Jewish African-Americans |
Black Jews Although the Afro-American community is in the forefront of anti-Jewish hate in the United States, there are some blacks who are Jewish. This may surprise all those familiar with the anti-Jewish rantings of the “civil rights” leader Al Sharpton and his followers, who spew hate of Israel and the Jewish people even as Jews supply this latter day Nazi with money and political support.
There are about 50,000 black Jews in
the United States. Almost all live in New York City or Chicago. Some of the
blacks have been Jews for generations, others are the products of
intermarriages, and others are recent converts but not married to white Jews. It is of course a major problem for these Jews to raise their children in a community which includes such haters as Louis Farrakhan and Jesse Jackson. Black Jews are therefore victimized in the black community but also meet with incredulity in the majority white Jewish community. Their chances of marriage within the faith are negligible, as both Jews and blacks view such marriages as an anomaly to be avoided.
Teachers are of course shocked to find
that black children are absent on Jewish holy days. Historians who write about
the history of the American Jewish community seldom mention the black Jews, even
as German Jews are also omitted.
During the past decade, since 2004, an
effort has been made to give black Jews some recognition. This came about with
the founding of the National Alliance of Black Jews, which has sponsored
a number of “web sites” devoted to black rabbis and to the black Jewish
community. Outside of New York and Chicago, the existence of black Jews is
hardly known, except for a few “celebrities” such as Aaron Freeman, a
Chicago comedian, and the late Sammy Davis, Jr., who was Jewish, which he
publicized again and again during his many appearances with Dean Martin and
Frank Sinatra.
There are a few black rabbis in New
York, including rabbi Shlomo Levy, who is not a convert but the son and grandson
of rabbis. He is the rabbi of congregation Beth Elohim, and rabbi Capers Funye
is rabbi of congregation Beth Shalom.
Black Jews are faced with a number of
obstacles which minorities of all kinds have to deal with here and anywhere.
Jewish texts and histories of the Jewish people exhibit only pictures of whites
and deal exclusively with the experience of the European Jewish community here
and abroad.
Nevertheless, here and there signs of
acceptance of black Jews can be seen. In Vermont there is a synagogue whose
president is black, although there are no other black members. In Amherst, N.Y.,
a suburb of Buffalo, there are a few black members of Temple Beth Zedek, a
conservative congregation. No doubt there are others around the country with a
small black contingent.
American Jews are largely wedded to
the label “liberal,” which includes the belief that blacks are entitled to
beat Jews in the streets, denounce Israel, broadcast hate of Jews on their radio
stations such as New York 105.1, and riot in the streets of Brooklyn. Blacks
also side with every Arab atrocity against the population of Israel, including
murder, but the “liberals” find no fault with any of this.
Therefore we can hardly expect to see
the gap between Jews and blacks narrow as long as Jewish Americans exhibit no
self respect and crawl like Chinese “coolies” before those who hate and
denounce them.
Recently, a New York reporter asked a
gang of black youths why they target Jews for assault on the streets. They
answered in unison that the Jews don’t fight back. Except the Israelis, of
course, who keep surprising the world for defending their lives when for nearly
two thousand years all observers were accustomed to see Jews allow themselves to
be slaughtered at will in the European gas ovens and the Arab ghettos.
Today there are black slaves in Saudi
Arabia. This is not surprising, since the Arabs were the slave dealers in all
the years between 1620 and 1864 who sold blacks to the English and later
Americans. Yet, the haters in the black community pretend that Jews were slave
dealers.
It is therefore time for the black
community to admit that a Jew founded the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People and that Jews died for the sake of blacks in the
all Democrat south during the 1960’s. Once the black community sheds its
prejudices and hates, black Jews may indeed be welcome in white synagogues,
whose “liberal” members are always ready to accept whoever mistreats them. Shalom u’vracha. Dr. Gerhard Falk is the author of numerous publications, including Assassination, Anarchy, & Terrorism (2012). |