Conversion Practices Among Ethiopian Jews and Their Transformation in Recent Generations

Among Ethiopian Jews, as among all other Jewish communities throughout history, the process of conversion to Judaism, and attitudes toward converts, were shaped by the circumstances of time and place. This article investigates conversion as practiced in the Beta Israel community. It examines the motivations for conversion and the process itself. Naturally, conversion was not uniform across all Ethiopian Jewish communities, but common fundamental features reflected a core understanding of conversion, expressed in a process that was quicker than the standard conversion practice in Israel. The testimonies presented in the article describe in detail both the process and the background to the unique traditional Ethiopian Jewish approach to conversion. This article shows that in some communities, different and more rigorous conversion ceremonies were held. A central claim of the article is that in recent generations, significant changes have occurred in the conversion process in several communities as a result of the interaction between Ethiopian Jewish communities and the State of Israel and its Orthodox rabbinic establishment. This interaction, which at times included pressures for members of the community themselves to undergo a form of conversion, introduced into some communities the terminology and processes of Orthodox conversion.