Shalom, baby!
Posted on 07/17/2008 4:44:36 PM PDT by Alouette
Conversions to Judaism among African-Americans are growing in a way that could affect the presidential election.
Atlanta - Like many of the growing numbers of Protestant blacks in America and Africa converting to Judaism, Elisheva Chaim grew up believing she had a "Jewish soul."
As a black woman and a Baptist in the South, that was a peculiar, somewhat troubling realization. But when she turned her doubts about Christianity into a search for answers, the truth became evident: She had to go deeper than the Old Testament. She had to convert.
"It's odd to see black people convert to Judaism, and even Jewish people look at me strangely, I'm not going to lie," says Ms. Chaim "But once everybody sees that I can recite the prayers in Hebrew, their attitudes change."
Though primarily an intensely personal journey, the black conversion movement comes at an important time for Afro-Judaic relations in the US.
Sen. Barack Obama is lighting up connections to the black-Jewish alliance of the 1960s while at the same time trying to calm Jewish fears over his Muslim middle name and ties to pro-Palestinian activists. This could have critical implications in key states with large Jewish populations such as Florida and Pennsylvania.
Yet more than anything, experts say, black exploration of Judaism is part of an increasingly complex faith puzzle in America. Among other things, it's testing a growing interest among some Jews in expanding a religion that doesn't proselytize.
(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...
Warning! This is a high-volume ping list.
Doubt if Queen Esther had anything on Ms. Lacey Schwartz. Interesting article.
It is wonderful to see all sorts of different faces in shul these days. Not just black ones, but lots of others too... :)
the lead sentence:
are we to believe that so many blacks are converting to judaism that these people will change the election?
Shalom, baby!
For some reason, I’m reminded of the “Weekend Update” item on the original run of Saturday Night Live, about the then-recent passing of the UN General Assembly resolution declaring Zionism racism.
Chevy Chase: “When asked for comment, singer Sammy Davis said ‘What a breakthrough! Now I can hate myself.’”
Awesome!!
I also thought that was very weird. The number of Blacks who convert to Judaism is statistically insignificant.
are we to believe that so many blacks are converting to judaism that these people will change the election?
I also thought that was very weird. The number of Blacks who convert to Judaism is statistically insignificant.
It's part of the "all ethnic minorities are brothers and agree about absolutely everything, especially the danger of redneck Bible-thumpers" thing.
>> Conversions to Judaism among African-Americans are growing in a way that could affect the presidential election. <<
So instead of voting for radical leftists, they can vote for ... radical leftists. nevermind.
Seriourly: It makes sense to me if a lot of African-Americans are going Jewish. I dated a girl who was “seeking” and visited many black churches. I must’ve heard 20 hours of sermons (only 7 occasions... they talk on and on and on and on and on and on...) I heard passages from Job and JEremiah and Jonah and Exekiel and Jeremiah and Exodus and Jeremiah and Esther and Nehemiah and Jeremiah and Habakkuk and Eclesiastes and JEremiah and Daniel. I don’t think I once heard a word from the New Testament.
Best Sammy Davis line ever:
Apon being pressed about whether he was a homosexual:
“I’m a short, one-eyed, black Jew. Do I need to be gay, too?”
LOL!!
>> Chevy Chase: “When asked for comment, singer Sammy Davis said ‘What a breakthrough! Now I can hate myself.’” <<
So he really is Jewish!
JUST KIDDING, FOLKS!!!
Considering Obama changed his name himself as a teenager when engrossed in Islam, I wouldn't place much trust in his honesty either. He claims he is Christian, but for him to be a Christian having been immersed in Muslim education to become a mullah in early childhood, of all born again believers he would likely manifest strong vocal convictions in keeping with the basics of Christianity. The absence of that fundamental foundation plus an obvious arrogance in considering a church to be little more than a philosophical and political country club reveals volumes of his interpretation of faith.
That's funny. In my case, I Jewish, I'm black AND I'm a Republican, enough already! Unlike the others in my conversion class, I was the only one who wasn't converting because they were marrying a Jew. I did some reading, some thinking, some talking to a rabbi for months, and I had wonderful Jewish role models in college. I've never regreted my decision (except sometimes here on FR when I and other Reform Jews aren't considered 'Jewish enough.' Strange, if someone becomes Baptist or Methodist, people don't call them 'not Catholic enough' or 'not Lutheran enough.'). I got to the point where I don't respond to the Jewish threads much anymore because of it.
I've met a few other black Jews, but mostly they converted for marriage.
This article suffers from a complete lack of perspective in terms of numbers. While there are a handful of black Jews in the United States today, there are many times more blacks harboring antisemitic attitudes. An Anti-Defamation League Study about a decade ago showed that, based on answers to a questionnaire, about one third of American blacks fall into the latter category, compared to 9% of American whites who would be classified as antisemitic. Plus, black antisemitism statistically tends to cut across all socioecomic groups, while white antisemitism tends to decrease with higher socioecomic status.
While Black Jews are still uncommon, the sight of Black Hasidim in Brooklyn does not turn heads like it did 30 years ago.
The actual quote from juNior was Not “black,” but rather a more colorful word Now forbiddeN to be used in polite compaNy.
“Gim’me dat ol’ time religion....”
I have been reading that some Black believe they are the true Jews that there were never any caucasions in the Original Tribe of Judah and that they will be the Cheif Priests when the Temple is re-built Kohaim I think..It is now coming down to race what I have been seeing of who GOD seeks as chosen although I think GOD includes everyone regardless of race jew gentile he loves everyone equally
So what do the Black churches say about Genesis?
Like I said, it's the "we Blacks and Jews all agree that redneck Bible-thumpers are the worst lifeforms in existence" thing.
Plus, black antisemitism statistically tends to cut across all socioecomic groups, while white antisemitism tends to decrease with higher socioecomic status.
Ironically, I once heard (second hand) that a Holocaust survivor, when asked what kind of people Jews looked to for help, responded that the likelihood of a non-Jew rescuing Jews was inversely proportional to their educational level. In other words, the bumpkins would help, the intellectuals would not. Don't that puncture a few bubbles!
This is what some of the info I researched people are saying:
Caucasians are only mentioned in Genesis and that is the birth of Esau and his marrying of Ishmaelite women after that they are not apart of the narration of the Old Testament. Esau started his own tribe east of Israel known as the land of Edom. Black People are the true Hebrew Israelites you can believe it or not. Scriptures in the bible even leads me to believe they were black people. Songs of Solomon 1:5. I am not saying white people can not be apart of Yahweh they can that’s what Moses tried to explain that if the wisdom of Yahweh spreads honor ship is only to be granted to him . You can not be worshiping the messiah thew Yahweh like many Religious people do! That is when the Hebrews tradition becomes corrupt.
I assume when you speak of rescuing Jews, you are referring to the Holocaust era in Europe. Your statement might apply there, because more educated Europeans tended to live in big cities, where their activities were more likely to be observed by Nazi troops and pro-Nazi civilians. In addition, more educated people had, generally speaking, more to lose by being caught helping Jews. So it might have been more of practical self-preservation motive that determined that, rather than empathy or lack thereof for the plight of of the Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe.
My comments in the earlier post referred only to people surveyed in the US by the ADL sometime in the 1990s.
Did I not make that clear?
I heard what I heard. The intellectuals were the bad guys, the bumpkins were the good guys.
I’m not following your train of thought.
My train of thought is that Blacks worship like gap-toothed snake-handling West Virginia hillbillies and vote like wealthy Northeastern secular humanists. So I'm wondering what their take on Genesis is . . . okay?
They care so little about social issues maybe they don't even have Genesis in their Bibles. It would be interesting to find out, wouldn't it? I thought maybe someone who had been to Black churches might know something about this puzzle.
I really think that this is a bogus article. For every Black Jew I am guessing there are three or four Black Muslims.
I haven’t seen any evidence of black Jews except in this article. I once went to a synagogue with a few black Jews, but they were from Ethiopia and really had a long Jewish heritage.
Still the greatest moment in TV Sitcom history:
"Mr. Davis do you take cream and sugar in your eye?"
I assume they do not believe in Evolution, I think they might believe that the Caucasions were never Jews that they were as the 12 Tribes originated from Africa and if Blacks were the Main Players in Judasim instead of Olmert who is as white as Bush and Obama is the next President they might see that as Prophecy Fullfilling
Some research might be pointing in that direction
>> My train of thought is that Blacks worship like gap-toothed snake-handling West Virginia hillbillies and vote like wealthy Northeastern secular humanists. So I’m wondering what their take on Genesis is . . . okay? <<
Oh, OK. Glad you told me; I wouldn’t’ve guessed, but it’s an interesting concern. To asnwer: I don’t recall hearing any discussion of creationism. Catholics often use Genesis as a springboard for describing the eternal human condition (original sin, sexuality, etc.), and they use it to compare and contrast to the New Testament (Mary as the New Eve, Jesus striking the serpent, etc.). I didn’t hear anything related to either of those themes.
If I had to guess, I’d suppose they were creationist, but not because I saw any insistence on historicity, but just because some of the churches had some Sabbatarian tendencies; the conspiratorialism of 7th-day Adventism meshed well with their cult-like isolationism.
(I’m not equating Sabbatarianism with conspiratorialism; I’m saying it came in as a corollary with their restorationism. Sabbatarianism is common with restorationism; restorationism is common with conspiratorialism. But that doesn’t mean Sabbatarianism is inherently conspiratorialist beyond its connection to restorationism.)
>> I assume they do not believe in Evolution, I think they might believe that the [Jews were never Caucasian and ?] that they were [...?] the 12 Tribes [which?] originated from Africa and [so?] if Blacks were the Main Players in Judasim instead of Olmert who is as white as Bush and Obama is the next President [then?] they might see that as Prophecy [being Fullfilled] <<
I hope I’m interpreting what you seem to have hastily written, Rainey. I didn’t hear such explicitly stated, but I’m guessing that they were presumed to be held. Kinda like you rarely go to a Catholic mass and hear about how Bishops get their authority through apostolic succession: everyone believes it, so it doesn’t get re-stated frequently.
Politically, I can say that Rev. Wright wouldn’t have been controversial.
I remember particularly one preacher leading everyone to pray to the god of Shadrack, Mishack and Obednego. In the [uncensored, Catholic version of] the book of Daniel, it’s explained that these were Babylonian names of demons by which Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah were named by their pagan masters. That’s why that stood out to me, a Catholic: he was praying to the god of demons! He then preceded to joke about how he liked to pray to the god of Obednego, purposely pronouncing it as “Oh, bad n*gger!”
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