Tadesse Yacob 1 of Cairo and Addis Ababa

Author(s): Shalva Weil

Source: International Journal of Ethiopian Studies , Summer/Fall 2005-2006, Vol. 2, No.
1/2 (Summer/Fall 2005-2006), pp. 233-243
Published by: Tsehai Publishers

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/27828865

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 Tadesse Yacob1 of Cairo and Addis Ababa
Shatva Weil

Tadesse Yacob, a Public Service High Commissioner with the rank of Minister in
Emperor Haile Selassies era, was an international figure with conflicting identities. He
was both a member of the marginal Beta Israel (once known as <fFalasha "2) community,
an Ethiopian patriot, and a cosmopolitan. He died in Addis Abeba in January 2005. This
article will recount Tadesse Yacob's life, with particular reference to his Beta Israel origins
and his early Jewish education, and suggest that the schooling he received in Cairo set the
stage for three prominent and at times conflicting identities?internationalist, nationalist
and parochialist. The article is framed within a wider research setting carried on
internationally1 on Dr. Faitlovitch's pupils, of whom Tadesse Yacob was the youngest.

The Scientific Study of Dr. Faitlovitch's Pupils

Dr. Jacques Faitlovitch (1881-1955), a polish Jew was born in Lodz,

Poland, but moved to Paris to study at the Sorbonne at the turn of the century.4
Faitlovitch was a pupil of Semitic languages, who pursued his doctorate with
the well-known Semitic scholar, Prof. Joseph Halevy (1827-1917), who visited
Abyssinia, as it was then known, from France on behalf of the Alliance Isra?lite
Universelle with a view to setting up a network of schools in Jewish communities
in the East, Yemen and North Africa.5 In 1868, Halevy returned to Paris in the
company of Daniel, a young member of the Beta Israel entrusted to him by
the community kessoch (priests) and elders.6 Halevy tried to send out further
emissaries to Ethiopia through the Alliance organization and in 1896 succeeded
in persuading the organization to send Dr. Rappoport to Ethiopia, but he only
reached Egypt, due to differences of opinion with the board.7

Jacques Faitlovitch was influenced by Halevy's interest in Ethiopia and

the Beta Israel, and he himself decided to go on an expedition to Abyssinia.
He left Paris under the sponsorship of Baron Edmund de Rothschild for his
first voyage to Ethiopia in 1904. Once there, he became moved by the plight of
the Beta Israel, and decided to work to bring them in line with world Jewry. In
1905, he took Tamrat Emmanuel, a son of a prominenet Christian family from
his mother's side, but his father was a converted Falasha, out of the Swedish
The International Journal of Ethiopian Studies (ISSN: 1543-4133) is published two times a year by
Tsehai Publishers, P. O. Box: 1881, Hollywood, CA 90078. Copyright ? 2006. Volume II, Number 1&2.

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234 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ETHIOPIAN STUDIES

mission in Asmara,8 and together with Gete Ermias from Gondar,9 set off to
Europe to imbibe the boys with a full Jewish and secular education, first in
Jerusalem and later in Italy and France. In 1908, he returned to Ethiopia for
a second expedition and again returned to Europe with boys from the Beta
Israel.10 From the time of his first mission to Ethiopia in 1904-5 until 1935,
when he was finally prevented from visiting Ethiopia because of the fascist
Italian occupation, Dr. Faitlovitch brought out of Ethiopia 25 young Falasha
males, whom he "planted" in different Jewish communities in Palestine and
Europe (in London, Paris, Florence, Vienna, Frankfurt and Zaghreb).11 The
dream was that these boys would return to Ethiopia and teach their brethren
the tenets of Judaism.12

Until the 1940s, many of the 25 students succeeded in obtaining higher

education in Europe and even returned to Ethiopia as teachers in the school
which Dr. Faitlovitch established in Addis Abeba for the "Falasha" children.13
A few died in Europe of disease; others died on the way home to Ethiopia. The
students had to cope with loneliness, poverty and sickness; some became ill and
died of tuberculosis, jaundice or depression. Nevertheless, some students were

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 TADESSE YACOB OF CAIRO AND ADDIS ABABA 235

very successful and gained important municipal and governmental positions

in Ethiopia. Tamrat Emmanuel became an advisor to Emperor Haile Selassie,
and was eventually buried in Jerusalem; his relative Mekonnen Levi had a less
glamorous career.14
Over the past 20 years, and primarily since Operation Moses 1984-5, which
airlifted 7,700 Ethiopian Jews from the Sudan to the State of Israel and focused
attention on this fascinating ethnic and/or religious group, research has been
carried out at a steady pace on the fate of most of the 25 male students taken
out by Dr. Faitlovitch to study outside Ethiopia. Examples of scholarship on
the subject of Dr. Faitlovitch's pupils include the obituary of Yona Bogale
recalling his life's work15, reconstruction of the tragic life of Hizkiahu Finkas16,
the life and death of Solomon Isaac, who kept a "secret" diary in Hebrew and
died on the way back to Ethiopia in the 1920s17, the trips of Menguistu Yitzhak
and Mekuria Tsegaya to Europe18, and reconstructions of the life of Abraham
Adgeh.19
SOSTEJE (Society for the Study of Ethiopian Jewry) was established as
a scientific society to study the Ethiopian Jews in Oxford, England in 1991.20
Its international conferences have consistently contained lectures on Dr.
Faitlovitch's pupils, such as Gete Ermias, or Hailu Desta. In the SOSTEJE
conference, which took place at Addis Ababa University in October 2004, I
lectured on Tadesse Yacob.21 To date, to the best of my knowledge, there is not
a single scientific article or book devoted to Dr. Faitlovitch's youngest pupil,
Tadesse Yacob, although there are references to him by scholars in books and
articles. Messing, for example, describes him as "the first modern Falasha to
grow up in the shelter of ascribed status."22 Leslau, moreover, claimed that
"you seldom find a man as honest as Mr. Tadesse."23
This paper, which is an outcome of the Addis Ababa University conference
and a tribute to Tadesse Yacob's life,24 contributes to the growing academic body
of knowledge on the diverse and fascinating lives of Dr. Faitlovitch's pupils.
The paper is the culmination of work which began in the mid-1980 and through
the 1990s unto the present day. It relies on oral interviews with Tadesse Yacob,
many of which were taped, from the 1980s to the 1990s; hitherto unpublished
letters and documents; and archival research at the Faitlovitch collection in the
Tel Aviv University library in Israel.

Village Origins and Early Education

Born on 28 June 1913 in the village of Semano in the district of Sekalt
from a prominent Christian family on his mother's side, Tadesse Yacob was the
son of Negussie Jember, a Falasha converted to Christianity and Yeshiharag
Gabre-Mariam. His mother was the elder sister of Prof. Tamrat Emmanuel

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236 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ETHIOPIAN STUDIES

the first p?ipil selected by the Jewish advocate, Dr. Jacques Faitlovitch. Until
the age of 12, Tadesse Yacob studied in the local Christian village school in his
native village in Semano in the Sekelt district in Dembia.
In 1923, Dr. Faitlovitch founded the "Falasha" school in Addis Abeba and
appointed his first pupil, Tamrat Emmanuel, as principal of the school.25 He
had played with the idea of setting up a school for the Beta Israel elsewhere,
for example in Palestine,26 but in the end, he found Addis Abeba a viable
option, despite its location far away from the Beta Israel villages. Faitlovitch
believed that education was the answer both to the increasing influence of
Christian missionaries on the Beta Israel, and to the group's isolation from
world Judaism.

In 1925, Tamrat Emmanuel brought his nephew Tadesse Yacob to join the
Addis Abeba school. He was the youngest of all the students?and one of the
brightest. In 1929, he returned to his parent's village, at their request, where
he studied at the Christian Mission School opened by the German Protestant
missionary Flad at Djenda in the mid-nineteenth century.27 It is interesting that
his parents wanted Tadesse to acquire the best education, and he moved from
the Jewish counter-mission that Dr. Faitlovitch set up to oppose the missionary
movement in Christianity among the Beta Israel, to the Mission. This oscillation
pervaded Tadesse Yacob's personal life, at times defining himself as a Jew, and
at other times as a Christian. By 1930, Tadesse persuaded his parents to return
to Addis Abeba and he was re-installed again at the Falasha school. Once there,
he was selected to study in Egypt. Tadesse was unique among Dr. Faitlovitch's
pupils in that he did not receive his education in Europe or Palestine.

Jewish Education in Cairo

It should be pointed out that although Tadesse Yacob was the only one
of Dr. Fatilovitch's pupils to stay for a substantial period in Egypt, he was not
the first Beta Israel to study there. In fact, he was following in the footsteps
of Daniel, the Beta Israel boy who arrived in Europe in 1868 with Prof.
Halevy. However, probably due to racism, Daniel was not accepted in the
Alliance Israelite Universelle school in Paris, and was sent back to Alexandria in
Egypt, where he died soon after. The Alliance claimed that he was purchased
in a slave market in Africa and was not a Jew, while senior members of the
Ethiopian Jewish community in Israel today have told me that they heard from
their ancestors that Daniel "looked" like a barya (slave)2* and may have come
from the Sudanese border.29 Furthermore, Hizkiahu Finkas, another of Dr.
Faitlovitch's pupils mentioned above, had also studied in Alexandria, Egypt,
but he fell desperately ill, his studies were poor, and he was a burden to the
Jewish community.30

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 TADESSE YACOB OF CAIRO AND ADDIS ABABA 237

Tadesse's Egyptian experience was entirely different. He was sent to the

famous Jewish school in Cairo, Egypt -PEcole Moise de Cattani Pacha de la
Communaut? Israelite du Caire, where he learned to pray in Hebrew and to
study Jewish texts. He proved to be a brilliant pupil and moved on to the Lycee
Francais in Cairo, where he studied till 1937. His French was perfect and he
spoke it like his native tongue, Amharic, until his latter days. At school, he also
learned to read and write English at a high level. In 1935, the Director of the
Ecoles de la Communaut? Israelite du Caire, in the course of a ceremony in the
presence of dignitaries declared that the best pupil at the school from 1932-36
was Tadesse Yacob. He was given a prize for "assiduity," in Tadesse's words,
conduct, and examination results at the end of the year.31 Dr. Fatilovitch was
informed of Tadesse's academic success and came to see him at the end of
1936 in Cairo. He stayed a week during which time Faitlovitch introduced
Tadesse to his colleague and close associate Prof. Nahum Slouschz (1872
1966), professor of 18th and 19th century Hebrew literature, at the Ecole
Normale de F Alliance Israelite Universelle at Paris. Slouschz had published on
the renascence of modern Hebrew literature,32 and was active with Faitlovitch
and others in promoting a pan-Hebrew vision encompassing the Beta Israel.33
In one of the interviews I held with Tadesse Yacob in his home in 1988, he told
me how he admired Slouschz's perspicacity and the idea of "regeneration,"
popular among French and other intellectuals of that period. According to
one of Tadesse's classmates interviewed in Tel Aviv in 1988,34 the Jewish
community of Cairo adopted Tadesse as their own, and he lived happily in
their midst until the outbreak of war. In his reminiscences, Tadesse referred to
his Cairo period as his formative and happiest years.35

Religio-Ethnic, National and International Identities

The education Tadesse Yacob received in Cairo influenced him to develop
three different identities, which surfaced at different times and contexts: the
parochial, religious-ethnic identity; the national identity; and the international
identity.

Religious-ethnic Identity

Tadesse Yacob's experience in the Jewish community of Cairo served to

strengthen his ties with his own people, the Beta Israel, and keep alive in him his
Jewish identity. Although later ambivalent to that identity, and simultaneously
embracing his "Christian side," as he put it, he was in no way indifferent to the
fate of the Jews in Ethiopia. He never defined himself as a "Zionist," yet he
never denied his Beta Israel village origins. At times, he attributed Zionism for
the detrimental situation of the Beta Israel in the villages. For example, when

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238 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ETHIOPIAN STUDIES

the Falasha school in Wuzzaba was burned down in the 1950s, according to
an Israeli Consulate report (5.2.1958), Tadesse claimed that the attack was a
demonstration by the local Christian population displaying their dissatisfaction
with the fact that the school had become a propaganda centre encouraging
aliya (immigration) to Israel.36 In interviews with me, he expressed the opinion
many times that aliya was detrimental to the condition of the "Falashas" and
would not improve their lot.37
The establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 was a turning-point for
Jewish diaspora. The Beta Israel, as Ethiopian citizens, were not permitted
by the government of Emperor Haile Sellasie to emigrate to Israel. As an
Ethiopian nationalist, Tadesse Yacob was an advocate for the modernization
of the Beta Israel and he helped organize ten village classes for 200 Beta
Israel students in Ethiopia. His uncle, Tamrat Emmanuel, described him as a
member of the group "qui s'int?resse a donner aux Falashas une organization
moderne."38 In the 1950s, he served as treasurer in Dr. Faitlovitch's Pro-Falash?
Committee, which established a school in Asmara. He very often interceded
with the Emperor on behalf of the Ethiopian Jews in the Gondar region and
was instrumental in the 1950s in dispatching two groups of youth (including
his own son) to study in the Kfar Batya dormitory school in Israel.39

His religio-ethnic ties moved him to help his brethren, but did not succeed
in linking him emotionally to the wider Jewish people. He did not really support
Operation Moses (1984-5) and the exit of the Beta Israel from Ethiopia to
Israel.40 When Operation Solomon took place in 1991 and the Beta Israel were
airlifted to Israel from Addis Abeba,41 he had the opportunity of migrating to
Israel, but he preferred to remain in Ethiopia.

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 TADESSE YACOB OF CAIRO AND ADDIS ABABA 239

National Identity
There is no question that Tadesse Yacob was a nationalist, in the sense
of the word that is less fashionable today. His career was meteoric, and in
many ways can be considered parallel to the progress of Ethiopia as a modern
country. His employment opportunities not only helped him personally, but
also moved Ethiopia from an essentially feudalistic society to a more modern
one.

Tadesse was recruited straight from Egypt to work in the Secretariat of the
Secret Service of the English army in Khartoum.42 In 1940, he was appointe
chief of the Propaganda Unit of the Godjam Front on behalf of Haile Selassi
the Emperor, who was hoping to re-enter Ethiopia. In 1941, Tadesse becam
Director of the Ministry of Finances in Ethiopia, a position in which he work
till March 1944. In 1952, he was appointed the Director-General of the Mine
in the Ministry of Finance; in 1954, he became Vice President of the Cons
of Administration of Telecommunications; in 1956, he acted as Assistan
Minister of the Ethiopian Electric Light and Powers Authority; in 1958, he
was appointed Vice Minister of the Ministry of Finances. In 1960, Tades
became the Vice-Minister of the Ministry of Agriculture. In December 1961,
he was appointed Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Cabinet, a post
he held till 1966, when he was appointed High Public Service Commissioner
with the rank of Minster of the Public Service Pension Commission, and of
the Central Personnel Agency and Public Service Commission. From 196
till 1974, when he was imprisoned as part of Haile Selassie's entourage,
also acted as President of the Advisory Council of the Commercial Bank of
Ethiopia.
He was a survivor, like Ethiopia itself. In December 1960, he survived the
attempted coup d'etat against the Emperor, and was rewarded by receiving
the title "Excellency" in his post of Vice-Minister of Agriculture.43 He also
survived the regime of Mengistu Haile Mariam, although he was imprisoned
for 81/2 years during that period, emerging a patriot in a "new" Ethiopia.
His identity was linked with the national identity of Ethiopia and he was a
fierce advocate for his country, believing in the future and modernization of
Ethiopia. He received the Ethiopian Star of Victory in 1941, the Grand Officer
of the order of Menelik II and the Grand Cordon of the order of the Ethiopian
Star.

International Identity

Due to his remarkable expertise with languages acquired in his Cairo

schooling, where he acquired impeccable French, excellent English, Hebrew

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240 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ETHIOPIAN STUDIES

and Arabic, Tadesse Yacob simultaneously felt an identity with the concept of
internationalism. He was frequently the host of important overseas celebrities,
including a long line of academics, ranging from Prof. Edward Ullendorff
to Prof. Wolf Leslau, and acted as the cosmopolitan in all his dealings with
foreign guests. He was often requested to act as mediator in international
negotiations, and sometimes to intervene with the Emperor, either with respect
to his more parochial "Falasha" identity, or with respect to his Ethiopian
national identity.

It was extremely important for him to mention that he was honoured in

different countries throughout the world, in addition to his native Ethiopia.
During the Second World War, he received the Campaign Star as well as
the coveted Africa Star from the English. He received the honour of the
Commmander of the Legion of Honour and the Grand Officer of that Legion
from the French, as well as other awards from Yugoslavia and Romania.

Conclusion
This paper has examined the role and identities of Tadesse Yacob as part
of the growing literature on Dr. Faitlovitch's pupils, who studied in Europe,
Palestine and Egypt during the pre-Second World War era. To the best of
my knowledge, the paper is the first academic article on Tadesse Yacob, who
ironically reached the highest position in Ethiopia of all Dr. Faitlovitch's
students, and from many points of view, was the most successful.

Tadesse Yacob represented a complex figure from a different era, who

combined and manipulated multiple religious, ethnic, national and international
identities. He never saw the contradiction in acting out complex and at times
competing identities at different times and on various occasions. Although
nearly all of his religo-ethnic group, the Beta Israel, and his "Falasha" relatives
from the Gondar villages emigrated to Israel in the 1980s and 1990s, he stayed
in Ethiopia, retaining personal ties with them, yet disagreeing with their
decision to migrate.

Educated in the Jewish community in Cairo, he maintained close links

with family members, including those of his Beta Israel wife; at the same time,
he maintained ties with friends from Europe and scholars from the United
States. He represented for many?Ethiopian and non-Ethiopian alike?a
cosmopolitan personality who was as familiar with the mores of the world, as
well as with the customs of Ethiopia.

In the final analysis, however, he primarily perceived himself as "Ethiopian"

and sought to cultivate his aristocratic Amhara lineage; the fact that he was
buried in Ethiopia represented for many his deep ties to his national heritage.

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 TADESSE YACOB OF CAIRO AND ADDIS ABABA 241

Notes
1 There have been various spellings in English of Tadesse Yacob 's name:
Taddasa Yaqob, Taddessa Jacob and more. This article has selected the way
Tadesse Yacob himself chose to write and sign his own name in English; he even
wrote me his own curriculum vitae with this spelling (personal correspondence
Tadesse Yacob-Shalva Weil, May 1989).
2 For different designations of the group "Falasha," "Beta Israel,"
"Ethiopian Jew" and more, see: Shalva Weil, 1995. "Collective Designations
and Collective Identity among Ethiopian Jews," in Shalva Weil (Ed), Israel
Social Science Research, 10, 2, 25-40.

3In particular, in Italy and Israel, but also in France and elsewhere.
4 Emanuela, Trevisan Semi. 1999. "Universalisme juif et pros?lytisme:
l'action de Jacques Faitlovitch, 'p?re' des Beta Israel (Falachas)," in Revue de
Vhistoire des religions 216,193-211.

5 Jacques Halevy. 1877. "Travels in Abyssinia," in A. L. Loewy (ed.),

Miscellany of Hebrew Literature, Series 2, 2, 252.

6 Steven Kaplan. 1991. The Beta Israel (Falasha) in Ethiopia (New York and
London: New York University Press), 141.

7 Joseph Tobi. 2005. "Joseph Halevy and the Study of Yemenite Jewry,"
Pe'amim 100, 23-72.
8 Emanuela Trevisan Semi. 2000. L1 epistolario di Taamrat Emmanuel: Un
intellettuale ebreo d'Ethiopia nellaprima meta del XXsecolo. (Torino: L'Harmattan
Italia), 14-53.
9 Carlo Guandalina. 2005. "Gete Yirmiahu and Beta Israel's Regeneration:
a Difficult Path," in Tudor, Parfitt and Emanuela, Trevisan Semi Jews of
Ethiopia: the Birth of an Elite (London and New York: Routledge), 112-121.
10 Jacques Faitlovitch. 1910. Quer durch Abessinien: Meine zweite Reise zu den
Falaschas. (Berlin: Poppelauer).
llRichard, Pankhurst. 1962. 'The foundations of education, printing,
newspapers, book production, libraries and literacy in Ethiopia," Ethiopian
Observer, 6, 3, 241-290. Pankhurst mentions 22 Beta Israel pupils who studied
abroad, but there were 25.

12 Emanuela Trevisan Semi. 1994. "The Educational Activity of Jacques

Faitlovitch in Ethiopia (1904-1924)," Pe'amim 58, 86-97 (Hebrew).
13 Emanuela Trevisan Semi. 1999. "Universalisme juif et pros?lytisme:
l'action de Jacques Faitlovitch, 'p?re' des Beta Israel (Falachas)," in Revue de
Vhistoire des religions 216, 193-211.

14 Emanuela, Trevisan Semi. 2005. "Ethiopian Jews in Europe: Tamrat

Emmanuel in Italy and Makonnen Levi in England," in Tudor, Parfitt and

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 242 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ETHIOPIAN STUDIES

Emanuela, Trevisan Semi Jews of Ethiopia: the Birth of an Elite (London and
New York: Routledge), 74-100.
15 Shalva, Weil. 1987. "In memoriam: Yona Bogale." Pe'amim 33:140-143.
(Hebrew).
16 Emanuela, Trevisan Semi. 1999. "From Wolleqa to Florence: the Tragic
Story of Faitlovitch's Pupil Hizkiahu Finkas," in Tudor, Parfitt and Emanuela,
Trevisan Semi (eds.) The Beta Israel in Ethiopia and Israel: Studies on the Ethiopian
Jews. London: Curzon, 15-39.

17 Shalva, Weil. 1999. "The Life and Death of Solomon Isaac," in Tudor
Parfitt and Emanuela, Trevisan Semi (eds.) The Beta Israel in Ethiopia and Israel:
Studies on the Ethiopian Jews. (London: Curzon), 40-49.

18 Benjamin, Mekuria. 1999. "The Long Journey of the Young Beta Israel
from Lasta," in Tudor, Parfitt and Emanuela, Trevisan Semi (eds.) The Beta
Israel in Ethiopia and Israel: Studies on the Ethiopian Jews. (London: Curzon), 296
300.
19 Shalva Weil. 2003. "Abraham Adgeh," Encyclopaedia Aethiopica
(Weisbaden), 48; Shalva Weil. 2005. "Abraham Adgeh: the Perfect English
Gentleman," in Tudor Parfitt and Emanuela Trevisan Semi Jews of Ethiopia:
the Birth of an Elite (London and New York: Routledge), 101-111.

20 As of October 2004, I have the privilege of acting as the SOSTEJE

President.

21 My thanks to the Addis Ababa University and the Institute for Ethiopian
Studies for facilitating that conference.

22Messing, Simon. 1982. The Story of theFalashas: "Black Jews" of Ethiopia.

(Connecticut: Balshon), 68.
23 Daniel Summerfield. 2003. From Falashas to Ethiopian Jews. (London:
Routledge Curzon), 201, Fn.207, quoting a letter from W. Leslau to Rabbi
Davis, 15.2.1950, Faitlovitch Collection, no. 142.

24 The lecture was attended by Martha Tadesse, Tadesse Yaacov's daughter,

while he was still alive.

25 Itzhak, Grinfeld. 1992. "The Hebrew school in Addis Ababa at the

beginning of the Italian occupation(l936-7)," Dorle'dorS, 51-84. (Hebrew).
26 Faitlovitch Collection, no. 93.

27 Martin, Johann Flad. 1869. The Falashas (Jews) of Abyssinia (London:

William Macintosh).
28 For further information on barya in Israel, see Hagar Salamon. 1995.
"Reflections of Ethiopian Cultural Patterns on the 'Beta Israel* Absorption
in Israel: the Barya Case," in Steven Kaplan, Tudor Parfitt and Emanuela
Trevisan Semi (eds.) Between Africa and Zion (Jerusalem: Ben-Zvi Institute), 1
26-132.

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 TADESSE YACOB OF CAIRO AND ADDIS ABABA 243

29 Emanuela Trevisan Semi. 2005. "Ethiopian Jews in Europe" op. cit. 76,
97, fn. 10.
30 Emanuela, Trevisan Semi. 1999. "From Wolleqa to Florence" op. cit.
31 Personal correspondence: Tadesse Yacob-Shalva Weil, Addis Ababa, 13
July 1990.

32 Nahum Slouschz. 1909. The Renaissance of Hebrew Literature (1743-1885).

(Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society).
33 It was Slouschz who introduced Tamrat Emmanuel and Gete Yirmiahu
to Hebrew in 1905 at the Ecole Normale Orientale in Paris. "Conversion and
Judaisation," in Tudor Parfitt and Emanuela Trevisan Semi. 2002. Judaising
Movements: Studies in the Margins of Judaism (London: Routledge Curzon), 59.

34 Interview with Sammy Shemtov, Tel Aviv, December 1988.

35 Interviews during 1988 and thereafter.

36 Daniel, Summerfield. 2003. From Falashas to Ethiopian Jews. (London:

Routledge Curzon), 209, Fn.252.
37 He always referred to the Beta Israel/Ethiopian Jews as "Falashas."
38 Tamrat Emmanuel to Schwarzbart, 13.9.1949, Faitlovitch Collection.
No. 137, mentioned in Daniel Summerfield. 2003. From Falashas to Ethiopian
Jews. (London: Routledge Curzon), 201, Fn. 127.
39 Daniel, Summerfield. 1999. The Impact of the Italian Occupation on the
Beta Israel, in T. Parfitt and E. Trevisan Semi (eds.) The Beta Israel in Ethiopia
and Israel: Studies on the Ethiopian Jews. (London: Curzon), 118.
40 Gadi, Ben-Ezer. 2002. The Ethiopian Jewish Exodus: Narratives of the
Migration Journey to Israel 1977-1985. (London and New York, Routledge).

41 Asher, Nairn. 2003. Saving the Lost Tribe: The Rescue and Redemption of the
Ethiopian Jews. (New York: Ballantine).
42 The following section is based on a series of interviews with Tadesse
Yacob in 1988.

43 Messing, Simon. 1982. The Story of the Falashas "Black Jews" of Ethiopia
(Connecticut: Balshon), 68.

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