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Do Black Americans Have Jewish Roots?
Let’s embrace the mystery of history rather than dismiss it
Let’s get a couple things out of the way first.
This article isn’t about a tiny group of 5,000 people, the African Hebrew Israelites, that originated in Chicago in the late 1960s but now live in Dimona, Israel. Members of this group believe they descend from one of the 12 tribes of Israel. Though they don’t get involved in invalidating others’ claims to Jewish ancestry.
The Israeli government gave them their own compound and granted them permanent residency status. Some even serve in the Israel Defense Forces. I once went on a date with a daughter of a former leader of the group. Oh, the stories she shared about her upbringing.
This article also isn’t about an American group that was recently in the news for marching outside of a Brooklyn Nets game. That group calls itself the Black Hebrew Israelites.
This movement, one of the subjects of the anti-Semitic, Holocaust-denying movie posted by Kyrie Irving, was founded in the 19th century by Frank Cherry and William Saunders Crowdy, who both claimed to receive visions that African Americans are descendants of the Hebrews in the Bible.
