The Falashas: The Forgotten Jews of Ethiopia, by David Kessler

Today's date is: 5/12/2025
HOME | Cover Page | Contents | Introduction 1| Strangers in the Midst 9 | Legend and History 24| Judaism, Christianity and Islam 58 | The Middle Ages 74 | Resistance and Defeat 94 | Missions and Missionaries 106 | Jacques Faitlovitch 130 | The Struggle for Recognition 147| Postscript 170 | Select Bibliography | Images | Index |


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126
He attempted an estimate of the Falasha population and, basing himself on an average of five persons to a family, concluded that the total was in the region of 150,000 to 200,000 souls, or 10 per cent of the population. This figure compares with the quarter of a million estimated at the same period by Henry Stern, with whose writings Halevy was acquainted, and coincides with Martin Flad's estimate in his bookAbessinischen]uden, published in 1869. Bruce's figure, a century earlier, had been twice this number. The reduction no doubt reflected the losses resulting from the chaotic state of the country in the intervening period as well as the demoralising effect of the Protestant missions in breaking down the cohesion of the community. The missionaries claimed that by 1881 they had performed at least 800 baptisms.(1) In 1922, after nearly seventy years' endeavour, their figure for the total number of conversions over the whole period did not exceed 2,0002 or an average of under 30 per annum. These were relatively modest figures but the proselytes represented a nucleus in the villages and by degrees whole communities transferred to Christianity and were accepted by the Orthodox Church.

Though it is impossible to arrive at reliable figures for the Falasha population, both Bruce's and Halevy's estimates reflect the importance of the Jewish presence in Ethiopia. Its dramatic decline began with the coming of the Europeans and accelerated as their influence increased. By the beginning of the twentieth century the estimated population was reduced to a quarter of Halevy's estimate and today it is only slightly more than half the former figure. Under the dual impact of the forces of disillusion and discrimination, the trend towards assimilation inevitably gathers strength. There is not much time left if the remnant is to be saved from extinction.

Halevy ended his report to the Alliance with a moving plea for European Jewry to come to the aid of the Falashas on the grounds that they were Jews, that they were miserably depressed, and that they showed a great yearning to rehabilitate themselves. It would redound to the glory of the Alliance, he said, to put the Falashas in permanent contact with their European brothers. It is noteworthy, and greatly to their credit, that the Falashas, both then and later, did not beg for material aid but always emphasised their need for spiritual and educational regeneration.

In 1869 Halevy wrote a longer and more scientific article on his journey for the Bulletin of the French Geographical Society,

(1) Payne,Ethiopian Jews, p. 62.
(2) ibid., p. 69.


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