Falasha migration2.jpg

The Beta Israel ( he, בֵּיתֶא יִשְׂרָאֵל, ''Bēteʾ Yīsrāʾēl''; gez, ቤተ እስራኤል, , modern ''Bēte 'Isrā'ēl'', EAE: "Betä Ǝsraʾel", "House of Israel" or "Community of Israel"), also known as Ethiopian Jews ( he, יְהוּדֵי אֶתְיוֹפְּיָה: ''Yehudey Etyopyah;'' Ge'ez: የኢትዮጵያ አይሁድዊ, ''ye-Ityoppya Ayhudi''), are a Jewish community that developed and lived for centuries in the area of the Kingdom of Aksum and the Ethiopian Empire, which is currently divided between the modern-day Amhara and Tigray regions of Ethiopia. Most of the Beta Israel community immigrated to Israel in the late 20th century.

The Beta Israel lived in northern and northwestern Ethiopia, in more than 500 small villages which were spread over a wide territory, alongside populations that were Muslim and predominantly Christian. Most of them were concentrated mainly on what are today North Gondar Zone, Shire Inda Selassie, Wolqayit, Tselemti, Dembia, Segelt, Quara, and Belesa. They practice a non-Talmudic form of Judaism that is similar in some respects to Karaite Judaism. In Israel, this form of Judaism is referred to as Haymanot. Beta Israel appear to have been isolated from mainstream Jewish communities for at least a millennium. They suffered religious persecution and a significant portion of the community were forced into Christianity during the 19th and 20th centuries; those converted to Christianity came to be known as the Falash Mura. The larger Beta Abraham Christian community is also considered to have historical links to the Beta Israel.

The Beta Israel made contact with other Jewish communities in the later 20th century. Following this, a rabbinic debate ensued over whether or not the Beta Israel were Jews. After '' halakhic'' (Jewish law) and constitutional discussions, Israeli officials decided, in 1977, that the Israeli Law of Return was to be applied to the Beta Israel. The Israeli and American governments mounted '' aliyah'' (immigration to Israel) transport operations. These activities included Operation Brothers in Sudan between 1979 and 1990 (this includes the major Operation Moses and Operation Joshua), and in the 1990s from Addis Ababa (which includes Operation Solomon).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

By the end of 2008, there were 119,300 people of Ethiopian descent in Israel, including nearly 81,000 people born in Ethiopia and about 38,500 native-born Israelis (about 32 percent of the community) with at least one parent born in Ethiopia or Eritrea (formerly part of Ethiopia).
, ''Ha'aretz'' At the end of 2019, there were 155,300 people of Ethiopian descent in Israel. Approximately 87,500 were born in Ethiopia, and 67,800 were Israeli-born with fathers born in Ethiopia.

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 converted from Christianity to Rabbinic Judaism upon their arrival to Israel.

Terminology

Throughout its history, the community has been referred to by numerous names. According to The Invention of Tradition, late tradition the (literally, 'house of Israel' in Ge'ez) had their origins in the 4th century CE, when it is claimed that the community refused to convert to Christianity during the rule of Abreha and Atsbeha (identified with Se'azana and Ezana), the monarchs of the Kingdom of Aksum who embraced Christianity.

This name contrasts with (literally, 'house of Christianity', meaning 'church' in Ge'ez). Originally, it did not have any negative connotations, and the community has since used Beta Israel as its official name. Since the 1980s, it has also become the official name used in the scholarly and scientific literature to refer to the community.Quirun, ''The Evolution of the Ethiopian Jews'', pp. 11–15; Aešcoly, ''Book of the Falashas'', pp. 1–3; Hagar Salamon, ''Beta Israel and their Christian neighbors in Ethiopia: Analysis of key concepts at different levels of cultural embodiment'', Hebrew University, 1993, pp. 69–77 (Hebrew); Shalva Weil, "Collective Names and Collective Identity of Ethiopian Jews" in ''Ethiopian Jews in the Limelight'', Hebrew University, 1997, pp. 35–48 The term ''Esra'elawi'' "Israelites" – which is related to the name Beta Israel – is also used by the community to refer to its members.

The name ''Ayhud'' ('Jews'), is rarely used in the community, as the Christians had used it as a derogatory term. The community has begun to use it only since strengthening ties with other Jewish communities in the 20th century. The term ''Ibrawi'' "Hebrew" was used to refer to the ''chawa'' ('free man') in the community, in contrast to ''barya'' ('slave'). The term ''Oritawi'' "Torah-true" was used to refer to the community members; since the 19th century, it has been used in opposition to the term ''Falash Mura'' (converts).

The derogatory term ''Falasha'', which means 'landless', 'wanderers', 'associated with monks' was given to the community in the 15th century by the Emperor Yeshaq I, and today its use is avoided because its meaning is offensive. ''Zagwe'', referring to the Agaw people of the Zagwe dynasty, among the original inhabitants of northwest Ethiopia, is considered derogatory, since it incorrectly associates the community with the largely pagan Agaw.

Religion

Haymanot ( Ge'ez: ሃይማኖት) is the colloquial term for "faith" which is also used as a term for the Jewish religion by the Beta Israel community, and Ethiopian Orthodox Christians also use it as a term for their own religion.

Texts

''Mäṣḥafä Kedus'' (Holy Scriptures) is the name for their religious literature. The language of the writings is Geʽez, which also is the liturgical language of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. The holiest book is the Orit (meaning "law") or Octateuch: the Five Books of Moses plus Joshua, Judges and Ruth. The rest of the Bible has secondary importance. They possess the Book of Lamentations from the traditional Hebrew canon, and part of the Book of Jeremiah, as in the Orthodox Tewahedo biblical canon.

Deuterocanonical books that also make up part of the canon are Sirach, Judith, Esdras 1 and 2, Meqabyan, Jubilees, Baruch 1 and 4, Tobit, Enoch, and the testaments of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Many of these books differ substantially from the similarly numbered and named texts in Koine Greek and Hebrew (such as "Maccabbees"), though some of the Ge'ez works are clearly dependent on those texts. Others appear to have other ancient literary and oral origins. All of the texts are also used by the Orthodox Christian population as well, though with varying levels of importance between the communities.

Important non-Biblical writings include: ''Nagara Muse'' "The Conversation of Moses", ''Mota Aaron'' "Death of Aaron", ''Mota Muse'' "Death of Moses", ''Te'ezaza Sanbat'' "Precepts of the Sabbath", ''Arde'et'' "Students", Gorgorios, ''Mäṣḥafä Sa'atat'' "Book of Hours", ''Abba Elias'' "Father Elijah", ''Mäṣḥafä Mäla'əkt'' "Book of Angels", ''Mäṣḥafä Kahan'' "Book of the Priest", ''Dərsanä Abrəham Wäsara Bägabs'' "Homily on Abraham and Sarah in Egypt", ''Gadla Sosna'' "The Acts of Susanna", and ''Baqadāmi Gabra Egzi'abḥēr'' "In the Beginning God Created". '' Zena Āyhud'' and ''Fālasfā''
"Philosophers" are two books that are not considered sacred, but have had great influence.

Prayer houses

The synagogue is called the ''masgid'' (place of worship), it is also called the ''bet maqdas'' (Holy house) or the ''ṣalot bet'' (Prayer house).

Dietary laws

Beta Israel kashrut law is based mainly on the books of Leviticus, Deuteronomy, and Jubilees. Permitted and forbidden animals and their signs appear in Leviticus 11:3–8 and Deuteronomy 14:4–8. Forbidden birds are listed in Leviticus 11:13–23 and Deuteronomy 14:12–20. Signs of permitted fish are written on Leviticus 11:9–12 and Deuteronomy 14:9–10. Insects and larvae are forbidden according to Leviticus 11:41–42. Gid hanasheh is forbidden per Genesis 32:33. Mixtures of milk and meat are not prepared or eaten, but are not banned either: Haymanot interpreted the verses Exodus 23:19, Exodus 34:26, and Deuteronomy 14:21 "shalt not seethe a kid in its mother's milk" literally, as in Karaite Judaism; whereas, under Rabbinic Judaism, mixing dairy products with meat is banned.

Ethiopian Jews were forbidden to eat the food of non-Jews. A Kahen eats only meat he has slaughtered himself, which his hosts prepare both for him and themselves. Beta Israel who broke these taboos were ostracized, and had to undergo a purification process. Purification included fasting for one or more days, eating only uncooked chickpeas provided by the Kahen, and ritual purification before entering the village.

Unlike other Ethiopians, the Beta Israel do not eat raw meat dishes such as kitfo or gored gored.

Calendar and holidays

The Beta Israel calendar is a lunar calendar of 12 months, each 29 or 30 days alternately. Every four years, there is a leap year which adds a full month (30 days). The calendar is a combination of the ancient calendar of Alexandrian Jewry, Book of Jubilees, Book of Enoch, Abu Shaker, and the Ge'ez calendar. The years are counted according to the counting of Kushta: "1571 to Jesus Christ, 7071 to the Gyptians, and 6642 to the Hebrews"; according to this counting, the year 5771 ( he, ה'תשע"א) in the Rabbinical Hebrew calendar is the year 7082 in this calendar.

Holidays in the ''Haymanot'' (religion) are divided into daily, monthly, and annually. The annual holidays by month are:

* Nisan: ''ba'āl lisan'' (Nisan holiday – New Year) on 1, ''ṣomä fāsikā'' (Passover fast) on 14, ''fāsikā'' (Passover) between 15–21, and ''gadfat'' (grow fat) or ''buho'' (fermented dough) on 22.
*Iyar: another ''fāsikā'' (Second Passover – Pesach Sheni) between 15–21.
* Sivan: ''ṣomä mã'rar'' (Harvest fast) on 11 and ''mã'rar'' (Harvest – Shavuot) on 12.
*Tammuz: ''ṣomä tomos'' (Tammuz fast) between 1–10.
* Av: ''ṣomä ab'' (Av fast) between 1–17.
* Seventh Sabbath: fixed as the fourth Sabbath of the fifth month.
*Elul: ''awd amet'' (Year rotate) on 1, ''ṣomä lul'' (Elul fast) between 1–9, ''anākel astar'i'' (our atonement) on 10 and ''asartu wasamantu'' (eighteenth) on 28.
*Tishrei: ''ba'āl Matqe'' (blowing holiday – Zikhron Trua) on 1, ''astasreyo'' (Day of Atonement – Yom Kippur) on 10 and ''ba'āla maṣallat'' (Tabernacles holiday – Sukkot) between 15–21.
* Cheshvan: holiday for the day Moses saw the face of God on 1, holiday for the reception of Moses by the Israelites on 10, fast on 12 and ''měhlělla'' (Supplication – Sigd) on 29.
*Kislev: another ''ṣomä mã'rar'' and ''mã'rar'' on 11 and 12 respectively.
*Tevet: ''ṣomä tibt'' (Tevet fast) between 1–10.
*Shevat: ''wamashi brobu'' on 1.
* Adar: ''ṣomä astēr'' (Fast of Esther – Ta'anit Ester) between 11–13.

Monthly holidays are mainly memorial days to the annual holiday; these are ''yačaraqā ba'āl'' ("new moon festival") on the first day of every month, ''asärt'' ("ten") on the tenth day to commemorate Yom Kippur, asrã hulat'' ("twelve") on the twelfth day to commemorate Shavuot, ''asrã ammest'' ("fifteen") on the fifteenth day to commemorate Passover and Sukkot, and ''ṣomä mälěya'' a fast on the last day of every month. Daily holidays include the ''ṣomä säňňo'' (Monday fast), ''ṣomä amus'' (Thursday fast), ''ṣomä 'arb'' (Friday fast), and the very holy ''Sanbat'' ( Sabbath).

Culture

Languages

The Beta Israel once spoke Qwara and Kayla, both of which are Agaw languages. Now, they speak Tigrinya and Amharic, both Semitic languages. Their liturgical language is Geʽez, also Semitic.Weil, Shalva 1987 'An Elegy in Amharic on Dr. Faitlovitch' Pe’amim33: 125–127. (Hebrew) Since the 1950s, they have taught Hebrew in their schools. Those Beta Israel residing in the State of Israel now use Modern Hebrew as a daily language.

Origins

Oral traditions

Contemporary scholars believe that the Beta Israel emerged comparatively recently and formed a distinct ethonational group in the context of historical pressures that came to a head from the 14th to the 16th centuries.
Many of the Beta Israel's accounts of their own origins state that they stem from the very ancient migration of some portion of the Tribe of Dan to Ethiopia, were led by the sons of Moses, perhaps at the time of the Exodus. Alternative timelines include the later crises in Judea, e. g., the split of the northern Kingdom of Israel from the southern Kingdom of Judah after the death of King Solomon or the Babylonian Exile. Other Beta Israel take as their basis the Christian account of Menelik's return to Ethiopia. Menelik is considered the first Solomonic Emperor of Ethiopia, and is traditionally believed to be the son of King Solomon of ancient Israel, and Makeda, ancient Queen of Sheba (in modern Ethiopia). Though all the available traditions correspond to recent interpretations, they reflect ancient convictions. According to Jon Abbink, three different versions are to be distinguished among the traditions which were recorded by the priests of the community.

Companions of Menelik from Jerusalem

According to one account, the Beta Israel originated in the kingdom of Israel and they were the contemporaries rather than the descendants of King Solomon and Menelik.

Migrants by the Egyptian route

According to another account, the forefathers of the Beta Israel are supposed to have arrived in Ethiopia by coming from the North, independently from Menelik and his company:

Ethiopian national myth

The Ethiopian history described in the ''Kebra Nagast'' relates that Ethiopians are descendants of Israelite tribes who came to Ethiopia with Menelik I, alleged to be the son of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba (or Makeda, in the legend) (see and ). The legend relates that Menelik, as an adult, returned to his father in Jerusalem, and later resettled in Ethiopia. He took with him the Ark of the Covenant.

In the Bible, there is no mention that the Queen of Sheba either married or had any sexual relations with King Solomon (although some identify her with the "black and beautiful" in Song of Songs 1:5). Rather, the narrative records that she was impressed with Solomon's wealth and wisdom, and they exchanged royal gifts, and then she returned to rule her people in Kush. However, the "royal gifts" are interpreted by some as sexual contact. The loss of the Ark is not mentioned in the Bible. Hezekiah later makes reference to the Ark in 2 Kings 19:15.

The ''Kebra Negast'' asserts that the Beta Israel are descended from a battalion of men of Judah who fled southward down the Arabian coastal lands from Judea after the breakup of the Kingdom of Israel into two kingdoms in the 10th century BCE (while King Rehoboam reigned over Judah).

Although the ''Kebra Nagast'' and some traditional Ethiopian histories have stated that Gudit (or "Yudit", Judith; another name given her was "Esato", Esther), a 10th-century usurping queen, was Jewish, some scholars consider that it is unlikely that this was the case. It is more likely, they say, that she was a pagan southerner or a usurping Christian Aksumite Queen. However, she clearly supported Jews, since she founded the Zagwe dynasty, who governed from around 937 to 1270 CE. According to the ''Kebra Nagast'', Jewish, Christian and pagan kings ruled in harmony at that time. Furthermore, the Zagwe dynasty claimed legitimacy (according to the ''Kebra Nagast'') by saying it was descended from Moses and his Ethiopian wife.

Most of the Beta Israel consider the ''Kebra Negast'' to be legend. As its name expresses, "Glory of Kings" (meaning the Christian Aksumite kings), it was written in the 14th century in large part to delegitimize the Zagwe dynasty, to promote instead a rival "Solomonic" claim to authentic Jewish Ethiopian antecedents, and to justify the Christian overthrow of the Zagwe by the "Solomonic" Aksumite dynasty, whose rulers are glorified. The writing of this polemic shows that criticisms of the Aksumite claims of authenticity were current in the 14th century, two centuries after they came to power. Many Beta Israel believe that they are descended from the tribe of Dan. Most reject the "Solomonic" and "Queen of Sheba" legends of the Aksumites.

Tribe of Dan

To prove the antiquity and authenticity of their claims, the Beta Israel cite the 9th-century CE testimony of Eldad ha-Dani (the Danite), from a time before the Zagwean dynasty was established. Eldad was a Jewish man of dark skin who appeared in Egypt and created a stir in that Jewish community (and elsewhere in the Mediterranean Jewish communities he visited) with claims that he had come from a Jewish kingdom of pastoralists far to the south. The only language Eldad spoke was a hitherto unknown dialect of Hebrew. Although he strictly followed the Mosaic commandments, his observance differed in some details from Rabbinic halakhah. Some observers thought that he might be a Karaite, although his practice also differed from theirs. He carried Hebrew books that supported his explanations of halakhah. He cited ancient authorities in the scholarly traditions of his own people.

Eldad said that the Jews of his own kingdom descended from the tribe of Dan (which included the Biblical war-hero Samson) who had fled the civil war in the Kingdom of Israel between Solomon's son Rehoboam and Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and resettled in Egypt. From there, they moved southwards up the Nile into Ethiopia. The Beta Israel say this confirms that they are descended from these Danites. Some Beta Israel, however, assert that their Danite origins go back to the time of Moses, when some Danites parted from other Jews right after the Exodus and moved south to Ethiopia. Eldad the Danite speaks of at least three waves of Jewish immigration into his region, creating other Jewish tribes and kingdoms. The earliest wave settled in a remote kingdom of the "tribe of Moses": this was the strongest and most secure Jewish kingdom of all, with farming villages, cities and great wealth. Other Ethiopian Jews who appeared in the Mediterranean world over the succeeding centuries and persuaded rabbinic authorities there that they were of Jewish descent, and so could if slaves be ransomed by Jewish communities, join synagogues, marry other Jews, etc, also referred to the Mosaic and Danite origins of Ethiopian Jewry. The Mosaic claims of the Beta Israel, in any case, like those of the Zagwe dynasty, are ancient.

Other sources tell of many Jews who were brought as prisoners of war from ancient Israel by Ptolemy I and settled on the border of his kingdom with Nubia ( Sudan). Another tradition asserts that the Jews arrived either via the old district of Qwara in northwestern Ethiopia, or via the Atbara River, where the Nile tributaries flow into Sudan. Some accounts specify the route taken by their forefathers on their way upriver to the south from Egypt.

Rabbinic views

As mentioned above, the 9th-century Jewish traveler Eldad ha-Dani claimed he descended from the tribe of Dan. He also reported other Jewish kingdoms around his own or in East Africa during this time. His writings probably represent the first mention of the Beta Israel in Rabbinic literature. Despite some skeptical critics, his authenticity has been generally accepted in current scholarship. His descriptions were consistent and even the originally doubtful rabbis of his time were finally persuaded. Specific details may be uncertain; one critic has noted Eldad's lack of detailed reference to Ethiopia's geography and any Ethiopian language, although he claimed the area as his homeland.

Eldad's was not the only medieval testimony about Jewish communities living far to the south of Egypt, which strengthens the credibility of his account. Obadiah ben Abraham Bartenura wrote in a letter from Jerusalem in 1488:

Rabbi David ibn Zimra of Egypt (1479–1573), writing similarly, held the Ethiopian Jewish community to be similar in many ways to the Karaites, writing of them on this wise:

...Lo! the matter is well-known that there are perpetual wars between the kings of Kush, which has three kingdoms; part of which belonging to the Ishmaelites, and part of which to the Christians, and part of which to the Israelites from the tribe of Dan. In all likelihood, they are from the sect of Sadok and Boethus, who are owcalled Karaites, since they know only a few of the biblical commandments, but are unfamiliar with the Oral Law, nor do they light the Sabbath candle. War ceases not from amongst them, and every day they take captives from one another...

In the same ''responsum'', he concludes that if the Ethiopian Jewish community wished to return to rabbinic Judaism, they would be received and welcomed into the fold, just as the Karaites who returned to the teachings of the Rabbanites in the time of Rabbi Abraham ben Maimonides.

Reflecting the consistent assertions made by Ethiopian Jews they dealt with or knew of, and after due investigation of their claims and their own Jewish behaviour, a number of Jewish legal authorities, in previous centuries and in modern times, have ruled ''halakhically'' (according to Jewish legal code) that the Beta Israel are indeed Jews, the descendants of the tribe of Dan, one of the Ten Lost Tribes. They believe that these people established a Jewish kingdom that lasted for hundreds of years. With the rise of Christianity and later Islam, schisms arose and three kingdoms competed. Eventually, the Christian and Muslim Ethiopian kingdoms reduced the Jewish kingdom to a small impoverished section. The earliest authority to rule this way was the 16th-century scholar David ibn Zimra (Radbaz), who explained elsewhere in a responsum concerning the status of a Beta Israel slave:

In 1973, Ovadia Yosef, the Sephardi chief rabbi of Israel ruled, based on the writings of David ben Solomon ibn Abi Zimra and other accounts, that the Beta Israel were Jews and should be brought to Israel. Two years later this opinion was confirmed by a number of other authorities who made similar rulings, including the Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Israel Shlomo Goren. In 1977, the law was passed granting the right of return.

Some notable poskim (religious law authorities) from non-Zionist Ashkenazi circles, placed a ''safek'' (legal doubt) over the Jewish peoplehood of the Beta Israel. Such dissenting voices include Rabbi Elazar Shach, Rabbi Yosef Shalom Eliashiv, Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, and Rabbi Moshe Feinstein. Similar doubts were raised within the same circles towards the Bene Israel and to Russian immigrants to Israel during the 1990s Post-Soviet aliyah.

In the 1970s and early 1980s, the Beta Israel were required to undergo a modified conversion ceremony involving immersion in a mikveh (ritual bath), a declaration accepting Rabbinic law, and, for men, a '' hatafat dam brit'' (symbolic recircumcision). Avraham Shapira later waived the ''hatafat dam brit'' stipulation, which is only a requirement when the ''halakhic'' doubt is significant. More recently, Shlomo Amar has ruled that descendants of Ethiopian Jews who were forced to convert to Christianity are "unquestionably Jews in every respect". With the consent of Ovadia Yosef, Amar ruled that it is forbidden to question the Jewishness of this community, pejoratively called Falash Mura in reference to their having converted.

Genetics

A number of DNA studies have been done on the Beta Israel.

Uniparental lineages

Genealogical DNA testing allows research into paternal (meaning only through fathers) and maternal (meaning only through mothers) ancestry.

According to Cruciani et al. (2002), haplogroup A is the most common paternal lineage among Ethiopian Jews. The clade is carried by around 41% of Beta Israel males, and is primarily associated with Nilo-Saharan and Khoisan-speaking populations. However, the A branches carried by Ethiopians Jews are principally of the A-Y23865 variety, which formed about 10,000 years ago and is localized to the Ethiopian highlands and the Arabian peninsula. The difference with the Khoisan is 54,000 years.

Additionally, around 18% of Ethiopian Jews are bearers of E-P2 (xM35, xM2); in Ethiopia, most of such lineages belong to E-M329, which has been found in ancient DNA isolated from a 4,500 year old Ethiopian fossil. Such haplotypes are frequent in Southwestern Ethiopia, especially among Omotic-speaking populations.

The rest of the Beta Israel mainly belong to haplotypes linked with the E-M35 and J-M267 haplogroups, which are more commonly associated with Cushitic and Semitic-speaking populations in Northeast Africa. Further analysis show that the E-M35 carried by Ethiopian Jews is primarily indigenous to the Horn of Africa rather than being of Levantine origin. Altogether, this suggests that Ethiopian Jews have diverse patrilineages indicative of indigenous Northeast African, not Middle Eastern, origin.

A 2011 mitochondrial DNA study focused on maternal ancestry sampling 41 Beta Israel found them to carry 51.2% macro-haplogroup L typically found in Africa. The remainder consisted of Eurasian-origin lineages such as 22% R0, 19.5% M1, 5% W, and 2.5% U. However, no identical haplotypes were shared between the Yemenite and Ethiopian Jewish populations, suggesting very little gene flow between the populations and potentially distinct maternal population histories. The maternal ancestral profile of the Beta Israel is similar to those of highland Ethiopian populations.

Autosomal ancestry

The Ethiopian Jews' autosomal DNA has been examined in a comprehensive study by Tishkoff et al. (2009) on the genetic affiliations of various populations in Africa. According to Bayesian clustering analysis, the Beta Israel generally grouped with other Cushitic and Ethiosemitic-speaking populations inhabiting the Horn of Africa. Also se
Supplementary Data

A 2010 study by Behar et al. on the genome-wide structure of Jews observed that "Ethiopian Jews (Beta Israel) and Indian Jews (Bene Israel and Cochini) cluster with neighbouring autochthonous populations in Ethiopia and western India, respectively, despite a clear paternal link between the Bene Israel and the Levant. These results cast light on the variegated genetic architecture of the Middle East, and trace the origins of most Jewish Diaspora communities to the Levant."

The Beta Israel are autosomally closer to other populations from the Horn of Africa than to any other Jewish population, including Yemenite Jews. A 2012 study by Ostrer et al. concluded that the Ethiopian Jewish community was founded about 2000 years ago probably by only a relatively small number of Jews from elsewhere with local people joining to the community, causing Beta Israel to become genetically distant from other Jewish groups.

According to a 2020 study by Agranat-Tamir et al., the DNA of the Ethiopian Jews is mostly of East African origin, but about 20% of their genetic makeup is of Middle Eastern semitic people

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