The Falashas: The Forgotten Jews of Ethiopia, by David Kessler
Today's date is: 5/12/2025
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| 148 Palestinian Jews to serve in Gideon Force there appears to be no evidence that he was conscious of the existence of a native Jewish population in the country he was liberating. In a military sense Wingate's previous experience in Palestine proved invaluable for he applied the lessons learnt from his special night squads with devastating effect in the guerrilla war he fought against the Italians, as he did again when he led the Chindits in Burma. Politically and emotionally his service in Palestine had left an indelible mark, with the result that, as Christopher Sykes has written, 'throughout the whole of the [Ethiopian] campaign, and in the period immediately after it, Wingate never lost sight of his ultimate aim; to achieve an overwhelming personal success which he could put to the service of Zion. This did not mean that his devotion to the Ethiopian cause was qualified, but that he found himself ardently devoted to two causes which he saw as closely related',(1) namely, Judea for the Jews and Ethiopia for the Ethiopians. The Fascist colonial regime had been harsh on the Falashas. The school in Addis Ababa had been closed in the wake of the Italian invasion, never to reopen. Tamrat Emanuel, the headmaster, fled the country and many of his former students lost their lives. After the war he returned and took up a position in the Ministry of Education. Later he settled in Jerusalem, where he died on the last day of 1963. Tamrat's nephew, Tadessa Yacob, whom Faitlovitch had taken with him to Cairo in 1931 to be educated, returned with the emperor's entourage in 1941 and rose to high office in the government. But he fell a victim of the amharaisation policy and was converted to Christianity, only to be imprisoned when the emperor fell. His son became ambassador in Rome under the Provisional Military Government. Three of Faitlovitch's most distinguished proteges, Tamrat Emanuel, Tadessa Yacob and Y ona Bogale, who were all related, were said to come of aristocratic Amhara lineage on their fathers' side, according to information received by Rabbi Dr Israel Goldstein, but they opted to follow their mothers' religion. During the war of liberation Falashas served in the underground movement and as soldiers with the guerrillas. They claimed to have lost thirty-two men killed in one battle alone at Madowa.(2) Naturally, they looked forward to an amelioration of their lot as soon as victory was gained but, once more, they were bitterly disappointed. 'After the war,' they wrote in a (1) Orde Wingate, p. 261. |