African-American Jews

Not to be confused with Black Hebrew Israelites.

African-American Jews are people who are both African American and Jewish, whether by mixed ancestry or conversion. African-American Jews may be either Jewish from birth or converts to Judaism. Many African-American Jews are of mixed heritage, having both non-Jewish African-American and non-Black Jewish ancestors. Many African-American Jews identify as Jews of color, but some do not. Black American Jews from Africa, such as the Beta Israel from Ethiopia, may or may not identify as African-American Jews.

History

Early history

An 1899 Baltimore Sun article mentioning German-speaking Black Jews in Pennsylvania and New York.

Caribbean Jews both became members of Ashkenazi Jewish synagogues in the United States and helped form early African-American synagogues in Harlem in the first part of the 20th century.

Several historic Jewish congregations in the United States mention early African-American worshippers. Lucy Marks (1778-1838), 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. Billy Simmons (1780-1860) attended services at Beth Elohim in Charleston, South Carolina, even though its constitution forbade converts with African ancestry from being members.

20th century

By the first part of the 20th century, at least eight different African-American run religious organizations self-identified as Jewish. Most traced or claimed connections either to the Caribbean or Ethiopia. Today African-American Jews worship both in predominantly African-American congregations and predominantly mixed congregations.

In New York City, African-American Jews have been present since colonial times, with many having Caribbean Sephardi roots. The portraits of Sarah Brandon Moses and Isaac Lopez Brandon, both born enslaved in Barbados and later living in New York City, are the oldest known paintings of Jews with African ancestry.

A Black Sephardi community existed in Harlem during the 1970s; it descended from Black Southerner slaves who had been owned by white Sephardi slave owners. In accordance with Deutoronomy Chapter 15, which implies that "bondsmen" in Jewish households should also be Jewish, Sephardi slave owners converted their slaves to Judaism. Many of the freed Sephardi slaves passed their religion on to their children and grandchildren. Birmingham wrote that "Black Sephardim are as fiercely proud of their ancient religion as white Sephardim, and consider themselves among the elite of Jewry."

Black Jews have often been erased from historical accounts of the Crown Heights riot. In 1991, Crown Heights was home to over a dozen Black Jewish families affiliated with Chabad, as well as Black Sephardi Jews. Akedah Fulcher-Eze, a fourth-generation Black Jew who grew up in Crown Heights, has stated that the riot was not a "pogrom" and that while some of the attackers were motivated by antisemitic stereotypes, antisemitism was not the only factor in the riot. According to Fulcher-Eze, they were viewed as privileged community members with deep pockets, strong political ties, and lots of protectsia from the police. "Are these classic antisemitic tropes? Yes. But that doesn't mean there wasn't a kernel of truth to them or that people didn't believe them."

Contemporary African-American Jews

Musician Lenny Kravitz (whose father was of Ashkenazi ancestry and Ukrainian-Jewish background) refers to himself as being "half-Jewish"

Singer, actor, and comedian Sammy Davis Jr., who was a convert to Judaism

Comedian Eric André, the son of an Ashkenazi Jewish mother and an Afro-Haitian father

Actress and comedian Tiffany Haddish, who converted to Judaism after learning that her late father had been African Jewish

Rapper Drake (a dual-citizen of Canada and the United States), born to an African-American father and a Canadian Ashkenazi Jewish mother and an adherent of the Jewish faith since youth

Actress and filmmaker Rashida Jones is the daughter of an African-American father (Quincy Jones) and an Ashkenazi Jewish mother (Peggy Lipton), and was raised in the tradition of Reform Judaism

Actress and comedian Maya Rudolph is the daughter of a Jewish father (Richard Rudolph) and an African American mother (Minnie Riperton)

Ice hockey player Jordan Harris is the son of an African-American Jewish father and was raised Jewish

Feminist activist Rebecca Walker, the daughter of an African-American mother (Alice Walker) and Jewish father (Melvyn R. Leventhal)

British politician Oona King, the daughter of an African-American father (Preston King) and British Jewish mother

Actress Zoë Kravitz's (whose father is Lenny Kravitz and mother is Lisa Bonet) has Ashkenazi Jewish heritage through both maternal grandmother and paternal grandfather and African-American heritage through both her maternal grandfather and paternal grandmother. Kravitz, who does not practice the Jewish faith, considers herself "mixed" and having Jewish heritage

The American Jewish community includes Jews with African-American backgrounds. Like their other Jewish counterparts, there are African-American Jewish secularists and African-American Jews who may rarely or never take part in religious practices.

A Black Orthodox Jewish and Black Hasidic community exists in Brooklyn, with deep roots going back many generations. There is no specific documentation of the exact number of Black Orthodox Jews in New York City, but the numbers are small yet growing. Black Orthodox Jews have struggled to form a minyan in Crown Heights.

In 1963, the Central Conference of American Rabbis issued a responsa written by Rabbi Solomon Freehof titled "Miscegenation and Conversion of Negroes", stating that there was no prohibition in Reform Judaism against interracial marriage, citing the marriage of Moses to Zipporah, an Ethiopian woman. The responsa describes the conversion of African-Americans to Judaism as a "troublesome situation", because a "Negro becoming a Jew subjects himself to double difficulties." Freehof wrote that he would discourage an African-American man who wanted to marry a Jewish woman "For the sake of their happiness", but would not refuse.

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 to 200,000.

There are several predominantly African-American Jewish or Black Hebrew Israelite congregations in the United States, most of which are affiliated with the Black Hebrew Israelite movement. Most notably, Beth Shalom B'nai Zaken Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation is a Black Hebrew Israelite synagogue in Chicago, Illinois. The congregation leader of Beth Shalom is Conservative Rabbi Capers Funnye, a Black Hebrew Israelite leader. Its assistant rabbis are Avraham Ben Israel and Joshua V. Salter. The congregation, which has about 200 members, is mostly African-American. The congregation was started by Rabbi Horace Hasan from Bombay (now Mumbai), India, in 1918 as the Ethiopian Hebrew Settlement Workers Association, and it was influenced by Wentworth Arthur Matthew's Commandment Keepers.

Shais Rishon, a Black Orthodox Jewish writer and activist, has stated that the "mainstream normative Black Jewish community" is distinct from the Black Hebrew Israelite movement and that Black Hebrew Israelites do not share the same identity, community, or issues as Black Jews. Rishon objects to the erasure of Black Jews, saying that Black Hebrew Israelites are not a denomination of Judaism and that the two communities are commonly confused or conflated.

See also

• Alliance of Black Jews
• African American–Jewish relations
• Black Hebrew Israelites – groups of African Americans who believe that they are the descendants of the ancient Israelites
• Black Judaism
• Darhe Jesarim
• History of the Jews in Africa
• History of the Jews in Suriname
• Jewish diaspora
• Jewish ethnic divisions
• Jewish history
• List of African-American Jews
• Black, White, and Jewish
• Religion of Black Americans
• The Whipping Man
• The Color of Water

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 978-0-253-34902-6.
• 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". 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". Archived from the original on March 12, 2008., 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. Archived from the original on July 26, 2020. Retrieved August 31, 2010.
• Why I’m no longer avoiding synagogues as a Black Jew for the High Holy Days, NBC News
• The Beta Israel of North America (BINA) Cultural Foundation, Inc.
• New Ways of Growth: Kamochah’s New York Chapter for Black Orthodox Jews, Jews of Color Initiative