Black Jews have unique perspective on holiday season

DULUTH, MINN. // For Hanukkah, the eight-day Jewish holiday celebrated this week, the black Jewish community in Duluth is having -

Let me rephrase that. There isn't a black Jewish community in Duluth, except me. It used to be my daughter and me about 20 years ago. But we moved from Minnesota to Massachusetts, and now that she's grown and established in her career, she has no immediate need to move back. I did return, and here I am.

Duluth aside, there actually are a lot of black Jews. Ethiopian Jews are well known, and in the United States, there are at least 200,000 African-American Jews - some who are biracial with a Jewish parent, some who converted to the faith and some who belong to predominantly black Hebrew Israelite congregations that formed at the turn of the last century.

For all American Jews, Hanukkah is pretty much the same thing, which is that it's not a major holiday. The real holy days are the Jewish New Year and Day of Atonement in the fall and Passover in the spring. But because of Christmas, everyone expects you to be celebrating something in December and giving presents.

predominantly black Hebrew Israelite congregations that formed at the turn of the last century.

I think he is confusing Jews who are "black" with a sect of "black" Americans who follow their own rite. To my knowledge this sect has never sought to qualify as Jews according to the traditional criteria.

I think he is confusing Jews who are "black" with a sect of "black" Americans who follow their own rite.

He's talking about Jews who happen to be black, but I suspect also referring to a movement of black Israelites that formed around the turn of the century in New York and Chicago, not to be confused with the Black Hebrews from Chicago, now Israel. I've lost the links to several articles describing the history of the movement, but I'll include a few others below if you're interested. In general they're relatively traditional in practice. I don't believe their Board of Rabbis or Academy is recognized by any of the main denominations, though that's been discussed, many (most?) of their Rabbi's are ordained by affiliated schools as well, and congregants are either Jewish or convert. I believe the Synagogue in Chicago is affiliated with the Conservative movement, and participates in all facets of organized Jewish community life. Till they moved last year, their Synagogue building was the longest in continuous use in Chicago, over a century.

Israelite Board of Rabbis

Beth Shalom B’nai Zaken

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