared and despised, forced to take on artisanal jobs that segregated them into an untouchable socioeconomic caste. Yet by assuming these taboo roles, the Beta Israel established themselves as an irreplaceable part of Ethiopian society. At times, they even breached the physical and intangible boundaries with Ethiopian Christians, recognizing the similarities between the groups. Still, the construction of their identity as dependent on a relationship with Ethiopian Christians was never complete, and the Beta Israel frequently sought to reinforce the boundaries between the populations, both ideologically and physically. They encountered a similar tension again when they began to interact with Western Jewish society. Europeans, Israelis, and Americans pressured the Ethiopian Jews to conform to a more normative and widely-practiced form of Judaism, and the Beta Israel were not opposed to this concept. They had always seen themselves as part of a wider Jewish movement. Despite these feelings of unity, however, the Beta Israel continued to sustain many of their practices and beliefs which make the community distinct from the Jewish mainstream. Four extremes were therefore available to the Beta Israel: self-identification with Ethiopian Christianity, self-identification with Western Judaism and Israel, self-identification in opposition to Ethiopian Christianity, and self-identification in opposition to Western Judaism and Israel. The Beta Israel refused to situate themselves 19
20 The Monitor - Summer 2010 entirely at any one of these poles. Together, they faced the benefits and repercussions of presenting themselves in any one of these particular ways. The process of determining where they saw themselves in relation to wider societies and changing historical circumstances clarified the complexities of what it meant to be a Beta Israel, giving rise to the distinctive identity they assert today. Notes 1 Steven Kaplan, “The Invention of Ethiopian Jews: Three Models (Trois approches de l’”invention” des Juifs ethiopiens),” Cahiers d’Études Africaines 33.132: 645. 2 Steven Kaplan, “The Falasha and the Stephanite: An Episode from ‘Gadla Gabra Masih’,” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 48.2: 4. 3 Hagar Salamon, The Hyena People (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999), 4. 4 James Quirin, “Caste and Class in Historical North-West Ethiopia: The Beta Israel (Falasha) and Kemant, 1300-1990,” The Journal of African History 39.2 (1998): 7. See also David Kessler, The Falashas: The Forgotten Jews of Ethiopia (New York: Schocken Books, 1985): 18. 5 Steven Kaplan, The Beta Israel (Falasha) in Ethiopia (New York: New York University Press, 1992a): 32. See also Kessler, 1985, 18. 6 Quirin, 1998. 7 Steven Kaplan and Chaim Rosen, “Created In Their Own Image: A Comment on Beta Israel Figurines,” Cahiers d’Études Africaines 36.141 (1996): 172. James Quirin, The Evolution of the Ethiopian Jews (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1992): 4, 30. Kaplan, 1992a, 68, 96. 8 Quirin, 1992, 30. 9 Kessler, 1985, 11. 10 Asher Naim, Saving the Lost Tribe: The Rescue and Redemption of Ethiopian Jews (New York: Ballantine Books, 2003), 119. See also Salamon, 1999; Quirin, 1992, 5; Kaplan, 1992a, 111. 11 Salamon, 1999, 8. 12 Ibid, 38-39 13 Kay Kaufman Shelemay, “A Quarter-Century in the Life of a Falasha Prayer,” Yearbook of the International Folk Music Council 10 (1978): 84. See also Kessler, 1985, 11; Quirin 1992, 34, 142; Kaplan, 1992a: 104. 14 Naim, 2003, 119; Quirin, 1992, 5, 111. 15 Salamon, 1999; Kessler, 1985, 12, 90; Quirin, 1992, 5, 141; Kaplan, 1992a, 111; Naim, 2003, 119. 16 Quirin, 1992, 111, 141. 17 Salamon, 1999, 37. 18 Stephen Spector, Operation Solomon (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005): 20. 19 Kessler 1985, 70; Salamon, 1999, 18; Quirin 1992, 5; Naim, 2003, 138. 20 Salamon, 1999, 20; Quirin, 1992, 5. 21 Salamon, 1999, 18.
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