INTRODUCTION

This bibliography, published by SOSTEJE (Society for the Study of Ethiopian Jewry) includes all known references to publications on Ethiopian Jewry published after SOSTEJE'S last intemational conference in Paris, France in October 2001 until this conference in Addis Abeba, Ethiopia in September 2004. The bibliography is compiled on the basis of research, and submission of references to this scientific coordinator. It includes academic and quasi-academic works of interest to researchers but neither newspaper articles nor unpublished works are included. The bibliography was not supported by any funding agency. While every attempt has been made to be as comprehensive as possible, obviously some references have not been reported. If there any omissions, these can be added in future newsletters of the Society.

The bibliography follows a long lineage of bibliographies on the Beta Israel produced by Aescoli (1935-6), Leslau (1951), Kaplan and Ben-Dor (1988), Salamon and Kaplan (1998), and Weil (2001). It covers books, scientific articles, book reviews of academic books, dissertations, and to a lesser extent reports and other literary forms in the last three years only. Publications are divided into categories, and only then listed alphabetically.

The unprecedented interest in the way of life of the Beta Israel in Ethiopia and the fascination into the adaptation of the Ethiopian Jews to Israeli society continues to be expressed in a large number of publications on this relatively small ethnic group. In this bibliography alone, there are 99 entries, including full-scale books, scientific articles and book reviews. Particularly important are the dissertations from different countries (of which there are surely more than those reported here), which will lead to more scientific publications in the future. A new development is the growing number of encyclopedia entries, particularly in the first volume of Encyclopedia Aethiopica 2003) (whose editorial board includes an Israeli scholar - Gideon Goldenberg), which already contains a disproportionate number of entries on the Beta Israel compared to their size, but commensurate with their historical and sociological significance.

However, the pace of research into Ethiopian Jewry has slowed down in the past three years. In the previous period between the SOSTEJE conferences in Milan (1998) and Paris (2001), there were 135 entries in the SOSTEJE bibliography (Weil 2001), as compared to 99 in the same time frame between the Paris and Addis Abeba (2004) conferences - a reduction of nearly a quarter. While this could possibly reflect a poorer self-reporting system, it probably is the result of two other far more significant factors: less enthusiasm for the subject - compared to the "euphoric" days succeeding Operation Moses (1984) and Operation Solomon (1991) respectively, and the absence of research funds.

Nevertheless, some of the lacunae in Beta Israel studies have been filled in the past three years. In Israel, where the situation of the Ethiopian Jews changes so rapidly, it appears well-nigh impossible to produce a single first-rate ethnography, but some excellent books based on primary research into selected aspects of Ethiopian Jewry have indeed appeared. Scholars, new and old, continue to publish articles in scientific journals. Of the 31 journal articles, over one half was published in English, one third in Hebrew and the rest in other languages. Only one or two were published in any quality journal, indicating that either the subject or the researchers are still marginal to major academic scholarship.

The project of documenting Dr. Faitlovitch's life and the lives of his pupils is continuing unabated. Historians are still uncovering new archives and documents; the analysis of religious texts is progressing. A new trend no longer discusses the integration of Ethiopian Jews into Israeli society, but refers to them in transnational context in relation to israel and and the Jewish people, on the one hand, and in relation to their original homeland, Ethiopia, on the other. We still await multiple reconstructions and narratives of the lives of the Beta lsrael in Ethiopia and ethnography of the post-1991 migrants from Ethiopia in Israel, wlho are exceeding demographically the original immigrants who arrived in Israel prior to Operation Solomon in 1991. It is important to mention that there are still no recognized publications from among the ranks of the Ethiopian Jews, although there has been some new literature in Hebrew and Amharic written by Ethiopian Jews. Hopefully, this bibliography will encourage funding authorities to sponsor new research and augur in a new period in which scholars will publish their studies, students, who recently completed their dissertations, will publish their works in journals and books, and Ethiopian Jews will document their own past and their unfolding present in changing diasporas and homelands.

References

Aescoly, A. (1935-6). The Falashas: A Bibliography. Tel-Aviv: Kiryat Sefer (Hebrew).

Kaplan, S. and Ben-Dor, S. Eds. (1988) .. Ethiopian Jewry: An Annotated Bibliography, Jerusalem: Ben-Zvi Institute.

Leslau, W. (1951). Falasha Anthology. Yale Judaica Series, Vol. 6, New Haven: Yale University Press.

Salamon, H. and Kaplan, S. Eds. (1998). Ethiopian Jewry: An Annotated Bibliography 1988-1997, Jerusalem: Ben-Zvi Institute.

Uhlig, S. Ed. (2003). Encyclopaedia Aethiopica. Vol. 1. Weisbaden: Harrasowitz Verlag.

Weil, S. (2001). Bibliography on Ethiopian Jewry (1998-2001), SOSTEJE (Society for the Study ofthe Ethiopian Jewry).

September 2004

Dr. Shalva Weil
Scientific Coordinator
SOSTEJE
msshalva@mscc.huji.ac.il