Beta Israel (literal meaning: "House of Israel") are Jews who are former (and current) Cushitic Agew-speaking who form an ancient Jewish ethnoreligious group. The Agew ethnic group is likely to have been the dominant groups in the Ethiopian Highlands prior to the migration of Semitic speakers ~4-3,000 years ago.

Admixture between Semitic speakers and the Cushitic Agew (and other Cushitic) and accultration led to the formation of the contemporary and historic Ethiosemitic Habesha peoples. The Agew managed to preserve their Cushitic language, and during the early Axumite period (pre-300 AD) around ~2100 years ago, they lived amongst the then-pagan Axumites who worshipped both Semitic and Cushitic gods, focusing on Semitic sun and moon dieties, most notably Ashtar.

However, during this pagan pre-Christian period of the Ethiosemites and Agew, a section of the Agew began showing clear and very early Hebrew influences, synthesizing their pagan Cushitic faith with these Hebraic influences and leading to the ancient pagan Hebraic religious tradition of the modern-day Qemant Agew. The pagan Hebraic religious tradition was unique to the Agew, but the Qemant never seemed to identify themselves as Jews, eschewing the association and wanting to be seen only as "Qemant" and not Jews.

However, Christians were present in Ethiopia during the pagan period, and Jews were as well. At what exact period Judaism and Christianity established themselves in Axum is uncertian, but it is likely more than +2000 years ago.

The formation of the Beta Israel was likely when a groups of early Jews settled in Agew villages and towns during the pagan Axumite period, intermarrying with the Agew and and leading to mixed Agew-Jewish settlements, gradually leading to the formation of the Beta Israel over time clustered around these ancient mixed-settlements in the Highlands (although they certianly moved around?).

The name 'Beta Israel' was given to them by the first Christian monarch of Axum, the 4th century King Ezana, as a result of their refusal to convert to Christianity. This was in contrast to 'Beyt Kristiyan' or "House of Christians", the term used to refer to Christian highlanders - 'beyt' meaning home/house in the Ethiosemitic languages (also Semitic cognate).

The Beta Israel had also established their own Jewish kingdom in the Ethiopian highlands - the Kingdom of Seimen - preceding or during the 4th century AD, with a 4th century founding likely indicating the formation of the kingdom as a response to the later Christianization of the highlands. One of the early Jewish monarchs, King Phineas, was a contemporary of the Axumite and Christian King Ezana.

Also, a succession of monarchs in the Kingdom of Seimen hailed from the royal Jewish Gideon family and dynasty, likely including the infamous Queen Gudit I who is said to have e ravaged and brought the downfall of the Axumites and terrorized the Christian highlanders. Because of this, the kingdom was is sometimes refered to as "The Kingdom of the Gideons". This kingdom may have been destoryed in the midst of Middle Age Christian-Muslim wars during the campaigns of the "Conquest of Abyssinia" (Futuh Al-Habasha) undertaken by the Somali Kingdom of Adel and Somali general Ahmed Gragn against the Abyssinian Christian highlanders. The sheer destructiveness and ravaging of the Ethiopian Highlands during Somali Muslim conquest and the precarious position occupied by the Kingdom of Seimen and Beta Israel (and shifting political alliances) likely lead to the destruction of the Jewish Kingdom by both Christian Abyssinians and Somali Muslims.

The degree of ancient Jewish admixture is impossible to tell, as modern-day Qemant, Beta Israel, and other Agew speakers have high levels of west Eurasian ancestry and haplotype sharing with Israelite and Levatine populations as a result of prehistoric Horn African-sourced proto-Afroasiatic migrants into the Levant, and later Middle Eastern Semitic migration into the Ethiopian highlands.

Do you mean Israel today?