(Jewish Group) The Orit is a rare Ethiopian version of the Bible. This Israeli family risked it all

[Behind the Aegis]

The Orit is a rare Ethiopian version of the Bible. This Israeli family risked it all to retrieve one.


Ayanawo Ferada Senebato, right, and his family shown in Ashkelon, Israel, holding an ancient Orit book that they retrieved near Gondar, Ethiopia, in February 2022. (Yossi Zeliger)

When they flew out of this country for Israel three decades ago, Askabo Meshiha’s family left something valuable behind.

Unlike many other Ethiopian Jews who were airlifted to Israel in 1991, they didn’t say goodbye to any relatives. But they left behind a centuries-old book of psalms written in Ge’ez, a Semitic language used by Jewish clergy in Ethiopia.

They had to secretly and on short notice leave their rural homes for the capital Addis Ababa with as little baggage as possible. So the family entrusted non-Jewish neighbors with keeping the book safe until they could retrieve it. From Israel, they tracked the book’s whereabouts for more than 30 years, never losing hope of retrieving it — even after their native country fell into civil war and the book wound up in the hands of a Christian priest who demanded a steep ransom to release it.

Their perseverance paid off.

In March, an unusual set of circumstances finally allowed the family to be reunited with the document, a rare but tangible relic from the rich traditions of one of the world’s oldest Jewish communities. The family now hopes to restore the book and use it to strengthen their community’s fading identity.

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