Are the Lost Tribes of Israel in Ethiopia?

More than 2,700 years ago, Jewish people fled an attack on Israel and dispersed to many parts of the world, becoming known as the Lost Tribes of Israel. Are these Lost Tribes of Israel in Ethiopia today?

When Assyria attacked the 10 Northern Tribes of the kingdom of Israel in 722 B.C.E., the Jewish people either fled or were taken captive to other parts of the world. This tragedy brought an end to the recorded history of Israel. As the people settled in various places and migrated over the centuries, they became known as the Lost Tribes of Israel. You may have heard of Jewish people living in Ethiopia and wondered if they are from the Lost Tribes of Israel.

Are the Lost Tribes of Israel in Ethiopia?

Indeed, some of the Lost Tribes of Israel are represented by the Jewish people living in Ethiopia today. One theory about the Ethiopian Jews suggests they came from Israel’s King Solomon and Ethiopia’s Queen of Sheba. However, many of the Jewish people of Ethiopia believe themselves to be from the Tribe of Dan and the Tribe of Judah. After leaving Israel, it is thought that they first resettled in Egypt and later followed the Nile River into Ethiopia.

Ever since arriving, the Jewish people of Ethiopia have been considered outsiders, even after centuries of living in the nation. The Jews in the northern regions are called “Falasha,” meaning “foreigner” or “stranger.” To the south, they are called “Fuga,” which originally meant “blower,” harking to the Ethiopian Jews blowing the shofar. However, it is used today as a derogatory term indicating a desire that the Jewish people simply “blow away” and leave.

Lost Tribes Jewish People Groups of Ethiopia

Over the centuries since their initial dispersion from Israel, the Jewish people of Ethiopia have taken on more locally specific names indicating their different clans from region to region within Ethiopia.

Beta Israel

The Beta Israel represent the largest Jewish people group in Ethiopia and most, if not all, other Jewish groups in Israel appear to have emerged from the Beta Israel. The Beta Israel’s oral history teaches that they are from the Tribe of Judah as well as the Tribe of Dan from among the 10 Northern Tribes of Israel. They reside in many northern areas of the country, with a particular concentration in the city of Gondar. In the 1980s and '90s, Jewish people in northern Ethiopia heard of the opportunity to immigrate to Israel if they gathered in Gondar. Tens of thousands left their homes and villages, taking with them only what they could carry and flocking to the capital city to wait for Israel-sponsored airlifts. While they waited, they lived in crowded, impoverished conditions. Thousands were flown to Israel, but as the Ethiopian aliyah program has stopped and restarted several times over the years, many of the Beta Israel still wait in Gondar and elsewhere in Ethiopia, enduring the same unfortunate conditions.

Today, over 160,000 Ethiopian Jews – most of whom are Beta Israel – live in Israel. Many are 2nd generation, and even some 3rd generation, Ethiopian Israelis. They continue to petition the Israeli government to bring their extended family and community members home to Israel.  

Beta Abraham

The Beta Abraham Jewish people are found primarily in central Ethiopia, in the capital city of Addis Ababa and nearby cities. The Beta Abraham originated from the Beta Israel people group. Eventually, after migrating to the capital from the north, they came to call themselves the Beta Abraham. Down through the centuries, as Jewish persecution ebbed and flowed, many Ethiopian Jews practiced their Jewish observances in secret or abandoned them for fear of harsh consequences. Still others were forced to, at least outwardly, convert to a form of Orthodox Christianity. Those who did so, or whose ancestors did, are called Falash Mura, a name of uncertain origin that likely means “one who changed his faith.” Because of this forced conversion and their outward Orthodox Christian appearance, thousands of Beta Abraham are considered ineligible to make aliyah and return to their ancestorial Jewish homeland.

Gefat

The Gefat of Southern Ethiopia also descended from the Beta Israel, migrating south from Addis Ababa nearly 800 years ago. They live as an impoverished and rejected people in a lush but remote setting. Their oral history suggests their ancestors accompanied the Ark of the Covenant to its protected place, long believed to be in Ethiopia, and blew the shofar along its sacred route. Over time, indigenous people around them turned the Gefat’s rich heritage as shofar blowers into the offensive term “Fuga,” conveying a desire that they would “blow away” and be gone. Today, the Gefat continue to endure the prejudice of those among whom they live.

Yibir

The Yibir, meaning “Hebrews,” in the Somali Region of eastern Ethiopia, live as outcasts at the edges of predominantly Muslim communities. The Yibir are generally believed to have emerged as a separate Jewish people group from the Beta Israel. Their neighbors consider them “an accursed people.” When they must travel to town, they often dress as Muslims to avoid persecution. The Yibir do not question their Israelite ancestry. Their neighbors see and discriminate against them as “foreigners” despite five centuries of generations having been born and lived right where they are. Deprived of the help available to others, the Yibir are forced to live socially and geographically on the fringes of society.

Descendants from the Lost Tribes of Israel reside in many parts of the world, including Ethiopia. Their heritage as having come from elsewhere, particularly as Jewish people originating from Israel, is one of the things that sets them apart and, indeed, sometimes causes them to suffer discrimination and persecution. Despite all this, they have clung to their history, faith and traditions – sometimes secretly to protect their lives – for centuries. The Lost Tribes of Israel have been coming to light in the last 70 years or so as Jewish people groups in often remote places are becoming known to the world. Jewish Voice Ministries International has been ministering to these often-neglected people groups for over 25 years, meeting essential needs and offering them the spiritual hope in Yeshua, Jesus, the Messiah promised in the Hebrew Scriptures.