Jewish tradition tells us that Jews have always been in Ethiopia, and in Africa. Many Jewish Africans claim to be decedents of one of the original 12 tribes of Israel. They claim to be one of the lost 10 tribes of Israel, and they migrated to Africa after the Neo-Assyrian defeat of the Kingdom of Israel in 722 BCE. In fact, there are tribes all over Africa in Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon and other countries that claim to be descendants of the Bible’s 10 Lost Tribes. There is a great documentary by Laurence Gavron titled “Black Jews, Juifs noir en Afrique,” which focuses on a dozen of these tribes if you want more information.

According to the oral tradition, Ethiopian Jews date back roughly 2000 years and claim to be decedents from the Tribe of Dan. According to the Beta Israel tradition, the Jewish kingdom of Beta Israel, later called the kingdom of Gondar, was initially established after in 325 CE in Ethiopia. The Jews thrived between 858–1270 CE, with some scholars referring to this period as "The Golden Age of the Beta Israel kingdom". Even Marco Polo and Benjamin of Tudela mention an independent Ethiopian Jewish kingdom in the writings from that period.

Unfortunately the population was decreased significantly, first in 1529 to1543, when the Muslim Adal Sultanate armies, with the assistance of forces from the Ottoman Empire fought the Ethiopian Empire and converted many in Ethiopia to Islam. Then again when the Amhara conquered the Ethiopian Jews in 1616, enslaving, converting, and killing them. Known as "Falashas" - a derogatory name meaning "stranger" or "exile" - Ethiopian Jews could no longer own land or be educated.

Fast forward a bit and you have Mussolini invading Ethiopia in 1935. As can be imagined, the Italian regime showed hostility towards the Jews of Ethiopia. The racial laws which were enacted in Italy were also applied to Italian East Africa. Mussolini attempted to reach an agreement with Britain which would recognize Italian East Africa, during which Mussolini proposed to solve the "Jewish problem" in Europe and in Palestine by resettling the Jews in the north-west Ethiopian districts of Gojjam and Begemder, along with the Beta Israel community. The proposed Jewish state was to be federally united with the Italian Empire. However, Mussolini's plan was never implemented.

When the State of Israel was established in 1948, many Ethiopian Jews began contemplating immigrating to Israel. Nevertheless, the Emperor Haile Selassie refused to grant the Ethiopian Jewish population permission to leave his empire. There were also many in the Jewish community who did not recognize the 'Jewishness' of the Ethiopian Jews based on their lack of oral tradition (they had the written tradition, the Torah, but lacked the many laws and rulings of the oral traditions that had accumulated over the centuries.)

In 1973 Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, then the Chief Sephardic Rabbi, based on the Radbaz and other accounts, ruled that the Beta Israel were Jews and SHOULD be brought to Israel; two years later that opinion was confirmed by a number of other authorities who made similar rulings, including the Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Shlomo Goren.

In 1975, the government of Yitzkak Rabin also accepted the Beta Israel as Jews, for the purpose of the Law of Return (an Israeli act that grants all the Jews in the world the right to immigrate to Israel).

But today, there are very few Jews left in Israel. Between the civil war in the 1970s, the famine in the 1980s, and the pro-Soviet and anti-religion regime of Mengistu Haile Mariam the population mainly either converted, moved, or just died out. According to recent data, today Ethiopian Jews number only 25,000, less than 1 % of the population. Eighty-five percent live in Gondar Province, in the Semien Mountains near Lake Tana; the rest live in Tigre and Wollo Provinces.

Shava Weil has many writings on the subject if you want to learn more.