Halevy's efforts, however, had not been entirely in vain. At the beginning of this century a new champion arose in the person of Jacques Faitlovitch, one of Halevy' s pupils. In 1904 he made the first of several more or less prolonged visits to Abyssinia and from then until his death in Israel in 1955 he worked indefatigably on behalf of the Ethiopian Jews.

With the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 and the 'ingathering of the exiles' the Falashas were entitled to hope that an end to their troubles was in sight. But this was not to be. Neither Israel nor world Jewry were yet prepared for their reception while they themselves were too weak and fragmented to force their claim. They were denied recognition as a portion of the Diaspora which had to be redeemed while, on his side, the Ethiopian emperor was in no mind to be deprived of a valuable section of his people who gave no trouble.

By slow degrees pressure on the rabbinical and lay authorities built up but it was not until early 1973 that the breakthrough came with the announcement by Ovadia Yossef, the Sephardi Chief Rabbi of lsrael, that the Falashas belonged to the tribe of Dan and must be given the same right to return to Israel as other Jews. Two years later the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, followed suit by acknowledging that they had the right of immigration under the Law of Return.

But the change of attitude had come tragically late. During Haile Selassie's reign and until the Yorn Kippur war of 1973, when diplomatic relations were sundered, Israel was on excellent terms with Ethiopia. By the time the Knesset adopted its new policy Ethiopia was in the throes of revolution and was fighting wars on two fronts, in Eritrea and against the Somalis. Though diplomatic relations were not resumed and any suggestions of mass emigration were discouraged, means were found to transport between two and three hundred, mostly young people, by air to Israel. But even this limited opportunity to meet the Falashas' age-old yearning to go to the Holy Land was short-lived and, in view of the problems facing the present regime, it seems unlikely to recur unless there is a drastic change in the situation. Emigration is opposed partly because it is contrary to traditional policy and partly because, indirectly, it brings support for Israel. As a