MY FAMILY
THE BETA ISRAEL CURRICULUM

RECOGNIZING JEWISHNESS

 Teachers should now proceed to explain:

Beyond contending with the loss of the Holy Temple, the Beta Israel faced a more dire existential crisis: Religious leaders in Israel were still debating their Jewish status – and many cast doubt, despite the 1973 ruling of Sephardic Chief Rabbi Ovadia Yosef. Israel’s religious leaders therefore required the Beta Israel to “undergo giyyur le-humrah [meaning] precautionary conversions, requiring circumcision, immersion in a mikveh (i.e., ritual pool of water), and acceptance of the mitzvot (commandments), in order to remove all doubts about the status of the Ethiopian Jews.”151

For so many members of the Beta Israel this “precautionary conversion” was a profound insult: to themselves personally, to their ancestors, and to the very traditions that sustained their Judaism for more than 2,500 years. The directive made it clear that although the Beta Israel had been considered Jews while living in Ethiopia, now that they were in the State of Israel, their Jewishness was no longer recognized.

151 Ibid, 71.