Black Jews in America
Brief Historical Overview
Theology and Culture
Race and Identity
Northampton Community College Prof. Sholomo B. Levy
Rabbi Arnold J. Ford, Founder
 Born in Barbados 1877
 Claimed African Jewish
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Ancestry
Musical Director of the
Universal Negro Improvement
Association (wrote anthem)
Founded Beth B’nai Abraham,
1923
Immigrated to Ethiopia in
1930
Ordained Rabbi Matthew
Died in Ethiopia 1935
Northampton Community College Prof. Sholomo B. Levy
Marcus Mosiah Garvey
Lived 1887-1940
1914, Organized the Universal Negro
Improvement Association in Jamaica
1917, Opened a UNIA branch in
Harlem
1918-1924 Negro World, Black Star
Line, Black Cross Nurses, etc.
1924 Officially proclaimed the
blackness of Jesus
1925-1927 Federal Prison in Atlanta
1927 Returned to Jamaica
1940 Died in England
Northampton Community College Prof. Sholomo B. Levy
Marcus Mosiah Garvey
Black Nationalism
Negro Catechism
(Bishop George Alexander McGuire, Chaplain and
later founder of the African Orthodox Church)
Pan Africanism
Black Zionism
Northampton Community College Prof. Sholomo B. Levy
Rabbi Ford’s Choir 1920s
Northampton Community College Prof. Sholomo B. Levy
Rabbi W. A Matthew, Builder
 Lived, 1892-1973
 Founded
Commandment Keepers
Ethiopian Hebrew
Cong. Harlem, 1919
 Ethiopian Rabbinical
College, 1925
 Community Leader /
Activist
Northampton Community College Prof. Sholomo B. Levy
Rabbi Mordecai Herman
Moorish Zionist Temple, Harlem 1920s
Northampton Community College Prof. Sholomo B. Levy
Noble Drew Ali
Parallel Development of
Judaism and Islam
Among African
Americans
Why did Islam grow
faster?
Northampton Community College Prof. Sholomo B. Levy
Noble Drew Ali
 Search of “True” Identity
 Reconsideration of all
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elements of identity:
Religion
Language (& terminology)
Dress
History
Symbols
Values
Political Tactics
Northampton Community College Prof. Sholomo B. Levy
Intellectual Underpinnings
 Slavery
Created Cultural and Social
Dislocation
 Racial Identity Alone Was Inherently
Inferior; i.e. Negroness is insufficient.
 True Identity Must Be Found To Gain
Equality
Northampton Community College Prof. Sholomo B. Levy
Theological Influences
 Slaves Converted to Christianity 1740s
 Strong Affinity to the Old Testament
 Identification with the Hebrew Slaves
 Prominence of Judaic themes in Negro
Spirituals
 Very Thorough Knowledge of Biblical
Judaism
Northampton Community College Prof. Sholomo B. Levy
Scriptural Support
Deuteronomy Chapter 28
Jeremiah 29:14
Ezekiel 11:17, 20:34, 20:41, 36:24
Zephaniah 3:20
Isaiah 11:11-12
Dispersal of the Jewish People
Ten Lost Tribes
Northampton Community College Prof. Sholomo B. Levy
Correcting Historical Images
All People in the Bible are White
The Slaves of Egypt were European
Black People Can Be Christian But Not Jewish
Moses and his Ethiopian Wife, Zipporah
Hollywood's Egyptians
Northampton Community College Prof. Sholomo B. Levy
Confluence of Events
Harlem Renaissance 1920s
Black Migration North
Caribbean Immigration to the USA
Northampton Community College Prof. Sholomo B. Levy
Commandment Keepers 1919
Northampton Community College Prof. Sholomo B. Levy
Commandment Keepers
Northampton Community College Prof. Sholomo B. Levy
Black Rabbi in Chicago, c.1920s
Rabbi Lazaru, Reuban, Green
Northampton Community College Prof. Sholomo B. Levy
Kohol Beth B’nai Israel
Bronx, New York, 1940s
Northampton Community College Prof. Sholomo B. Levy
Zion House of Israel, Barbados
Northampton Community College Prof. Sholomo B. Levy
First Board of Black Rabbis
Northampton Community College Prof. Sholomo B. Levy
Racial Diversity Judaism
Worldwide
Ethiopian Jews
Lemba, South Africa
Abayudaya, Uganda
Black Jews of Cochin, India
Marranos of Latin America
Northampton Community College Prof. Sholomo B. Levy
Chart of Black Jews
Northampton Community College Prof. Sholomo B. Levy
Sources, Documents, Research
Thorough Review of All Secondary Material
Immigration Records (Ship’s Passenger Manifests of those who arrived
though Ellis Island, NY, Application for Citizenship.
Grant from the New York State Records and Achieves Administration
(Congregational Records, Sermons, photographs, Interviews, Birth &
Death Certificates, Deeds, Wills, Leases, Contracts, Receipts.)
Newspapers of the period
Court Documents
FBI Reports
Papers of Incorporation
State Department Records
Northampton Community College Prof. Sholomo B. Levy
Archival Research
Library of Congress, State Department
FBI Records, Schomburg Center
Court Documents
Northampton Community College Prof. Sholomo B. Levy