Black Hebrew Israelites

African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem from Dimona, Israel

Preach to the choir Religion

Crux of the matter

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Speak of the devil

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An act of faith

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Black Hebrew Israelism is an Afrocentric religious belief most popular in the USA, which claims that black people are the descendants of the ancient Israelites of the Bible. They are not to be confused with the various indigenous Jewish sects of Africa, such as the Beta Israel of Ethiopia or Sephardim of North Africa. Those groups go back centuries whereas "black Hebrews" are a recent American invention.

This belief is essentially a mirror image of British Israelism, and just as stupid in that regard. The more extreme adherents of Black Hebrew Israelism venture into black supremacy, racism, misogyny, and anti-Semitism, essentially acting as a black version of the white Christian Identity movement. While the anti-Semitism, which includes claims that whites and Jews are the spawn of the Devil, and that white people will be slaves in the Kingdom of Heaven, may seem particularly odd, it parallels the Christian Identity claims about current Jews not being real Jews with one "explanation" invoking the Khazar myth.

In the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, dozens of Black Hebrew Israelite organizations were established, mostly in New York City, which continues to host the largest concentration of them, though there are congregations scattered across North America. While a lot of groups have beliefs similar to followers of Messianic Judaism (which is considered a branch of Christianity, not Judaism), such as Jesus's status as God, Son of God and Messiah, a few practice non-racist beliefs in line with mainstream Judaism.

Like many practitioners of woo in the 21^st century, the more extreme side of the Black Hebrew Israelites have embraced promoting their conspiracy theories online. Thus, the sect has attracted media attention (often focused on the virulent anti-Semitism) when a high-profile conspiracy-minded celebrity discovers Black Hebrew Israelite woo and starts promoting it. One example of this is NBA basketball star Kyrie Irving. In October 2022, Irving discovered and tweeted out a link to a low-budget, homemade, Black Hebrew Israelite oriented film online called Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America. This film contained extensive antisemitic tropes, including international Jewish conspiracy theory nonsense, Holocaust denial, and quotes from the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. When confronted with the film's ugly untruths, Irving refused to apologize. This resulted in a suspension from his NBA team and a termination of his contract with athletic shoe manufacturer Nike. Also around the same time, Kanye West started spouting large amounts of anti-Semitic banter, some of which seemed inspired by Black Hebrew Israelites woo. West's antisemitic rhetoric actually continued escalating in subsequent months. This also resulted in considerable fallout with West's business partners.

In the State of Israel

One of these minority groups, the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem, moved to Israel, and today their descendants number around 2,500 there. They are mostly near Dimona and Arad in the south of the country.

Their presence in Israel is controversial. The Israeli government was, at first, extremely annoyed by their presence and made many attempts to deport them. In 1990, the Israeli government gave them legal status, in 2003 they were granted permanent residency status, and since then they have grown more settled.

Today they are famous in Israel for their gospel choir, and they own several soul food restaurants in many Israeli cities. Some African Hebrew Israelites have been granted citizenship and serve in the IDF, and one was even chosen to represent Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2006. Their community is something of a tourist attraction now, and are famous for their arts and crafts.

In 2021, deportations of 46 families began again, although it is not entirely clear who was to remain and who was to go. There has been much debate in mainstream Zionist circles as to whether they constitute a Jewish migration to Israel or not. Some have entered more mainstream forms of Judaism since.

Debunking

A pro-African blog responded to and refuted the statements by the Black Hebrew Israelites. A Christian website also refuted the claims made, relying largely on pointing out how the statements of the racist group do not make Biblical sense.

Militancy

“”They're the black counterparts of us.

—Tom Metzger, former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard

While claims that Black Hebrew Israelites are the equivalency of white supremacist groups like the KKK are dubious when one takes into account the fact that the Black Hebrew Israelites are a fringe tendency of a fringe tendency within the historically and currently oppressed minority community of Afro-Americans, and the KKK are a much less fringe tendency of the dominant white community, there has been an increase in militant activity among these groups over recent years, often targeting Jewish communities.

To quote the Southern Poverty Law Center:

Although most Hebrew Israelites are neither explicitly racist nor anti-Semitic and do not advocate violence, there is a rising extremist sector within the Hebrew Israelite movement whose adherents believe that Jews are devilish impostors and who openly condemn whites as evil personified, deserving only death or slavery.

December 2019 alone saw two incidents of domestic terrorism linked to this movement. December 10^th saw a shootout between two armed Black Hebrew Israelites and law enforcement after the two men went to a kosher supermarket and shot three Jewish people there. The second incident, on December 28^th, saw a Black Hebrew Israelite armed with a machete invade the home of a Hasidic rabbi during Hanukkah celebrations and stab several of the people there. One of those attacked, the aforementioned rabbi, died of his injuries a month later.

As we have seen, while the vast majority of the Black Hebrew Israelites are peaceful, a growing extremist element is forming among the movement and these extremists often cloud the peaceful members by association. Capers Funnye, the rabbi of the 200 member Beth Shalom B'nai Zaken Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation, who has also been interviewed by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum about antisemitism, has condemned these attacks, while also making pains to distance his congregation, and congregations like his, from the militant extremist fringe:

There are African, African-American and Jews of color who may use the term Hebrew or Israelite, we are not a fringe separatist group. [...] we don’t want to be seen as some radical fringe group with a false narrative because we are black and profess Judaism; we are Torah-oriented Jews.

Black Hebrew Israelites have also been implicated in the assassination of MLK's mother back in 1974.

Another example of an extremist Black Hebrew Israelite was Yahweh Bin Yahweh. Back in the early 1990s, members of his "Nation of Yahweh" sect were charged and convicted of murder as he used the killing of white people as one of his cult's initiation rites. Yahweh served eight years on a conspiracy to murder charge. Yahweh died in 2007, reportedly of cancer.

See also

• Nation of Islam, while not a "Black Hebrew Israelite" organization per se, does share a few beliefs, such as anti-Semitism and white people being the children of the devil
• Rastafarianism, another Afrocentric religion
• Ten Lost Tribes, a key part of the "Black Hebrew Israelite" movement

External links

• African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem