Beta Israelis, a special group living in Israel, are black-skinned Jews who are also known as Ethiopian Jews because they originally lived in Ethiopia in northeastern Africa.
In present-day Israel, there are about 150,000 Beta Israelis living. In Ethiopia, they are called Farasha by the locals, which in the language of the locals has the meaning of exile or stranger, so beta Israelis do not like this name because they consider it a pejorative term.
According to the Beta Israelites, they were descendants of the ancient Israelite "But tribe," one of the ten tribes lost by the Jews.
In 722 B.C., the Assyrians destroyed the Jewish kingdom in northern Israel, when the Jews had twelve tribes. When their kingdom was destroyed by the Assyrians, ten Jewish tribes were exiled around the world and disappeared into the river of history.
Around the fourteenth century, the Beta Israelites established a kingdom in northern Ethiopia, which was destroyed in the seventeenth century.
By 1488, an Italian Jewish leader had written about these Beta Israelites in a letter. In his letter, he wrote: "I have seen two dark-skinned Jews in Egypt, and I am not sure whether they have received the teachings of the rabbis, who claim to be descendants of the Dan tribe."
For a long time, Jews living in Ethiopia had little contact with Jews from other regions, which also allowed them to develop their own culture. It was only in modern times that they began to come into contact with other peoples, but they were not initially recognized by other Jews.
It was not until 1973 that the Israeli rabbi officially recognized the Jewish identity of beta Israelis. Since then, beta Israelis have begun mass immigration to Israel. Beginning in 1979, Israel transported Ethiopian Beta Israelis to Israel by air through several operations, during which time more than 80,000 Beta Israelis emigrated to Israel.
However, after the Beta Israelis moved to Israel, many people had difficulty adapting to local life. Because they came from a poor country, most of them had no culture and education, and Israel was already very developed at that time, so many Beta Israelis had difficulty adapting to Israeli society.
In addition, due to differences in appearance and cultural differences, beta Israelis have difficulty integrating into other Israeli Jews. The reluctance of other Israeli Jews to intermarry with them has often left them isolated, with only thirteen percent of Beta Israelis in a 2011 campus survey having a strong sense of belonging to Israel.
