Texas Jewish Herald (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 61, No. 12, Ed. 1 Thursday, September 17, 1936 Page: 2 of 42
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Pa<e 2
THE TEXAS JEWISH HERALD
Andrews, Kelley, Kurth & Campbell
ATTORNEYS
G • I f B u i I d i n »
HOUSTON, TEXAS
See end Hear
THE NEW
PHILCO
The Black Jewess of Ethiopia
About the Life of the Modern Daughter of Sheba
By ANNE RUTH SELSTAL
—You can measure the new PHILCO in terms
of tone quality, performance and beauty of
cabinet design. In all three ways it stands among
radios as the supreme achievement for 1937.
—PHILCO’S exclusive Foreign Tuning Sys-
tem permits you to get twice as many foreign
stations clearly and distinctly. You can pick
them up quickly and easily because each Station
is named and located on PHILCO’S exclusive
Spread Band Dial.
—Enjoy PHILCO now! Be entertainend with
amazing realism! There’s a model for every
purpose and one to suit your needs.
$20 to $600
at Your Nearest Philco Dealer
CRUMPACKER
DISTRIBUTING CORPORATION
i 1501 Walker
When the blackshirted legions
of Mussolini made themselves
masters of Ethiopia and drove
Emperor Haile Selassie, King of
Kings and Conquering Lion of
Judah, into exile, they brought
under Italian hegemony the only
country in the world whose peo-
ple proudly boast that they are
descendants of Jews. The major-
ity of Ethiopians, of course, are
Christians, for the land of Hail?
Selassie is the world’s oldest
Christian nation. Yet this ancient
empire Hates its national origin
back to Maqeda, the famous and
beautiful Queen of Sheba who
ruled over Ethiopia in the days of
Kink Solomon.
From Biblical sources and the
folklore of Ethiopia has come
down the story that when the
powerful and fabulously wealthy
Queen of Sheba traveled to Jeru-
salem in the 11th century B. C.
E. to see for herself the wonders
of King Solomon’s Temple she
fell completely under the spell of
this most celebrated monarch of
antiquit. Awed by his proverbial
wisdom and vast wealth, this
dusky, club-footed princess was
also tremendously impressed with
Solomon’s God and religion.
There are only dim legends to
support it, but it is said that the
proud Meqeda was converted to
Judaism by the Hebrew sage and
bore him a son called Menelik,
who became the founder of the
royal house of Ethiopia.
When the Queen of Sheba re-
turned to her own country with
her son, after a lengthy stay at
King Solomon’s court, she
brought with her many of the
first-born sons of Solomon’s cour-
I tiers, who had been sent to Ethi-
opia to convert the natives to
Judaism. Intermarriage between
these scions of ancient Hebrew
royalty and the native women of
Africa established the line of
Falashas, or black Jews of Ethi-
opia. Under Menelik I and his
successors Ethiopia remained half
Jewish and half pagan until 330
A. D., when the majority of the
population was converted to
Christianity. Those who remained
: loyal to the faith of Solomon re-
treated to the mountains and es-
tablished an independent Jewish
kingdom which endured for 1300
years. Ruled alternately b y
queens called Judith and kings
called Gideon, this mountain em-
pire succeeded in preserving in-
tact an almost virginal form of
the religion brought to Ethiopia
from Palestine by the Queen of
Sheba and her son.
New Year
GREETINGS
To Our Many Jewish Friends
JESSE H. JONES
~ Interests
The Moslem conquest of Ethi-
opia in the seventh century C. E.
cut it off from the rest of Chris-
tendom for a thousand years. Be-
lieving themselves to be the last
survivors of the Jewish people,
the Falashas held fast to Judaism
with fanatic zeal despite genera-
tions of persecution and separa-
tion from the main branch of
Jewry. Although the independent
Jewish kingdom was destroyed in
the 17 th century and its inhabi-
tants decimated by recurring
wars and plagues and the inroads
of assimilation, the dwindling
remnants of the seed of Sheba
and Solomon were still a Jewish
oasis in a .desert of paganism
when they were discovered some
50 years ago.
Perhaps the most striking dif-
ference between the Falashas and
the other natives of Ethiopia is
the high social and economic
level of women among the black-
skinned Jews. Ethiopian women,
like those of other backward
races, are usually treated as in-
ferior beings, motherhood, prosti-
tution or concubinage being the
only careers open to them. Fala-
sha women do not suffer from
these degradations and limita-
tions. Thanks to the Falashas’
stern moral code and their rigor-
ous observance of Jewish relig-
ious rites, porstitution is extreme-
ly rare among them. Women
guilty of a breach of chastity
have to undergo purification by
leaping into flaming fire. To
meet the requirements of fre-
quent ritual ablutions for women,
the Falasha settlements are al-
most always located near a river
or stream. Concubinage and po-
lygamy, neither of which is for-
bidden by the 019 Testament, are
prohibited. Divorce is almost un
known, but permissible. When a
Falasha couple want to sever
their matrimonial bonds they ap-
pear before a judge who hears
their complaints in public and in
the presence of their parents.
Marriage customs among the
Falashas present many dissimilar-
ities not only from those in vogue
among other Jews but also from
those practised by the Ethiopians.
The Falashas oppose child mar-
riages, 18 or 20 being the usual
marriage age. Spinsters and bach-
elors are unknown. Because in-
termarriage with other tribes is
strictly forbidden there is a good
deal of in-breeding. First-born
sons must marry first-born girls.
Courtship as we know it has
no place in Falasha society. Mar-
riages are not initiated by the
principals but by their parents.
Each party is attended by advis-
ors. The advisors go into confer
ence and decide on the wedding
day and the size of the dowry.
The wedding ceremony is i
simple affair. There is no ketu
bah, or wedding contract, nor
any other written agreement. In
the presenceof witnesses the
couple plight their troth and then
set up housekeeping. Falasha
women are excellent housekeep-
ers and their homes are celebrat-
ed for their cleanliness. They are
the world’s worst cooks, however.
Few Falasha rites are more
scrupulously observed than those
associated with childbirth. Sev-
eral weeks before giving birth
pregnant women leave their
home to take up residence in
special huts that have been sanc-
tified by priests. The women re-
main alone except for a nurse
until their children are born. Un-
til the children are forty days old
—eighty in the case of girls—
Falasha women are forbidden to
bathe. This is a precaution
against contamination of the wa-
ter supply, since the rivers and
streams are the sole source of
drinking water. After this initial
immersion mothers of newborn
children clothe themselves in
new gowns and offer up as sac-
rifices a pair of doves caught by
their husbands.
In their daily life women enjoy
equal rights with men except in
religion and education, though
foreign Jewish agencies are now
making efforts to establish
schools for girls too. In the mes-
gid (synagogue) women are seat-
ed in a separate section, and
have a special entrance reserved
for them. They are permitted to
witness the many sacrificial cere-
monies, but only from a distance.
Approach to the sacrificial altar
is strictly forbidden to women.
In other matters, however, Fal-
asha women are completely
emancipated. They are not re-
stricted to segregated quarters in
their homes, nor obliged to veil
their faces. Control over children
is shared equally by father and
mother. All public meetings are
open to women, and they take an
active part in communal and so-
cial affairs. Darker and more
corpulent than the Amharas,
among whom they live, the Fal-
asha women have shorter and
curlier hair. Outdoors they wear
a long shift edged with different
colors. At religious festivals and
ift the home they garb themselves
in richly embroidered gowns.
They are addicted to wearing
silver chains in their hair and
around their ankles. Bracelets
and earrings are common orna-
ments among Falasha women, but
they do not pierce the nose, as
other tribeswomen do.
The history of this Jewish tribe
is still shrouded in obscurity. But
nothing that Italian scholars may
now disclose about the genealogy
of the Falashas can detract from
the fact that this Jewish tribe of
Africa honors the mother of the
tribe, the famous Queen of Sheba,
by treating its women humanly.
••••••••••••••••a*
New Year Greetings
F. W. Heitmann
Company
Hardware and Mill Supplies
HOUSTON
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Goldberg, Edgar. Texas Jewish Herald (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 61, No. 12, Ed. 1 Thursday, September 17, 1936, newspaper, September 17, 1936; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1102879/m1/2/: accessed June 21, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .