The history and discovery of Falashas

See the story of a Jewish refugee Ethiopian Mr. Shlomo Mula

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The history of discovery
In 1860, British missionaries who were traveling in Ethiopia were the first Westerners to find the tribe of the Falashas, being surprised to see the faces burned with Semitic features and practicing Judaism. The members of the community observed the Sabbath, kept strict ritual laws the way they were described in the Torah.

Shortly after, the Jewish scholar Joseph Halevy decided to meet them in person. Could it be that these Jews were part of one of the tribes of Israel, lost long ago, at large of the First or Second Temple?

Halevy was received with curiosity and suspicion by the natives, who asked him: Sir, Jew? How can a Jew? You're white!

But when Halevy mentioned the word Jerusalem, all were convinced. The Falashas had been separated from other Jews for thousands of years. None of them had never been outside their village. However, all cherished a great dream, coming from generations past: back to Jerusalem. The Jews of Ethiopia suffered the same discrimination as others, in the diaspora.

In early 1970, there was an organized group of Beta Israel who wanted to emigrate to Israel, although its members still are not considered Jewish and therefore not entitled to make aliyah. One hundred Falashas already living in Israel, where he started a movement led by a Yemeni Jew born in Ethiopia, Ovadia d 'Tzahal, who made aliyah in 1930 and had relatives among the Falashas. So he pushed them to emigrate to Israel.

The Israeli government, seeing the imminence of the murder of thousands of them in the Ethiopian war took one of the most important recent history of our people; was time to rescue as many as possible would be bringing them to Israel, giving them home, education, health, employment, finally, offering the dignity deserved by every citizen of Israel.