African-American Jews

African-American Jews are people who are both African American and Jewish. African-American Jews may be either Jewish from birth or converts to Judaism. Many African-American Jews are of mixed heritage, having both African-American gentile and non-black Jewish ancestors. Some African-American Jews may identify as Jews of Color.

History

Jews with African ancestry have lived in the Americas since the colonial era. Before the 1820s, the largest Jewish communities were in the Caribbean, as were the largest communities of Jews with ancestral ties to Africa.^[1]

Some early African-American Jews came to the United States from Jamaica^[2] and Barbados.^[3] The portraits of Sarah Brandon Moses and Isaac Lopez Brandon, both born enslaved in Barbados, are the oldest known paintings of Jews with African Ancestry.^[3] Caribbean Jews both became members of white-run Jewish synagogues in the United States and helped form early African American synagogues in Harlem in the first part of the twentieth century.

Several historic Jewish congregations in the United States mention early African American worshippers.^[4] Lucy Marks (?-1838), who lived with and worked for the Marks family of Philadelphia, was known as a "devout observer of the precepts of Judaism" and sat in the women's section of Mikveh Israel during services. Upon her death, the Marks family successfully petitioned to have her buried in the Spruce Street Cemetery, where today she rests in an unmarked grave next to Haym Salomon.^[5] Billy Simmons (?-1860) attended services at Beth Elohim in Charleston, South Carolina, even though its constitution forbade people with African ancestry from being members.^[6]^[4]

By the first part of the twentieth century, at least eight different African American run religious organizations self-identified as Jewish. Most traced connections either to the Caribbean or Ethiopia.^[4] Today African American Jews worship both in predominantly African-American synagogues and predominantly mixed congregations.

North America

The American Jewish community includes Jews with African-American backgrounds. African-American Jews belong to each of the major American Jewish denominations—Orthodox, Conservative, Reform—and the smaller movements as well, such as Reconstructionist or Humanistic.^{[citation needed]} Like their other Jewish counterparts, there are also African-American Jewish secularists and African-American Jews who may rarely or never take part in religious practices.^[7]

Robin Washington, an American journalist and filmmaker, became one of three founders of the National Conference of Black Jews, later called the Alliance of Black Jews. It was conceived to build bridges among all African-American Jews, who are affiliated with many different groups. Estimates of the number of black Jews in the United States range from 20,000^[8] to 200,000.^[9]

There are several predominantly African-American synagogues in the United States, such as Beth Shalom B'nai Zaken Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation, which is a synagogue in Chicago, Illinois. The congregation leader of Beth Shalom is Rabbi Capers Funnye. Its assistant rabbis are Avraham Ben Israel and Joshua V. Salter.^[10] The congregation, which has about 200 members, is mostly African American.^[11]^[12] The congregation was started by Rabbi Horace Hasan from Bombay (now Mumbai), India, in 1918 as the Ethiopian Hebrew Settlement Workers Association,^[13] and it was influenced by Wentworth Arthur Matthew's Commandment Keepers.^[11]^[12]

References

^ Hoberman, Michael; Leibman, Laura Arnold; Surowitz-Israel, Hilit. Jews in the Americas, 1776-1826 (First ed.). London. ISBN 978-1-315-47257-7. OCLC 993959117.
^ Landing, James E. (2001). Black Judaism: story of an American movement. Durham, N.C.: Carolina Academic Press. ISBN 0-89089-820-0. OCLC 36877310.
^ ^a ^b Leibman, Laura Arnold. The art of the Jewish family: a history of women in early New York in five objects. New York City. ISBN 978-1-941792-21-6. OCLC 1158017660.
^ ^a ^b ^c Haynes, Bruce D., 1960- (August 14, 2018). The soul of Judaism : Jews of African descent in America. New York. ISBN 978-1-4798-1123-6. OCLC 1006531808.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
^ Pickard, Kate E. R.; Whiteman, Maxwell (1995). The kidnapped and the ransomed: the narrative of Peter and Vina Still after forty years of slavery. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 0-8032-9233-3. OCLC 32738920.
^ O'Brien, Michael (2004). Conjectures of order: intellectual life and the American South, 1810-1860. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 0-8078-6373-4. OCLC 57759012.
^ Wolfson, Bernard J. (1999). "African American Jews". In Chireau, Yvonne; Deutsch, Nathaniel (eds.). Black Zion: African American Religious Encounters with Judaism. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 33–34. ISBN 0-19-511257-1.
^ David Whelan (May 8, 2003). "A Fledgling Grant Maker Nurtures Young Jewish 'Social Entrepreneurs'". The Chronicle of Philanthropy. Retrieved February 8, 2009.
^ Michael Gelbwasser (April 10, 1998). "Organization for black Jews claims 200,000 in U.S." J. The Jewish News of Northern California. Retrieved August 2, 2010.
^ "Divine Law or Sexism?". National Public Radio. July 12, 2007. Retrieved April 5, 2009.
^ ^a ^b Chireau, Yvonne (2000). "Black Culture and Black Zion: African American Religious Encounters with Judaism, 1790–1930, an Overview". In Yvonne Patricia Chireau; Nathaniel Deutsch (eds.). Black Zion: African American Religious Encounters with Judaism. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 48. ISBN 0-19-511257-1.
^ ^a ^b Angell, Stephen W. (Spring 2001). "Yvonne Chireau and Nathaniel Deutsch, eds, Black Zion: African American Religious Encounters with Judaism". The North Star: A Journal of African American Religious History. 4 (2). Retrieved October 6, 2016.
^ Koppel, Niko (March 16, 2008). "Black Rabbi Reaches Out to Mainstream of His Faith". The New York Times.

External links

"Black & Jewish, A Community for Jews of Color". Archived from the original on June 11, 2007., a site for "Black American Jews and their friends to communicate".
"Center for Afro-Jewish Studies". Archived from the original on September 11, 2007. at Temple University, a "research and learning institution dedicated to scholarship on Afro-Jewish peoples and developing awareness of the historical, political, religious, and philosophical issues that arise from the convergence of the African and Jewish diasporas".
"Jewish Multiracial Network"., a group whose mission is "to build a community of Jews of color and multiracial Jewish families".
"On Being a (Black) Jew in America: Conversation with MaNishtana". Chicago Jewish Cafe with Alexander Gendler. October 26, 2018. Archived from the original on December 13, 2021.

News and articles

"Black and Jewish: 10 Celebrities You Didn't Know Were Jewish". The Huffington Post. April 6, 2012. Retrieved April 7, 2012.
"Black Jews". Time. September 27, 1937. Archived from the original on January 3, 2008. Retrieved August 31, 2010.
Freedman, Samuel G. (August 12, 2011). "Prayer, and Bug Juice, at a Summer Camp for Jews of Color". The New York Times. Retrieved August 12, 2011.
Holzinger, Kay (1998). "Black Jews". The Encyclopedia of Cults, Sects, and New Religions. Religious Movements Homepage Project at the University of Virginia. Archived from the original on April 8, 2006. Retrieved August 31, 2010.
Lee, Trymaine (August 27, 2010). "Black and Jewish, and Seeing No Contradiction". The New York Times. Retrieved August 31, 2010.
Lyons, Len (July 23, 2012). "Black Jews Gain Wider Acceptance". The Forward. Retrieved July 25, 2012.
Pomerance, Rachel (June 18, 2008). "Judaism Drawing More Black Americans". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Retrieved August 31, 2010.
Yankovich, Ita (January 13, 2008). "Minority Within a Minority". Aish HaTorah. Retrieved August 31, 2010.

[1] Hoberman, Michael; Leibman, Laura Arnold; Surowitz-Israel, Hilit. Jews in the Americas, 1776-1826 (First ed.). London. ISBN 978-1-315-47257-7. OCLC 993959117.

[:1-2] Landing, James E. (2001). Black Judaism: story of an American movement. Durham, N.C.: Carolina Academic Press. ISBN 0-89089-820-0. OCLC 36877310.

[:3-3] Leibman, Laura Arnold. The art of the Jewish family: a history of women in early New York in five objects. New York City. ISBN 978-1-941792-21-6. OCLC 1158017660.

[:2-4] Haynes, Bruce D., 1960- (August 14, 2018). The soul of Judaism : Jews of African descent in America. New York. ISBN 978-1-4798-1123-6. OCLC 1006531808.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)

[5] Pickard, Kate E. R.; Whiteman, Maxwell (1995). The kidnapped and the ransomed: the narrative of Peter and Vina Still after forty years of slavery. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 0-8032-9233-3. OCLC 32738920.

[6] O'Brien, Michael (2004). Conjectures of order: intellectual life and the American South, 1810-1860. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 0-8078-6373-4. OCLC 57759012.

[7] Wolfson, Bernard J. (1999). "African American Jews". In Chireau, Yvonne; Deutsch, Nathaniel (eds.). Black Zion: African American Religious Encounters with Judaism. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 33–34. ISBN 0-19-511257-1.

[8] David Whelan (May 8, 2003). "A Fledgling Grant Maker Nurtures Young Jewish 'Social Entrepreneurs'". The Chronicle of Philanthropy. Retrieved February 8, 2009.

[9] Michael Gelbwasser (April 10, 1998). "Organization for black Jews claims 200,000 in U.S." J. The Jewish News of Northern California. Retrieved August 2, 2010.

[10] "Divine Law or Sexism?". National Public Radio. July 12, 2007. Retrieved April 5, 2009.

[Chireau18-11] Chireau, Yvonne (2000). "Black Culture and Black Zion: African American Religious Encounters with Judaism, 1790–1930, an Overview". In Yvonne Patricia Chireau; Nathaniel Deutsch (eds.). Black Zion: African American Religious Encounters with Judaism. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 48. ISBN 0-19-511257-1.

[Angell-12] Angell, Stephen W. (Spring 2001). "Yvonne Chireau and Nathaniel Deutsch, eds, Black Zion: African American Religious Encounters with Judaism". The North Star: A Journal of African American Religious History. 4 (2). Retrieved October 6, 2016.

[Koppel-13] Koppel, Niko (March 16, 2008). "Black Rabbi Reaches Out to Mainstream of His Faith". The New York Times.

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v t e African diaspora religions
Religions	Abakuá Arará Atheism Black church Catholicism Candomblé Bantu Jejé Ketu Comfa Convince Dominican Vudú Haitian Vodou in Cuba Islam Judaism Kumina Louisiana Voodoo María Lionza Maroon Palo Quimbanda Santería Spiritual Baptist Tambor de Mina Trinidadian Vodunu Umbanda Winti
Practices and concepts	Animal sacrifice Fetish priest Bokor Houngan Mambo Hoodoo Kongo Hot foot powder Jazz funeral Kromanti dance Macumba Michari Mojo bag Myal Nine nights Obeah Spirituals Veve Voodoo doll Zombie
Diverse roots	Alusi Igbo Christianity Catholicism Protestantism Western occultism European witchcraft folklore Ifá Kongo Nkisi Bantu Loa Fon and Ewe Orisha Yoruba Rastafari Winti Akan Zemi Native American religions