Jacques Faitlovitch (1881–1955), an

Ashkenazi Jew Ashkenazi Jews ( ; he, יְהוּדֵי אַשְׁכְּנַז, translit=Yehudei Ashkenaz, ; yi, אַשכּנזישע ייִדן, Ashkenazishe Yidn), also known as Ashkenazic Jews or ''Ashkenazim'',, Ashkenazi Hebrew pronunciation: , singu ...

born in

Łódź Łódź, also rendered in English as Lodz, is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located approximately south-west of Warsaw. The city's coat of arms is an example of ca ...

Congress Poland Congress Poland, Congress Kingdom of Poland, or Russian Poland, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland, was a polity created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna as a semi-autonomous Polish state, a successor to Napoleon's Duchy of Warsaw. I ...

, studied

Ethiopian languages The languages of Ethiopia include the official languages of Ethiopia, its national and regional languages, and a large number of minority languages, as well as foreign languages. Overview There are 92 individual languages indigenous to Ethiop ...

at the Sorbonne under Joseph Halévy. He travelled to Ethiopia for the first time in 1904, with support from the French banker, Baron

Edmond de Rothschild Baron Abraham Edmond Benjamin James de Rothschild (Hebrew: הברון אברהם אדמונד בנימין ג'יימס רוטשילד - ''HaBaron Avraham Edmond Binyamin Ya'akov Rotshield''; 19 August 1845 – 2 November 1934) was a French memb ...

. He travelled and lived among the

Ethiopian Jews 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 ...

, and became a champion of their cause. In 1923 he opened a Jewish school in

Addis Ababa Addis Ababa (; am, አዲስ አበባ, , new flower ; also known as , lit. "natural spring" in Oromo), is the capital and largest city of Ethiopia. It is also served as major administrative center of the Oromia Region. In the 2007 census, t ...

. A

Zionist Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת ''Tsiyyonut'' after '' Zion'') is a nationalist movement that espouses the establishment of, and support for a homeland for the Jewish people centered in the area roughly corresponding to what is known in Je ...

, he settled in

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the G ...

in the 1930s and had links with

Yitzhak Ben Zvi Yitzhak Ben-Zvi ( he, יִצְחָק בֶּן־צְבִי‎ ''Yitshak Ben-Tsvi''; 24 November 188423 April 1963) was a historian, Labor Zionist leader and the longest-serving President of Israel. Biography Born in Poltava in the Russian Empir ...

and with the revisionist movement. Dr. Faitlovitch bequeathed his valuable library to the Tel Aviv Municipality, with the collection now located at the Sourasky Library of the

Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv University (TAU) ( he, אוּנִיבֶרְסִיטַת תֵּל אָבִיב, ''Universitat Tel Aviv'') is a public research university in Tel Aviv, Israel. With over 30,000 students, it is the largest university in the country. Locate ...

. A film about Faitlovitch's life was planned by Six Point Films. A film entitled ''Jacques Faitlovitch and the Lost Tribes'', directed by French filmmakers, Maurice and Sarah Dorès, was screened in 2012 and later in various film festivals.

References

Sources

Return of a Lost Tribe
* * Photos and letters of Dr. Faitlovitch appear in the ''Koren Ethiopian Haggada: The Journey to Freedom (page 72-73)''

External links

*
Works by or about Jacques Faitlovitch in University Library JCS Frankfurt am Main: Digital Collections Judaica
1881 births 1955 deaths Scientists from Łódź French anthropologists Linguists from France Polish emigrants to Mandatory Palestine University of Paris alumni Israeli anthropologists Beta Israel Jewish Ethiopian history Jewish anthropologists Congress Poland expatriates in France Burials at Nahalat Yitzhak Cemetery 20th-century anthropologists 20th-century linguists Polish expatriates in Ethiopia {{Ethiopia-bio-stub