Chabad and the Recognition of the Jewishness of Bete Israel

The Aliyah of Bete Israel, or Ethiopian Jewry, is a remarkable chapter in Israel’s history. Their return to their ancestral homeland is a testament to the enduring power of Jewish identity. However, the question of their Jewishness, according to halacha (Jewish law), has been a subject of debate for centuries.

In this article, I would like to present a more expansive treatment of a subject I’ve covered before in brief: the history of thinking about the Jewishness of Bete Israel and in this way put an end to the ongoing saga about their halachically Jewish status. A test case for this examination is the relationship between the Ethiopian Jewish community and the Chabad Lubavitch Hassidic movement. I do so for several reasons, but in particular in response to an inquiry I recently received from a very special person who is a supporter of both Ethiopian Jews and Chabad Hassidism.  He was surprised to discover that, for a number of reasons, Chabad Hassidism have difficulty in viewing the Bete Israel as being fully Jewish. He told me with great pain, “I love Ethiopian Jews with great affection and I love Chabad with great affection. I don’t know which one comes first? What is the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s position on this question?”

I had heard that the Lubavitcher Rebbe issued a Rabbinic ruling stating that Bete Israel are not Jews. In addition, and to my great sadness, Ethiopian Jewish boys have told me that when Chabadniks (followers of Chabad) encourage people on the street to put on Tefillin, they don’t ask them to do so. I also heard that Chabad Hassidim don’t count Bete Israel for a minyan (the quorum of 10 men required for certain prayers in Orthodox Jewry).

There are so many rumors, and they cause great sorrow to the Bete Israel community. They also damage the image of the Chabad movement, which to their credit, I have found to be one of the only groups of Ashkenazi Hasidism that accepts everyone equally. So instead of relying on these rumors, I wanted to ask and answer some substantial questions. How did we get here? Where does the confusion about the Jewishness of Bete Israel come from? How can we productively and sensitively move forward?

Historical Recognition of Bete Israel’s Jewishness

Historically, renowned Jewish authorities have consistently affirmed the Jewishness of Bete Israel. In the 15th century, Rabbi Ovadia of Bartenura wrote, “Indeed what I discovered is that on one of the borders of the Kingdom of the Perishti Yoani (Ethiopia) … there surely dwell members of the children of Israel.” Several years after him, Rabbi David ben Solomon ibn Abi Zimra, the ”Radbaz,” one of the greatest authors of Halachic rulings, wrote that “those who come from the land of Kush are undoubtedly from the tribe of Dan. “

This Radbaz’s ruling has guided the approach of our sages on the question of the Jewishness of the Bete Israel throughout the generations. In the 19th century, German Rabbi Azriel Hildesheimer wrote: “We heard a rumor that in Africa, you can hear the sound of twenty-five thousand of our brothers, Israelites from the land of Kush.” Similarly, in the 1800’s, Rabbi Meir Leibush Weiser (the “Malbim”) wrote: “The Falashas (archaic and derogatory term for Ethiopian Jews) are undoubtedly from the seed of Israel and action must be taken to save them.”

In 1908, a unique letter was drafted by representatives of many branches of Rabbinic Judaism to be presented to the leaders of Bete Israel by the world traveler, Jacques “Yaakov” Faitlovitch.  He was a researcher of Ethiopian Judaism and its culture and worked all his life to redeem the Bete Israel from their Ethiopian exile. Faitlovitch was charged with delivering a letter to the Jews of Ethiopia signed by 44 Rabbis from around the world, including Rabbi Azriel Munk of Berlin, Rabbi Yitzchak Yaacov Reines of Lithuania (the founder of the “Mizrachi” movement), Rabbi Yaakov Dovid Wilovsky (the “Ridbaz” of Safed), Rabbi Eliyahu Moshe Panigel (the Sephardi chief rabbi of the Ottoman Empire, Palestine and Jerusalem), Rabbi Mordechai Horowitz of Frankfurt and others.

They wrote: “Peace be upon you, our brothers, the sons of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who live in the land of Abyssinia… We will all be privileged to see the coming of the Day of the Lord, on which He will pour out His Spirit on all nations… and gather us from the four the corners of the world and will bring us to Zion and to Jerusalem, home of our temple, in happiness.”

At the beginning of the twentieth century, Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook (the first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of British Mandatory Palestine) called out on behalf of the Jews of Ethiopia, asking for assistance in helping them immigrate to Israel, saying: “Please, help save our brothers the Falashas from destruction and assimilation! Please help us return our far-flung brethren so that this tribe of Israel will not be eradicated.”

In this same vein, Rabbi Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog, a subsequent Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of the British Mandate of Palestine and of Israel after its independence, wrote to the Jewish Agency (the Jewish proto-government prior to independence) saying: “Be strong and strive to bring everyone under the wings of faithful Judaism […] and fight the difficult fight against the instigators and detractors – God save us from them – who swooped like eagles on the remnant of the exile of our brothers the Falashas in Abyssinia.”

In our generation, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, the leading Sephardic authority, issued a significant ruling in 1973. He declared that Ethiopian Jews “are the descendants of the tribes of Israel who travelled South to the Land of Kush […]They are Jews who must be saved from assimilation and be assisted to speedily make Aliyah to Israel.”

Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, the leading Ashkenazi arbiter of Jewish law in the last generation wrote: “There is a mitzvah to save them from destruction and danger, as is the law for any Israelite.” He added that those who refrain from assisting them do so “because the color of their skin is black.”

From these rulings, we see that the great Halachic authorities do not disagree with the Radbaz and consider the Ethiopian Jews to be fully Jewish. Those who think otherwise are expressing personal interpretations and opinions and do not follow the general Halachic stream of thought on the issue.

While as noted above, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, following the Radbaz, believed the Bete Israel were Jewish and did not need conversion, in contrast, Israel’s Chief Rabbinate and most Halachic judges chose to require a symbolic conversion to be on the safe side.

Parenthetically, I would like to point out that in the religious parlance, a symbolic conversion is counterintuitively known as a “stringent” conversion. This type of conversion includes immersion in the mikvah and, in the some cases, drawing blood in a symbolic (re)circumcision. It is called “stringent,” because it stringently removes all Halachic concerns about Jewishness even though in practice it is symbolic and much less “stringent” than a “full conversion.”

Most Bete Israel have undergone symbolic conversions or are children of those who did. Some members of Bete Israel opposed the requirement for symbolic conversion and demanded that they be accepted as Jews without any conditions. There are some Ashkenazi ultra-Orthodox authorities who require Ethiopian Jews to undergo regular, full conversion, not because they don’t believe they are Jews, but instead due to concerns they have about having mixed with non-Jews over the centuries creating worries about the laws of marriage and divorce.

Finally, about four years ago, Israel’s Chief Rabbinate decided to adopt the 1973 ruling of Rabbi Ovadia, recognizing the Jewishness of Bete Israel, noting that there is no halachic concern requiring even symbolic conversion. On a practical level, such a decision has mainly legal significance in the Israeli court system. As long as the Jewish status of Bete Israel was in doubt, it was difficult to sue for discrimination based on the Jewishness of Ethiopians. This is an important step but it comes very late.  Since then, small numbers of Bete Israel were accepted as Jews without the need for symbolic conversion.

What about the Chabad Chassidic movement?

The first recorded instance of the Lubavitcher Rebbe addressing the question of the Jewishness of Bete Israel came a few days before Operation Solomon, the 1991 covert Israeli military mission that airlifted over 14,000 Ethiopian Jews to Israel. The Rebbe said during a “Hisvaadus” (spiritual gathering) with his Chasidim, “Tomorrow we are expected to hear good news about the arrival of thousands of Jews to the Land of Israel.” In light of this, Chabad rabbis with whom I’ve met personally have confirmed to me that it is widely known that the Rebbe recognized the Jewishness of Bete Israel.

Later, the Rebbe was asked directly by Chabad emissaries to issue a ruling on the Jewishness of Bete Israel. He agreed, but immediately afterwards, recused himself citing his incomplete knowledge of the relevant history of Ethiopian Jewry.  The Rebbe wrote, in a letter to Mr. Aharon Cohen in December 1976, “I don’t have the authority to speak about this issue.”

The Rebbe continued, “What is even more important, is that this is a complicated halachic matter which concerns and interests many people and will have an effect going forward for many generations. As such, political and partisan considerations have been mixed in with the Halachic issue, and they have been the major determinants. Some have even tried to influence rabbis regarding their attitudes and discourse regarding this problem.”

Ultimately, the Rebbe deferred to the decision of Israel’s Chief Rabbinate, which initially required only symbolic conversion. As such, the predominant Chabad attitude to the question of Bete Israel’s Jewishness has been respect for the members of the community as individuals, and a fundamental requirement that they comply with the Rabbinate’s demands for symbolic conversion. Many Chabad rabbis in Israel have told me that any Ethiopian Jew who has undergone symbolic conversion as required by the Israeli Rabbinate, will be admitted to any institution under the supervision of Chabad Hassidism without any hesitation.

However, I learned that things are different abroad. A Chabad rabbi in the United States shared that not all rabbis are familiar with the Israeli solution of symbolic conversion. He told me that in the US, “It’s one way or the other. Either they are Jewish or they are not Jewish. This is not because of their skin color, but because of the [local] Halachic approach.”

Based on my research, I have concluded that Chabad does not have a racist problem with Ethiopian Jews. On the contrary, the issue is Halachic and Chabad’s solution is in line with the one espoused by the Israeli Rabbinate for many years. This is the way of Chabad Chassidism. Skin color or origin has no place in their system of halachic considerations.

How should this work in practice?

Most Ethiopian Jews who immigrated to Israel have undergone symbolic conversion, as that was the most standard procedure, and until recently, the position of the Israeli Rabbinate.  Those who have undergone symbolic conversion are recognized as Jews by nearly all sectors in Israel, including by Chabad.

However, there was a small group of Bete Israel who refused to undergo symbolic conversion. In addition, after the Rabbinate retroactively accepted the ruling of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef that did not require symbolic conversion, there is another small group of Bete Israel who have not done so. As such, the number of Bete Israel who have not undergone symbolic conversion (a step that would grant recognition by the overwhelming majority of Rabbinic authorities) is relatively small.

It would seem a prudent strategy to communicate these realities to all the faithful Chabad emissaries around the world, who work with such devotion to promote Torah Judaism.  They  should receive instruction to reach out to every Jew everywhere to refresh the knowledge about Chabad’s practice of accepting Ethiopian Jews who have undergone symbolic conversion, without any hesitation. The difficulty, as I see it, stems only from the big gap between the official Chabad position, and what is happening on the ground, and this could be remedied with an information campaign.

Unfortunately, an important rabbi who sits on the Chabad Rabbinical Court told me, “There are those who seek to damage the Chabad movement using the situation of our precious Ethiopian immigrants. This causes damage to them as well as to us, and for no reason. It’s unnecessary.”

In truth, this rabbi’s attitude comports with what we know and see everyday in the Chabad movement. Chabad is known for its very positive approach to everyone. Chabad Hassidism bring the light of Judaism and Hasidism to every Jew, in a pleasant manner and with respect for others. A Chabad rabbi told me “If someone in Chabad expressed a negative attitude towards a person because of his origin or color, he has acted against the way and spirit of Chabad.”

I can confirm that this is what happens in practice in the city of Kiryat Malachi based on conversations I had with rabbis there. One rabbi told me, “For Chabad Hassidism, origin is not an obstacle. What is relevant is the way of life people live.  The Chabad movement consists of members from all backgrounds. The common denominator is the acceptance of the Chabad way of life. That is why there is nothing preventing children from an Ethiopian family who say they have undergone symbolic conversion and have adopted the Chabad way of life from being educated in a Chabad yeshiva. This is the reason why there are relations of mutual respect, appreciation and recognition between the different populations in the city of Kiryat Malachi. In everyday life, this manifests itself in joint study in study halls and schools. In practice, we do not check who has converted through symbolic conversion and who has not. We accept the status of the Ethiopian Jews solely based on their say so.”

This attitude needs to become the dominant one among all the Jewish people. Let us work to foster an attitude of tolerance and love, alongside with a respect for the halachic practice, which as noted, concludes that any member of Bete Israel who has undergone symbolic conversion, must be recognized as fully Jewish.