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Author: Steven Kaplan $23.00 |
The Beta Israel: Falasha in Ethiopia: From Earliest Times to the Twentieth Century (Falasha in Ethiopia : from Earliest Times to the Twentieth Century) |
Editorial Review:
...balanced and well informed...a striking piece of scholarship aimed at demythologizing the origins of the Ethiopian Falasha.
-Foreign AffairsKaplan's definitive treatment will be of interest to students and scholars of Jewish history, African history, and comparative religion, as well as anyone interested in Jewish affairs and the modern Middle East.
The Midwest Book Review
Kaplan's conceptualizations are judicious and clearly expressed...incisive and well documented... and provides essential background for the process of assimilation now taking lace in Israel.
-The International Journal of African Historical StudiesKaplan's able interdisciplinary approach is of great value for persons interested in religion, civilization, and process of change.
-Religious Studies ReviewKaplan's well-written, lucid presentation make[s] this important, competent contribution accessible to all levels of readers. Highly recommended.
Choice
Insightful and thorough, a welcome contribution.Kay Kaufman Shelemay, Professor of Music, Harvard University
Undoubtedly the most detailed, most scholarly, and most dispassionate argument of Falasha history hitherto published. [T]his work deserves ... the most careful study by all those (and in particular in Israel) who have any practical or scholarly connection with the Beta Israel.
-- Edward UllendorffEmeritus Professor of Ethiopian Studies, University of LondonFellow of the British AcademyGiven Kaplan's facility with both written and oral sources, he is in a unique position to synthesize and reconcile the new historical findings of ethnographers with the written sources and differing conclusions of earlier historians and linguists. His work is insightful and thorough, a welcome contribution.
-- Kay Shelemay, Wesleyan UniversityThe origin of the Black Jews of Ethiopia has long been a source of fascination and controversy. Their condition and future continues to generate debate. The culmination of almost a decade of research, The Beta Israel (Falasha) in Ethiopia marks the publication of the first book-length scholarly study of the history of this unique community.
In this volume, Steven Kaplan seeks to demythologize the history of the Falasha and to consider them in the wider context of Ethiopian history and culture. This marks a clear departure from previous studies which have viewed them from the external perspective of Jewish history. Drawing on a wide variety of sources including the Beta Israel's own literature and oral traditions, Kaplan demonstrates that they are not a lost Jewish tribe, but rather an ethnic group which emerged in Ethiopia between the 14th and 16th century. Indeed, the name, Falasha, their religious hierarchy, sacred texts, and economic specialization can all be dated to this period. Among the subjects the book addresses are their links with Ethiopian Christianity, the medieval legends concerning their existence, their wars with the Ethiopian emperors, their relegation to the status of a despised semi-caste, their encounters with European missionaries, and the impact of the Great Famine of 1888-1892.
Kaplan's definitive treatment will be of interest to students and scholars of Jewish history, African history, and comparative religion, as well as anyone interested in Jewish affairs and the modern Middle East.
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 3.0 / 5.0 
ETHIOPIANS HAVE NEVER BEEN JEWS!!!!: 
What on earth is the point of inventing Jewish roots concerning these deceptive Ethiopians when everybody knows too well why they became Jews: only because it was the only possibility for them to immigrate to Israel only for economic reasons (to flee their undescribable poverty).
Were these Ethiopians Jews in Ethiopia? NO! NEVER EVER!! They were Christians! A significant number of them in Israel returned to their Christian faith even though most of them decided to keep being Jew because they felt it...more info
Ignorance and superstition cleared away by bracing scholarship: 
The study of this book proved to be a distinct pleasure. It was exciting to see Kaplan clear away the accretions of ignorance and superstition about Ethiopian Jews, one piece after another, relentlessly. That is the polemical aspect of the book, important now, but not necessarily as important in time to come, as the main outline of the history of Ethiopian Jews becomes better understood.
Briefly put, Kaplan shows that Ethiopian Jews are unlikely to have come to Ethiopia from some other place....more info
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