The history of the Jews is the history of a people following the Jewish religion and linked indissolubly with the land of lsrael. The long-drawn-out argument as to whether the Falashas are Jews has in the last few years been settled affirmatively first by the rabbis and later by the government in Israel. This has cleared away many misconceptions and made it easier to see the story of Ethiopian Jewry in the perspective both of the history of the Jewish people and of the country in which they live. From the days of the early Axumite Empire, reaching back perhaps to the time when it fell within the sphere of influence of the Ptolemaic pharaohs, two hundred years before the Christian era, to the present day the Falashas have shown a determination to remain a separate identifiable group. Their fortitude in the face of apparently overwhelming odds can stand comparison with the Jewish record anywhere. This is all the more remarkable since they follow a form of the Jewish religion which is pre-rabbinic and, therefore, depends entirely on the Written Law, without support from the Oral Law codified in the Talmud. Further, the Jews of Ethiopia appear never to have used Hebrew in their liturgy, which is also commonly believed to be an essential ingredient and binding force. In this respect they may be contrasted with the now extinct Chinese Jews of Kaifeng-Fu, whose holy books were written in Hebrew. When, due to their isolation, they forgot that language, they were bereft of religious literature and their religion gradually dissolved in ignorance. The Falashas maintained their faith intact because they could read the sacred texts in Ge' ez, the local liturgical tongue.

(1) Elie Kedourie (ed.), The Jewish World, p. 10.