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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.
Jews with African ancestry have lived in the Americas since the colonial era. Black Jews during the colonial era were often enslaved people or their descendants. Before the 1820s, the largest Jewish communities in the Americas 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 20th century.[ citation needed ]
Several historic Jewish congregations in the United States mention early African-American worshippers. [4] 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. [5] 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. [6] [4]
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. [4] 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. [7] [8]
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." [9]
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." [10]
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. [29]
A Black Orthodox Jewish and Black Hasidic community exists in Brooklyn, with deep roots going back many generations. [30] 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. [31]
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. [32]
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 [33] to 200,000. [34]
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. [35] The congregation, which has about 200 members, is mostly African-American. [36] [37] The congregation was started by Rabbi Horace Hasan from Bombay (now Mumbai), India, in 1918 as the Ethiopian Hebrew Settlement Workers Association, [38] and it was influenced by Wentworth Arthur Matthew's Commandment Keepers. [36] [37]
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. [39]
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: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)Lenny Kravitz: Later my mother told me, "Look, I'm African-American and your father is a Ukrainian Jew, and you should be proud of both sides, neither more than the other."
[Lenny] Kravitz: "Well, Brooklyn was just - I had Jewish grandparents - Ukrainian Jews that were in Sheepshead Bay."
Rashida Jones: "I'm proud to be black. I'm proud to be Jewish."
Rashida Jones: "I am a product of slaves. I am also a product of Jewish immigrants and Holocaust survivors."
Bonet was born in the heart of the hippie movement, in November 1967 in San Francisco, to a white Jewish schoolteacher mother and a black opera-singing father.