From Falashas to Ethiopian Jews: The External Influences for Change c.1860-1960 (review)

The main purpose of this book is to show the construction and the development of the concept of an "Ethiopian Jew," starting from the action of Jacques Faitlovitch, the person who was instrumental and fundamental in creating a process of change of the Falashas/Beta Israel in Ethiopia.

The book presents a few introductory chapters devoted to the "discovery" of the Falashas and to the work of the protestant missionaries, starting from the first half of the 19th century until the arrival of Jacques Faitlovitch in Ethiopia in 1904. The book is devoted to Faitlovitch, the Polish Jew who studied Semitic languages in Paris and who as a follower of Joseph Halévi, organized many missions in Ethiopia, planning educational activities in favor of the Beta Israel of Ethiopia. The book deals with the impact of Faitlovitch's work on the Beta Israel on the background of the Italian occupation of Ethiopia. The main thesis of the author is that the impact of education on Falashas was altogether limited, as can be evinced from the low figures of Beta Israel students enrolled in Faitlovitch's school in Addis Ababa, a school that had been opened in 1923 and that continued to exist until the end of Italian occupation in 1941. It is certainly true that there were few pupils in the Beta Israel school in Addis, especially because of its distance from the villages where the Beta Israel lived; however, its symbolic impact was relevant and full of significance to the extent that we can still find today proof of its impact among the Ethiopian elite in Israel. Another main argument which is developed in the book concerns the issue of the supposed persecutions suffered by the Falashas during the Italian occupation. Summerfield correctly claims that the sufferings of the Falashas during the Italian occupation (as in the case of the massacre of 33 Falashas in Mereba) depended not so much upon their being Jews as upon their work in favor of the Ethiopian patriots. The author writes that Falashas were divided into two groups during the Italian occupation, those who collaborated with the Italian authorities—and therefore who benefited from such a collaboration—and those who opposed the occupiers and who supported the resistance movement. Moreover, Summerfield claims that such a division among the Falashas occurred not so much along ideological lines as according to a geographical divide: in those areas controlled by Italians, Falashas supported the fascists. This remains an interesting idea which the author has well argued and supported throughout his work; however, it could be suggested that Summerfield might have kept in greater consideration the role played in the resistance movement by Taamrat Emmanuel, an important Beta Israel leader. In this way the picture which emerges would have been more nuanced and maybe slightly different.

The book is based on archival research and on interviews conducted with Ethiopian Jews; in the construction of his argument on the relationship between Falashas and European Jews, Summerfield does not, however, always seem to be aware of the "instrumental" use of Faitlovitch's remarks in his correspondence with the various funding bodies which paid for his initiative and activities. In this respect, while the archival materials presented are extremely interesting, the author's reading might have been more cautious. The author might, for example, have used the diaries of Faitlovitch which reveal what Faitlovitch wrote to the associations and committees which worked for the Beta Israel. The following is just an exemple of what I mean: following the data contained in a report by Faitlovitch to the Jewish Committee in New York on p. 55 of this book, Summerfield writes that Faitlovitch opened a clinic in Wolleka where drugs were distributed; a closer look at Faitlovitch's diary would have revealed that the twenty-four cases of medicine arrived in Massawa in a state which rendered their distribution completely useless and that...