For Israelis concerned about the prudence of Ethiopian aliyah, the questions of whether or not the Falash Mura are Jews - and under what circumstances their progenitors converted to Christianity - are of paramount importance.
Unlike the Beta Israel, who maintained a distinct Jewish identity in Ethiopia for centuries, epitomized by their observance of Shabbat and their rejection of Jesus as the messiah, the Falash Mura converted to Christianity in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Though many advocates of Falash Mura aliyah maintain that the conversions resulted from economic and social pressures, scholars of Ethiopian Jewish history find little evidence of this.
On the contrary, according to Steven Kaplan's The Beta Israel (Falasha) in Ethiopia: From Earliest Times to the Twentieth Century, those who converted were far more likely to face social and economic exclusion than those who remained Jews. The converts faced ostracism both from the Jews whose tradition they rejected, and from the Christians who refused to accept them as full-fledged members of their communities because they were members of the lowly Beta Israel caste.
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In interviews last year in the Ethiopian province of Gojam with Beta Israel peasants who had not yet migrated to the cities, villagers demonstrated no knowledge of Judaism whatsoever. Indeed, until their contact with American Jewish groups working in the cities, they'd never heard of the Torah, never observed any Jewish holidays or rituals, and professed a belief in Jesus. Many have crosses tattooed on their foreheads or wear crosses around their necks.