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The Religious Experience of Ethiopian Jews in Israel

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The Religious Experience of Ethiopian Jews in Israel Religion &Theology Religion & Th eology 14 (2007) 347–394 www.brill.nl/rt Th e Religious Experience of Ethiopian Jews in Israel Abebe Zegeye Primedia Chair of Holocaust and Genocide Studies, School of Graduate Studies, University of South Africa, P.O. Box 392, UNISA 0003, Pretoria, South Africa [email protected] Abstract Despite their ancient and historic Judaic background, Ethiopian Jews have faced discrimination in Israel on religious grounds. Th is has been particularly evident in the questioning of the legiti- macy of the Beta Israel’s claims to be Jews, and the lack of full recognition for the kessim (Ethio- pian Jewish priests). Both these areas of discrimination have had profound, long-standing effects on the Beta Israel and have delayed their full integration into the wider Israeli society. When the fortunes of the Beta Israel’s religious being are approached from the hegemonic perspective of integration into the hegemonic Israel religion, their religious experience in Israel ultimately amounted to rejection. However, it is conceded that in context of social crisis, even the most beleaguered community will fashion its own religious images to make sense of the chaos. Th e Beta Israel have clung to their beliefs and have created new religious images. Th ese have allowed them to survive the trauma of cultural and spiritual transplantation. Keywords Beta Israel, Falash Mura, Jewishness, kessim, immigration, religious discrimination 1. Introduction: Th e Role of the Church in Ethiopia To the Beta Israel, the Jewish communities of Ethiopia, migration to Israel and settlement there as an integral part of the Jewish fold, became a deeply- held and enduring ambition – but one that was not easily attained. Th e his- tory of the Ethiopian Jews and their trials and tribulations in Israel, particularly as regards religious acceptance, has been explored by a number of scholars. Many, however, tend to view the complex reality of the situation – as far as immigration to Israel and acceptance of the Beta Israel as equals into the broader Israeli society are concerned – from a monotheistic point of view. Such studies are prone to be one-dimensional and to underestimate the reli- gious and social turmoil experienced by the Ethiopian Jews in Israel. Studies that estimate how far the Beta Israel have been integrated into the hegemonic Israel’s religious structures commit the fallacy of assuming that in © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2007 DOI: 10.1163/157430107X247630 348 A. Zegeye / Religion & Th eology 14 (2007) 347–394 all cases the Beta Israeli wanted to be co-opted into Israeli Jewry. Th ey measure the success and ‘progress’ of the Beta Israel in terms of how far they have been absorbed into the conventional notions of Israeli Jewry. In this mode of think- ing, the Beta Israel are denigrated as the inferior ‘other’, with no significant history, religion or culture of their own. Th is misconception feeds into the notion that the Beta Israel are ancient Jews, a religious tabula rasa on which the orthodox Israeli religion should inscribe itself. Th is dismissal and simplification of the Beta Israel religion is unjustified if we take cognisance of Amilcar Cabral’s injunction on the indestructibility of culture as an aspect of struggle. Cabral suggests that the culture of the ordinary people is never totally submerged when dominant ideologies are imposed upon it.1 Th is culture manifests itself in different ways. Th ese beliefs constantly collided, colluded with, and sometimes openly defied the religious codes observed in the ortho- dox Israeli religion. It is this particular religious conflict that should interest us rather than simplistic notions of cultural and religious integration. Th us, although this article will discuss the various forms of religious discrimination suffered by the Beta Israel, the major aim is to bring out those instances when the Beta Israel negotiated their own religious beliefs into the rigid and codified hegemonic Israeli Jewry. In order to comprehend how meaningful their religious beliefs are to the Beta Israel, one should first take note of the role the Ethiopian Orthodox Church has played in Ethiopia down the ages. Kebede writes: Any inquiry into the survival of Ethiopia is confronted with the question of power. Ethiopia survived for so long (it may be conjectured) thanks to a system of power suited to the purpose of survival. Th e system rested on three overlapping bases: the imperial throne, the Church, and the nobility.2 Scholars have often passed judgement on the Ethiopian Orthodox Church but to date there has not been a satisfactory elucidation of the unity of state and church in Ethiopia. Th e alleged ‘backwardness’ of the country has been attributed to the extreme conservatism, worldliness and ignorance of the priests, who, it is alleged, have ‘always been bitterly opposed to progress and to innovations’.3 Th ese critics go on to say that inalienable land grants by emperors to the church are believed to have amounted to as much as a third of cultivated land, turning the church into more of a land-owner than a reli- gious body. Th e Ethiopian Church has also been accused of a lack of mission- 1 Amilcar Cabral, Return to the Source (London: Monthly Review Press, 1973). 2 Kebede Messay, Survival and Modernization – Ethiopia’s Enigmatic Present: A Philosophical Discourse (Asmara: Red Sea Press, 1999), 67. 3 Messay, Survival and Modernization, 67. .
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