[6] Historically, Beta Israel lived in northern and northwestern Ethiopia, where they were spread out across more than 500 small villages over a wide territory, alongside predominantly Christian and Muslim populations.

[7] Most of them were concentrated mainly in what is today North Gondar Zone, Shire Inda Selassie, Wolqayit, Tselemti, Dembia, Segelt, Quara, and Belesa.

[citation needed] The colloquial Ethiopian/Eritrean term Falasha or Felasha, which means "landless", "wanderers", or "exiles", was given to the community in the 15th century by the Emperor Yeshaq I; after they were conquered by the Ethiopian Empire, its use is now considered offensive.

[citation needed] Essential non-Biblical writings include the Mota Aron ("Death of Aaron"), Mota Musé ("Death of Moses"), Nagara Muse ("The Conversation of Moses"), Təʾəzazä Sänbät ("Commandments of the Sabbath"), Arde'et ("Disciples"), Gorgoryos ("Apocalypse of Gorgorios"), Ezra ("Apocalypse of Ezra"), Barok ("Apocalypse of Baruch"), Mäṣḥafä Sa'atat ("Book of Hours"), Fālasfā ("Philosophers"), Abba Elias ("Father Elijah"), Mäṣḥafä Mäla'əkt ("Book of Angels"), Dərsanä Abrəham Wäsara Bägabs ("Homily on Abraham and Sarah in Egypt"), Gadla Sosna ("The Story of Susanna"), and Baqadāmi Gabra Egzi'abḥēr ("In the Beginning God Created").

Beta Israel holidays include ba'āl lisan (New Year in Nissan), fāsikā (Passover), mã'rar (Shavuot, lit.

Many of the Beta Israel's accounts of their own origins state that they stem from the very ancient migration of some portion of the Tribe of Dan to Ethiopia, were led by the sons of Moses, perhaps at the time of the Exodus.

[39] Other sources tell of many Jews who were brought as prisoners of war from ancient Israel by Ptolemy I and settled on the border of his kingdom with Nubia (Sudan).

Another tradition asserts that the Jews arrived either via the old district of Qwara in northwestern Ethiopia, or via the Atbara River, where the Nile tributaries flow into Sudan.

In all likelihood, they are from the sect of Sadok and Boethus, who are [now] called Karaites, since they know only a few of the biblical commandments, but are unfamiliar with the Oral Law, nor do they light the Sabbath candle.

The earliest authority to rule this way was the 16th-century scholar David ibn Zimra (Radbaz), who explained elsewhere in a responsum concerning the status of a Beta Israel slave: But those Jews who come from the land of Cush are without doubt from the tribe of Dan, and since they did not have in their midst sages who were masters of the tradition, they clung to the simple meaning of the Scriptures.

Two years later this opinion was confirmed by a number of other authorities who made similar rulings, including the Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Israel Shlomo Goren.

[8] Some notable poskim (religious law authorities) from non-Zionist Ashkenazi circles, placed a safek (legal doubt) over the Jewish peoplehood of the Beta Israel.

In the 1970s and early 1980s, the Beta Israel were required to undergo a modified conversion ceremony involving immersion in a mikveh (ritual bath), a declaration accepting Rabbinic law, and, for men, a hatafat dam brit (symbolic recircumcision).

[52][53] With the consent of Ovadia Yosef, Amar ruled that it is forbidden to question the Jewishness of this community, pejoratively called Falash Mura in reference to their having converted.

Although the Kebra Nagast and some traditional Ethiopian histories have stated that Gudit (or "Yudit", Judith; another name given her was "Esato", Esther), a 10th-century usurping queen, was Jewish, some scholars consider that it is unlikely that this was the case.

As its name expresses, "Glory of Kings" (meaning the Christian Aksumite kings), it was written in the 14th century in large part to delegitimize the Zagwe dynasty, to promote instead a rival "Solomonic" claim to authentic Jewish Ethiopian antecedents, and to justify the Christian overthrow of the Zagwe by the "Solomonic" Aksumite dynasty, whose rulers are glorified.

[71][72] The rest of the Beta Israel mainly belong to haplotypes linked with the E-M35 and J-M267 haplogroups, which are more commonly associated with Ethio-Semitic and Cushitic-speaking populations in Northeast Africa.

These results cast light on the variegated genetic architecture of the Middle East, and trace the origins of most Jewish Diaspora communities to the Levant.

[83] In 1829, Marcus Louis wrote that the ancestors of the Beta Israel related to the Asmach, which were also called Sembritae ("foreigners"), an Egyptian regiment numbering 240,000 soldiers and mentioned by Greek geographers and historians.

[86]According to Jacqueline Pirenne, numerous Sabaeans left south Arabia and crossed over the Red Sea to Ethiopia to escape from the Assyrians, who had devastated the kingdoms of Israel and Judah in the 8th and 7th centuries BCE.

[87] According to Menachem Waldman, a major wave of emigration from the Kingdom of Judah to Kush and Abyssinia dates to the Assyrian siege of Jerusalem in the beginning of the seventh century BCE.

Politicians and journalists, Rabbis and political activists, not a single one of them withstood the temptation to play the role of the historian and invent a solution for this riddle.

[89]Richard Pankhurst summarized the state of knowledge on the subject in 1992 as follows: "The early origins of the Falashas are shrouded in mystery, and, for lack of documentation, will probably remain so for ever.

[92][93] The earliest recorded mention of the Beta Israel comes from the Royal Chronicle of Emperor Amda Seyon which dates back to the early 14th century AD.

Nevertheless, thousands of other Ethiopians began leaving the northern region to take refuge in the government controlled capital, Addis Ababa, who were Jewish converts to Christianity and asking to immigrate to Israel.

[117][118] On November 16, 2015, the Israeli cabinet unanimously voted in favor of allowing the last group of Falash Mura to immigrate over the next five years, but their acceptance will be conditional on a successful Jewish conversion process, according to the Interior Ministry.

Efforts to increase social standing and integration have included scholarship programs such as the nursing training supported by La'Ofek and Hadassah International.

[131] Many scholars such as Ben-Eliezer have been exploring how the discrimination, cultural racism, and exclusion have resulted in metaphorically sending many of the new generation of Ethiopian Jews "back to Africa".

[139] Strong Black Coffee ("Café Shahor Hazak"; קפה שחור חזק) is an Ethiopian-Israeli hip hop duo.

[145] Today, Falash Mura who move to Israel must undergo conversion on arrival, making it increasingly more difficult for them to get situated into Israeli society.