After two adventures with robbers in his camp, he arrived in Asmara at the beginning of March and immediately called on the Governor-General of the colony. He was anxious to express his gratitude for the Governor-General's help, to report to him on his journey and, above all, to obtain the assurance of the Italian authorities that they viewed with favour the proposal to found a Falasha school in Eritrea and that any report to the contrary was without foundation. This assurance -which was willingly given was requested in order to counteract Rabbi Nahum's assertion that the Italian authorities were opposed to the scheme.

Nahum had reported to the Alliance that the Governor General, Marquis Salvago Raggi, had told him that he did not see the use of establishing a school for Falashas at Asmara. He considered that such a project would meet with the disapproval of the 'natives' and would only encourage hatred of the Falashas. Nor was he impressed by a suggestion that an agricultural colony should be founded at Asmara since there was no suitable land available. It is not clear whether the difference between those two versions of the Italians' attitude was due to Faitlovitch's proposal to build a school in Eritrea, whereas Nahum spoke about a school in Asmara, but, in any case, the Nahum report was obviously the one which the Alliance wanted to hear.

The feast of Passover was approaching and Faitlovitch had promised to spend the holiday at a Falasha village in Eritrea called Tucul, near the Mareb river, and just inside the border with Ethiopia. He considered that this might be a suitable site for the school, having the advantage of being under Italian protection and also accessible to the Jews of Tigrai and the Gondar area.

On his return to Asmara he found that he had nearly a month to spare before he could sail for home, and he therefore decided to visit the Jews of Aden to whom he carried a letter of introduction from Elkan Adler, the brother of the English Chief Rabbi. He went in the expectation of raising support for the Falashas but was sadly disappointed. He found the community desperately in need of help from abroad and he was particularly horrified by the abject poverty and misery of the immigrants