The Bēta Esraʾēl (Falāshā), or Beta Israel, formed an ethnic group that numbered around thirty thousand and resided in Northwest Ethiopia. Whereas some scholars and the Bēta Esraʾēl themselves contend that their religion was essentially an archaic form of Judaism, others view it as primarily Ethiopian in its origins, form, and content. Although the first of these hypotheses cannot be totally excluded, it is possible to demonstrate that numerous elements of the Bēta Esraʾēl religion, including its literature, liturgy, and clerical hierarchy, developed in Ethiopia after the fourteenth century. During the twentieth century Ethiopian Judaism ceased to exist in its customary form. Contacts with representatives of world Jewry led to changes in Ethiopia in the indigenous tradition, and the emigration to Israel of virtually all practicing Bēta Esraʾēl put an end to Jewish...