I ISRAEL I' ROLEX Ethiopian Jews Continued from preceding page Oyster Perpetual Datejust in stainless steel with Jubilee bracelet. Oyster Perpetual Lady Datejust in 18kt. gold with President bracelet. THE TIME HONORED CLASSICS. An exceptional display of Rolex watches. Prices begin at $790. GREENSTONE'S .JEWELRY CREATORS OF FINE MONDAY THRU SATURDAY 9:30 TO 5:30, THURSDAY UNTIL 8:00 ' 528 NORTH WOODWARD AVENUE BIRMINGHAM, MICHIGAN 48009 313/642-2650 rabbi Leiter Levin and the Detroit 8ponsors Committee cordially request your presence at an evening in honor of Qabbi Beryl Wein and The Yeshiva Maarei Torah to be held at the home of Mr. and Mr& Gary Torgow Tuesday, December 5, 1989 at 8:00 P.M. 50 FRIDAY, DECEMBER 1, 1989 the strength of the ancient connection between Judaism and Ethiopia — the "Jewishness" of the Ethio- pian culture. No one can directly trace his lineage back over 2000 years, but the Beta Yisrael can make a better case for Israelite ancestry than many. The best-known legend of Beta Yisrael origins is that of Solomon's seduction of Sheba, resulting in a son, Menelik, who came to rule Ethiopia. It is a legend, like- ly with a kernel of truth. Solomon certainly had trade routes down the Red Sea, and there is ample reason to believe that Jewish settle- ments were established on the Horn of Africa at an early date. Most educated Ethiopian Jews will tell you that their ancestors arrived in Ethiopia after the first lbmple destruc- tion in 586 B.C.E., following two routes. On one route, Jews moved into Egypt dur- ing the period of Persian occupation, then later fled southward, following the Blue Nile and arriving at its source, Lake Tana, in the Ethiopian highlands, roughly 200 years before the common era. A second group made its way to Yemen, then in the ear- ly centuries of the common era moved across the Red Sea into Ethiopia proper. Others have proposed a Red Sea route between Egypt and Ethiopia as being more like- ly, and have suggested that there was Jewish movement into Ethiopia during or after Second Thmple times. And it may well be that a series of migrations occurred histori- cally, with one not precluding others; Ethiopia is noted for being a crossroad of signifi- cance. What seems quite clear from existing evidence is that Jews were present in the land of Ethiopia from an early date. Dr. Ephraim Isaac, director of the Institute of Semitic Studies in Princeton, N.J., points out the Hebrew and Aramaic words with theolog- ical significance present in Ethiopic texts. Everyone in Ethiopia, Jew and non-Jew alike, refers to Friday as "the evening" (of the Sabbath). The Ethiopic talisan, a cloak, is clearly derivative of tallit. Teva, used in Ethiopic texts to mean aron kodesh (holy ark), is noted by Dr. Isaac, for teva in the Bible referred to Noah's ark, and was not used Ethiopian children in a southern Israeli developnient town enjoy tree-planting on Tu b'Shevat. in its alternate meaning until the Mishnah. And incorpora- tion of the word mitzvah into the language is cited by another Semitic scholar, T. Neoldeke, as sufficient by itself to prove that there was Jewish influence in the land. The Book of Enoch and the Book of Jubilees are two im- portant Jewish literary works that influenced the rabbinic midrashic writings and Jewish mystical thought. It is in Ethiopia that these once- lost books were discovered, preserved in their entirety in Ge'ez. There are Aramaic fragments of the Book of Enoch in the Dead Sea Scrolls; Yigdal Yadin, in his book on the Thmple Scroll, makes a specific connection between this Dead Sea Scroll and the Book of Jubilees. lb Dr. Isaac, all of this suggests a connection between the Jews of Qumran and the Jews of Ethiopia. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church may be the most "Jewish" church in the world, retaining such practices as circumcision. It would be dif- ficult to explain the unique development of the church without looking to a strong historical presence of Jews in Ethiopia preceding the ad- vent of Christianity in the fourth century. Evidence even suggests a recognition by the Christians of an original Jewish heritage. The predomi- nant ruling dynasty of Chris- tian emperors was referred to as the Solomonic line, an allu- sion to the same legend about Solomon and Sheba as was espoused by the Jews. Haile Selassie called himself the Lion of Judah. Jews maintained an inde- pendent kingdom in Ethiopia for centuries which ultimate- ly came into conflict with and finally was defeated by the Christian kingdom. In the course of ancient conflicts between Jews and Christians in Ethiopia, many Jewish texts in Hebrew and Aramaic were destroyed and others confiscated. The existence of these texts is strong evidence for the presence of Jews from outside Ethiopia in the land at an early date. Those that were taken remain in the hands of the church, guarded by monks, in dry caves in the northern highlands, accord- ing to reliable Ethiopian Jews who have seen them. More recently, Christian scholars in Ethiopia have at- tempted to delegitimize the Semitic roots of the Jews, finding ways to separate the Jews from the Solomonic heritage and to ascribe it sole- ly to Christians. That Jews inside Ethiopia (and there are • still some 20,000 there) should suffer this injustice at all is painful enough. It would be immeasurably worse if their fellow Jews elsewhere, surrendering to their ethno- centric impulses, were finally to accept such notions without an open-hearted and honest look at the facts. El Arlene Kushner is a writer who lives in New Jersey.