ETHIOPIAN JEWS: A People Who Would Not Break: The Persecution and Rescue of Ethiopian Jews

For centuries, the Beta Israel—Ethiopian Jews—have carried their faith like a burning torch through storms designed to extinguish it. Their history in Ethiopia is not merely a record of hardship; it is a testament to spiritual resilience, identity preserved against all odds, and the unyielding human desire for freedom.

An Ancient Community Marked by Isolation and Pain

Long before the world knew their story, the Beta Israel lived in the highlands of Ethiopia, proudly safeguarding traditions believed to trace back to the time of Solomon and Sheba. Yet generation after generation, they endured suspicion, exclusion, and profound isolation.

They were denied the right to own land.They were pushed to society’s margins.They were mocked, distrusted, and often feared simply for clinging to their Jewishness.

The discrimination was not a single moment—it was a slow suffocation lasting centuries. Under Christian emperors, entire communities were stripped of property. In the 1600s, religious pressure intensified into forced conversions, severing families from their heritage and wrenching Jewish identity from the hands of those who sought only to worship in peace.

The persecution ebbed and flowed, but it never disappeared.

The Mengistu Regime: When Faith Became a Crime

In the 20th century, history’s darkest shadows returned with brutal force.

When Mengistu Haile Mariam’s Marxist-Leninist regime seized power, Judaism itself was outlawed. For Ethiopian Jews, simply observing the Sabbath or reading a holy book became a dangerous act of defiance. Synagogues were shuttered. Schools were destroyed. Sacred scrolls and prayer books, kept safe for centuries, were confiscated or burned by soldiers who branded Jewish leaders as “Zionist spies.”

Families watched fathers and sons dragged away in the night.Mothers buried their religious items in the earth to hide them from government agents.Children grew up knowing that their faith—once their pride—could cost them their lives.

The regime turned the very dream of freedom into a capital offense. Jews who attempted to leave Ethiopia for Israel were hunted down. Those caught fleeing through forests or across deserts were arrested, tortured, and in many cases, they simply never returned.

For Beta Israel, the choice was stark: stay and watch their culture die—or risk death trying to live as Jews.

The Exodus No One Saw Coming

Out of the darkness came hope, wrapped in secrecy and courage.

Word reached Israel and the global Jewish community that thousands of Ethiopian Jews were risking everything in their desperate treks toward Sudan. They traveled barefoot across deserts, through robber-infested routes, and into refugee camps where starvation and disease claimed thousands.

But they kept walking—because the alternative was persecution without end.

In response, Israel, along with the Jewish Agency and the Mossad, launched a series of clandestine rescue missions unlike anything the world had ever seen.

Operation Moses (1984)

In a daring secret airlift, about 8,000 Ethiopian Jews were flown from Sudan to Israel. It was a miracle—but a fragile one. Once news leaked, Arab pressure forced Sudan to shut down the operation, leaving countless families separated, some forever.

Operation Solomon (1991)

As Ethiopia collapsed into civil war, Israel executed one of the most extraordinary humanitarian missions in history. In a single, whirlwind operation, roughly 14,000 Ethiopian Jews were airlifted to Israel in less than 36 hours. Planes were stripped of seats to fit more people. Babies were born in midair. Parents wept as they stepped onto the soil they had prayed toward for thousands of years.

The Journey Did Not End in Israel

Though the rescues are remembered as triumphs, the story of Ethiopian Jews did not suddenly become one of ease. In Israel, they faced racism from individuals like in other parts of the world. They also faced cultural shock, poverty, and painful questions about belonging. Their skin was darker. Their customs were different. Their Hebrew was new. Their struggles were real.

And yet, they persevered—just as their ancestors had through centuries of trial.

Today, Ethiopian Jews are soldiers, scholars, rabbis, artists, politicians, and leaders in Israel and outside because Israel invested in their fellow Jews, and God Hand was upon the Ethiopian Jews have endured persecution for centuries. But they are also living reminders of a truth history often forgets: persecution does not erase a people; it forges them.

A Legacy of Courage

The persecution of the Beta Israel is one of the most sobering chapters in Jewish history—and one of the most inspiring. It is a story of a people who refused to surrender their faith, even when surrounded by hostility.

It is the story of parents who carried the Torah in their hearts when it was taken from their hands.Of families who crossed deserts on foot for the chance to live as Jews.Of communities who waited 2,000 years to return to the land of their ancestors.

And it is a reminder to the world that persecution is not merely an event—it is a wound that travels across generations.

But so does hope.

The Beta Israel survived. They endured. And in their survival, they illuminated what it means to hold on to faith—when everything in the world tries to take it away.