Audience: Middle School/High School students 

Materials: A large screen for the classroom and devices for groups of students

OBJECTIVES: 

• Students will be able to explain how Beta Israel evolved as an isolated Jewish community, and how the isolation impacted their development. 
• Students will be able to identify key laws, values, and customs of Beta Israel’s tradition. 
• Students will be able to compare the traditions of Beta Israel with their own Jewish tradition

Lesson Sequence: 

PART 1: Introduce/frame the unit utilizing the Introduction of the RISE. Discuss the concept of tradition, allowing students to share traditions that might exist within their family. Where applicable, connect the lesson to your class’s curriculum or provide the students with an explicit connection between the lesson and their lives.  

PART 2: Utilize the part of the RISE entitled: “What is Beta Israel and how did it develop?” The timeline is meant to demonstrate significant events that occurred in Jewish History that contributed to the establishment of Jewish Rabbinic tradition. Emphasize these events, and then point out when Beta Israel was exiled according to Rabbi Sharon Shalom’s presentation. (There are other theories as well.) The purpose of noting this on a timeline is to highlight the fact that due to Beta Israel’s distance and lack of communication with the Jewish community that was influenced by rabbinic writings, the development of the Gemara and halacha, they did not develop the same traditions. Emphasize that Beta Israel did not communicate with other Jewish communities from the time of their exile until the 1800’s.  

Students may struggle to understand what it means to lack access to phones, and devices – this is an important point to stress. Prompt students to use their imagination to understand what it would look like if two different people received one set of instructions, but then did not have further communication for many years after receiving those instructions. Would the end result be the same? 

PART 3: In this part of the lesson, utilize the RISE to expose students to four different components of Beta Israel tradition: Sigd, Longing for Jerusalem, Respect for Elders, and Synagogue Practices. Utilize this section of the lesson to focus on learning about these different components, and to begin to prompt students to think about how they relate to their own Jewish experience.  

PART 4: Mediate a conversation surrounding the “commonalities and differences” prompts. This can be a standard classroom conversation, or you might want to utilize a tool such as Jamboard or Padlet. Regarding why learning about the community is important, some responses might include: (1) Learning about the breadth of Am Yisrael. (2) Learning about the different traditions that make up the State of Israel. (3) Understanding faithfulness to Judaism (4) Furthering one’s understanding of identity and tradition.  

This lesson plan is based on content from the book, “My Family The Beta Israel: A 10-Unit Curriculum for Ethiopian-Jewish Heritage for High School Teachers and Students,” published by Ono Academic College and the International Center for Ethiopian Jewry.