The Beta Israel: Falasha in Ethiopia: From Earliest Times to the Twentieth Century

6. A Mission to the Jews

6 A Mission to the Jews Throughout the Zamane Masafent individual local rulers sought to rise above their peers and assert dominant control over the Ethiopian highlands . Only in the middle of the nineteenth century, however, was one of them successful. During the period from November 1852 to February 1855, Dejjazmach Kasa of Qwara fought four major battles that effectively removed his major rivals in central and northern Ethiopia from the political scene. His coronation in February 185 5 as King of Kings Tewodros II marked the end of the Era of the Princes and ushered in a new period in Ethiopian history.1 Supreme authority and political-military power were united in a single person for the first time in more than a century. Although many provinces remained only partially subdued, and Shawa was effectively independent, centralization had, to a significant degree, been restored. Even before the rise of Tewodros reintroduced a measure of centralization to Ethiopian politics, Protestant missionaries began to take an interest in the country. Relying heavily on the writings of Bruce, the Church Missionary Society began to make plans for an Ethiopian missionr ' The arrival of Samuel Gobat and Christian Kugler in Ethiopia in early 1830 heralded in the era of the modern missions. While Kugler confined himself largely to Tigre, Gobat continued on to Gondar. During the next seven years, three of which he spent in Ethiopia, Gobat revealed 116 A MISSION TO THE JEWS 117 himself to be a sensitive and skillful representative of the Protestant cause." In later years, after illness forced him to leave Ethiopia, the Protestant missions often suffered due to their lack of someone with comparable tact and understanding. Gobat met on several occasions with Beta Israel, and strongly supported the establishment of a mission to them. Gobat's immediate successors took comparatively little interest in the Beta Israel, and it was only in 185 5 with the arrival of J. Martin Flad that the possiblity of a mission to the Beta Israel appears to have been seriously considered." Even Flad did not arrive intending to work among the Jews. However, an extended period of 'inactivity in the Gondar region, while the missionaries attempted to reach an accommodation with Tewodros, placed him in contact with the local Beta Israel and began a lifelong involvement with their evangelization. By May 1858 a school for the Beta Israel had been established in Gondar and in 1860 the London Society for Promoting Christianity amongst the Jews established a mission to the Falasha, headed by a converted German Jew, Henry Aaron Stern. Within in a short time, Flad's differences with his fellow missionaries over their method of operation in Ethiopia had led him to break company with them and devote himself completely to the Falasha mission.i' The Ethiopian Context Although it is tempting to consider the activities of the London Society in Ethiopia within the context of the countless other missions established in Africa in the nineteenth century, such an approach is of only limited value. To be sure, the missionaries active among the Beta Israel were motivated by much the same spirit as their contemporaries elsewhere on the continent." Their arrival was, moreover, symptomatic of the growing European involvement in Africa during this period. Indeed much of the early history of the London mission must be viewed against the background of growing Ethiopian concern with foreign encroachment on its soil. The setting in which the London Society operated, however, was in a number of ways unique." The presence in Ethiopia of an ancient and well-established national church was an issue of continual concern to the missionaries. Owing to the political-ecclesiastical situation in Ethio- 118 A MISSION TO THE JEWS pia, it was unthinkable to attempt to pursue missionary activities without the approval of both the Emperor and the Abuna. Accordingly, when the leader of the London mission, Stern, arrived in Ethiopia in March 1860, he immediately set out to obtain an audience with the Emperor Tewodros II.8 Although the king's reaction was generally favorable , he insisted that Stern obtain the consent of Abuna Salama, the Egyptian bishop who headed the Ethiopian Church." While scarcely an admirer of the Abuna, Tewodros was too shrewd a politician to risk a disagreement or misunderstanding with him over what appeared, at the time, to be a minor issue. Despite some initial reservations (he thought "the mission to the...