History of the Jews in the African diaspora

"Black Jews" redirects here. For the Black Jews of Malabar, see Cochin Jews.

The history of the Jews in the African diaspora refers to black Jews living in the African diaspora. Some consider themselves to be the true descendants of the Israelites of the Torah, notably the Black Hebrew Israelites. The African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem, immigrated from the United States to Israel beginning in 1969.

North America

Rabbi Wentworth Arthur Matthew with Torah scroll

The American Jewish community includes African-American Jews and other Jews of African descent. Black Jews belong to each of the major American Jewish denominations — Orthodox, Conservative, Reform — and to the smaller movements as well. Like their white Jewish counterparts, there are also Black Jewish secularists and Black ethnic Jews who may rarely or never take part in religious practices.

Estimates of the number of Black Jews in the United States range from 20,000 to 200,000.

Black Hebrews

Main article: Black Hebrew Israelites

The term "Black Jews" is sometimes used to describe Black Hebrews, groups of people mostly of Black African ancestry situated mainly in the United States who believe they are descendants of the ancient Israelites. Black Hebrews adhere in varying degrees to the religious beliefs and practices of mainstream Judaism. They are generally not accepted as Jews by the greater Jewish community, and many Black Hebrews consider themselves — and not mainstream Jews — to be the only authentic Jews. Although cordial relationships exist between some of these groups and the mainstream Jewish community, they are generally not considered to be members of that community, since they have not formally converted nor do they have Jewish parents.

France

The total number of Jews of Black African descent in France is not known, but there are approximately 250 Black Jews in Paris. Fraternité Judéo-Noire, based in Paris, advocates on behalf of these Black Jews.

Jews from Arab states in North Africa

The creation of the modern State of Israel in 1948 and the subsequent expulsion and emigration of Jews from the neighboring Arab states led to growing numbers of non-European Jews settling in Israel, among them Jews from North Africa — chiefly Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya. For these African Jews, emigration to Israel was the end of the Jewish diaspora and the beginning of the African diaspora.

Many North African Jews emigrated to Europe, utilizing citizenship granted in the colonial period. Thus some Libyan Jews immigrated to Italy while some Algerian, Tunisian, and Moroccan Jews immigrated to France. Subsequent events, such as the Algerian War for Independence, the 1956 Suez Crisis, and the Six-Day War in 1967, led to the almost complete emigration of the Jews still remaining in Egypt, Algeria, and Morocco. Today the only viable Jewish communities in North Africa are in the island of Djerba and in Morocco.

Ethiopian Jews

Ethiopian Israeli soldier

Hagit Yaso, winner of 2011 Kochav Nolad

Main article: Aliyah from Ethiopia

Individual Ethiopian Jews had lived in the Land of Israel prior to the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. A youth group arrived in Israel in the 1950s to undergo training in Hebrew education and returned to Ethiopia to educate young Jews there. Also, Ethiopian Jews had been trickling into Israel prior to the 1970s.^{[citation needed]}

During the 1970s, members of the Beta Israel, a community of Ethiopian Jews, began to immigrate to Israel after Ovadia Yosef, the Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel, ruled that they were descendents of the Biblical Israelites and that they should be eligible for citizenship under Israel's Law of Return. As famine gripped Ethiopia during the 1980s, several thousand Ethiopian Jews were airlifted to Israel in Operation Moses, but political instability in Ethiopia and Sudan made further immigration impossible. In 1991, when circumstances changed, more than 14,000 Ethiopian Jews were flown to Israel in Operation Solomon.

Absorption of the Ethiopian Jews into Israeli society has been complicated by what some members of the community perceive as racism. According to the Anti-Defamation League, there are few reports of discrimination in Israel. Most Israelis support the Ethiopian Jews, who have received more aid from the Israeli government than any previous immigrant group. One study attributed some of the problems to the model of absorption chosen by the Israeli government. To prepare for the absorption the Ethiopian Jews, Israel adopted two "Master Plans", the first in 1985 and the second in 1991. Like earlier absoption policies, both Master Plans were based on the assumption that the new immigrants were broadly similar to Israel's existing majority population.

The Israeli Chief Rabbinate required the new arrivals to undergo certain conversion procedures, which many of the Ethiopian Jews considered an insult. In 1996, the Magen David Adom destroyed all blood that had been donated by Ethiopian Jews due to fear it might be contaminated with HIV or AIDS. Authorities pointed to the high incidence of AIDS and HIV in Ethiopia to explain the policy.

According to a 1999 report commissioned by Israel's Ministry of Immigrant Absorption, 75% of the Ethiopian Jews living in Israel could not read or write Hebrew. Nearly 50% could not converse in Hebrew. Because the Ethiopian immigrants came from a subsistence economy, they were not prepared to work in an industrialized society such as Israel's. An earlier study by the Brookdate Institute of Gerontology and Adult Development found that 66% of the Ethiopian women and 85% of the Ethiopian men in the city of Kiryat Gat could speak Hebrew.

In 2008, the unemployment rate among Ethiopian Jews in Israel was 18%, nearly three times that of the general Israeli population. A 2005 study found that the poverty rate among Ethiopian Jewish families was 60%, compared with 20% among all Israeli families.

Ethiopian Heritage Museum

In 2009, plans for the establishment of an Ethiopian Heritage Museum dedicated to the heritage and culture of the Ethiopian Jewish community were unveiled in Rehovot. The museum will include a model of an Ethiopian village, an artificial stream, a garden, classrooms, an amphitheater, and a memorial to Ethiopian Zionist activists and Ethiopian Jews who died en route to Israel.

See also

• List of Jews in the African diaspora
• Alliance of Black Jews
• Groups claiming an affiliation with the ancient Israelites
• Jewish diaspora
• Jewish ethnic divisions

Further reading

• Chireau, Yvonne; Deutsch, Nathaniel, eds. (1999). Black Zion: African American Religious Encounters with Judaism. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-511257-1. 
• Kaye/Kantrowitz, Melanie (2007). The Colors of Jews: Racial Politics and Radical Diasporism. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-253-34902-8. 
• Khanga, Yelena; Jacoby, Susan (1994). Soul to Soul: A Black Russian Jewish Woman's Search for Her Roots. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-31155-4. 
• Lester, Julius (1995) [1988]. Lovesong: Becoming a Jew. New York: Arcade Publishing. ISBN 1-55970-316-4. 
• Parfitt, Tudor (2013). Black Jews in Africa and the Americas. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-06698-4. 
• Tobin, Diane; Tobin, Gary A.; Rubin, Scott (2005). In Every Tongue: The Racial and Ethnic Diversity of the Jewish People. San Francisco: Institute for Jewish & Community Research. ISBN 1-893671-01-1. 
• Walker, Rebecca (2000). Black, White & Jewish: Autobiography of a Shifting Self. New York: Riverhead Books. ISBN 1-57322-169-4. 

External links

• "Black & Jewish, A Community for Jews of Color". , a site for "Black American Jews and their friends to communicate".
• "Center for Afro-Jewish Studies".  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".

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. 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.