This essay of mine appeared in “Antisemitism Worldwide Report for 2022,” published April 17, 2023 by Tel Aviv University’s Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry and the Anti-Defamation League.
In the fall of 2022, the Hebrew Israelite spiritual movement gained widespread media attention after two popular African American celebrities shared elements of the movement’s ideology with their millions of social media followers.
Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, unleashed a stream of antisemitic invective on Twitter and elsewhere and then attempted to deflect criticism by expressing a core Israelite tenet: that Black people like him are, in fact, Jews and therefore cannot be antisemitic. Around the same time, the NBA star Kyrie Irving promoted on his social media accounts a documentary that makes a number of inflammatory claims about Jews, including that they are imposters who stole the identity of Black, Hispanic and Native American peoples.
Emboldened by these celebrity endorsements of their worldview, members of Israel United in Christ, a Hebrew Israelite group that has been designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, marched through the streets of Brooklyn chanting, “We are the real Jews.”
Prior to the Ye and Irving controversies, some Jews were already wary of Hebrew Israelites. For decades, the more radical among these groups have openly preached their intolerance for Jews, LGBTQ people, and other minorities on street corners across the United States. They do not actively encourage violence, but in December 2019, two people with ties to a Hebrew Israelite group in New York murdered three people in a targeted attack on a kosher grocery store in Jersey City, New Jersey. Later that month, a schizophrenic man who held some Israelite beliefs stabbed Jews at a rabbi’s house in Monsey, New York.
Today, Hebrew Israelism is closely linked with antisemitism in the public consciousness — so much so that the Simon Wiesenthal Center included “Black Hebrew Israelites” on its list of the top antisemitic people and incidents of 2022.
There are, however, different sects within the movement, not all of which are hostile to Jews. Also, there are elements of Israelite doctrine that some Jews might find distasteful but that are not necessarily hateful.
Brief History of Hebrew Israelism
Hebrew Israelism — also referred to as Black Israelism and Black Judaism — arose in the late 19th century when a number of former slaves turned preachers began spreading the message that African Americans are the true children of Israel, who were also Black. This belief, coupled with the conviction that slavery was a divine punishment for disobeying God’s commandments, resonated with some Black people coming out of slavery.
In Chosen People: The Rise of American Black Israelite Religions (2013), historian Jacob Dorman writes, “The idea that African slavery in the Americas was not a mark of shame but instead a mark of distinction as God’s chosen people appealed to some African Americans, who appreciated the way the doctrine gave them pride and dignity in the context of Jim Crow segregation that sought to subordinate and humiliate them at every turn.”
The pioneers of the new religious movement — figures such as Bishop William Saunders Crowdy of Oklahoma and Bishop William Christian of Arkansas — drew upon a variety of sources in formulating their theology, from Pentecostalism to Spiritualism to Freemasonry. With the Great Migration of Black people from the American South, Hebrew Israelism spread across northern cities and found new adherents and expressions.
Some Israelite congregations fashioned themselves to a degree after mainstream Jewish communities, worshiping in Hebrew and wearing Jewish prayer shawls. One of the more influential of these congregations was the Commandment Keepers, which was founded in 1919 by a Caribbean-born rabbi named Wentworth Arthur Matthew.
The 1960s were a period of upheaval, both in American society at large with the civil rights and anti-Vietnam War movements, and in the Israelite world in particular. In 1967, a group of Chicago-based Israelites began migrating to Liberia and then to Israel, which they understood to be their ancestral homeland. Now known as the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem, they are based in Dimona; most do not hold full Israeli citizenship due to the fact that they are not considered Jewish.
Then in 1969, a member of the Commandment Keepers named Abba Bivens broke away to start his own congregation. Bivens emphasized strict observance of Biblical law and Jesus’ messianic status, along with a total rejection of the Jewish establishment and white people in general.
His ideology, which came to be known as One West for the address in New York where he had his headquarters, would influence splinter groups that are referred to as “radical” or “extremist” by watchdog organizations. They include the Israelite School of Universal Practical Knowledge, based in Pennsylvania; the Israelite Church of God in Jesus Christ, based in New York; Israel United in Christ, also based in New York; and Sicarii, based in California.
Most Israelite groups do not publicize their membership figures. The only publicly available data on the population of people living in the United States who identify as Israelites are from a small national survey conducted in 2019 by an evangelical Christian research firm. According to that survey, there are approximately 1.6 million Israelites in the US. Observers of the movement believe those who belong to the specific groups that are hostile to Jews represent a small percentage of that number.
[This is an egregiously condensed history of a fascinating and complex movement. For fuller histories, see Dorman’s book, as well as The Soul of Judaism: Jews of African Descent in America (2018) by Bruce D. Haynes and Black Judaism: Story of An American Movement (2002) by James E. Landing.]
Examining Specific Israelite Claims
When do claims made by members of various Hebrew Israelite sects cross the line from historically and/or theologically contested to unequivocally antisemitic?
To attempt to answer this question, let us analyze several claims advanced by Israelites during recent public demonstrations, along with a few made in “Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America,” the 2018 documentary that Kyrie Irving endorsed. The definition of antisemitism used for this purpose is the “working definition” drafted by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance and adopted by the United States and other countries since 2016.
Claims: All Black and Hispanic people descend from the 12 tribes of Israel and, therefore, are Semitic and cannot hold antisemitic views. Jews are the “synagogue of Satan.”
At a November 9, 2022, rally outside of Barclays Center in Brooklyn that was organized by Israel United in Christ, the group’s purple-clad members distributed a flier to passersby that contained elements of their doctrine. At the top, the following statement appears: “The So Called Blacks And Hispanics Are ‘The Twelve Tribes of Israel!’ You Are The Children Of The Slave Trade.” Below that, it reads: “We Are Not Anti-Semetic [sic], We Are Semetic.”
The theory that all Black and Hispanic people are descendants of the ancient Israelite tribes (and are therefore Semitic) is an improbable but not antisemitic one. As articulated, the theory does not explicitly challenge the identity of halachic Jews who are not Black or Hispanic. But elsewhere on the flier, Jews are referenced in ways that do just that. Instead of the word “Jews,” the writers of the flier employ the terms “Edomites” and “Amalek.” “Edomites,” which refers to descendants of the Biblical Esau, Jacob’s twin brother, is a catch-all Israelite term for white people. “Amalek” refers to Esau’s grandson and the Amalekites’ leader. The Amalekites were enemies of the ancient Israelites, so “Amalek” is a derogatory term for Jews. Israelites use these terms to cast doubt on Jews’ connections to Jacob/Israel, whom Jews consider to be one of their patriarchs, along with Abraham and Isaac.
In addition, the flier contains a passage from the book of Revelation that is often used to demonize Jews: “I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich) and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan.” (Rev. 2:9) This Biblical passage is popular among radical Israelites and the Nation of Islam (NOI). Minister Louis Farrakhan, the NOI’s notoriously antisemitic leader, has cited it during his sermons. In light of how the phrase “synagogue of Satan” has been weaponized by those hostile to Jews, the inclusion of the passage on IUIC’s flier could be considered antisemitic.
Claim: People of color are the authentic Jews.
Marching through the streets of Brooklyn on Nov. 20, 2022, hundreds of members of IUIC chanted: “Hey Jacob, yeah it’s time to wake up! We’ve got good news for you, you are the real Jews. And that’s the good news.” On some occasions, they replaced the word “you” in the phrase “you are the real Jews” with “we.”
In Hebrew Israelite lingo, “Jacob,” sometimes shortened to “Jake,” refers to people of color — specifically Black, Hispanic, and Native American people — who have yet to awaken to their “true” identity as descendants of Jacob and his 12 sons, the progenitors of the 12 tribes of Israel. (Jacob was renamed Israel after he wrestled with an angel in the book of Genesis.)
The intended audience for this message was not the public at large but rather potential new IUIC members. Indeed, IUIC devotes significant time and resources to proselytizing on the street and online, with the goal of recruiting 144,000 members to usher in the apocalypse.
The question of who is a Jew has long been debated, especially among Jews themselves. Scholars and religious leaders are divided about whether it is antisemitic for Israelites to assert their authenticity as genealogical descendants of the Israelites (and specifically as descendants of the tribe of Judah, from which “Jew” derives). Some differentiate between positive statements of identity, i.e., “we are authentic Jews,” and antagonistic ones, i.e., “we are authentic Jews, and the other people who call themselves Jews today are imposters.”
In evaluating whether articulations of authenticity are antisemitic, it is necessary to look at their context and intention. In the case of IUIC members chanting “we are the real Jews” as they march through a city with a large Jewish population, their intention would seem to be to cast doubt on the identity of halachic Jews, whom they often refer to as “so-called Jews” in their literature and speeches. The context and intention point to this particular chant being antisemitic.
By contrast, the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem have tempered their assertions of authenticity as they have become more integrated into Israeli society. In the early 1970s, when government authorities raised questions about how they were connected to Judaism and the land of Israel, they asserted that they were “the true descendants of the Israelites, and the true inheritors of this land,” in the words of community leader Ben Ammi Ben Israel (1939-2014).
Today, they continue to enthusiastically assert their connection to the ancient Israelites (and not just to the tribe of Judah), and they view Israel as their birthright. They also make a distinction between themselves as Israelites who follow an Old Testament-based lifestyle set forth by God and Jews who practice a man-made religion. But they no longer publicly challenge Jewish identity or sovereignty in Israel.
Claim: Jews are devilish actors who stole the identity of the “real” Jews.
On Dec. 3, a Hebrew Israelite street preacher from the radical Sicarii sect said the following in a video shot in Brooklyn that was widely shared on social media: “We support Hitler. Because Hitler was killing your people, man, Hitler knew who the real Jews was. Hitler wasn’t oppressing my people. He was coming for your necks. And let me give you a wake up call, man: You’re not a Jew. You’re not Jew, right? You’re the seed of the devil, man.”
To the horror of the Jewish man filming him, the preacher continued, “These brothers on these platforms, Kanye and Kyrie, shaking things up, it’s because it’s a great awakening happening. The real Jews are back on the streets, and you so-called fake Jews who stole our identity are about to go into slavery. Because you’re not a Jew. You’re Esau. [The Holocaust] did happen, and we’re glad that it happened.”
This diatribe is a clear-cut example of antisemitic speech. The Israelite preacher celebrates the murder of Jews during the Holocaust, rejects a Jewish man’s Jewishness twice — first by explicitly telling him he is not a Jew at all and then by calling him a “fake” one — and asserts that Jews stole the identity of the “real” children of Israel. Taken together, these statements reflect a deep hatred of Jews.
The belief that Hitler knew who the “real” Jews were is based on a fabricated quote that has been circulating on the internet for some time. The quote reads, in part, “Because the white Jews know that the Negroes are the real Children of Israel and to keep America’s secret, the Jews will blackmail America. They will extort America, their plan for world domination won’t work if the Negroes know who they were.” In July 2020, the NFL player DeSean Jackson was fined by his team for sharing this quote on Instagram.
Claims: Jews are converts with no genealogical connection to the ancient Israelites. Jews have lied about their identity in order to achieve world domination.
“Hebrews to Negroes” was written, produced, and directed by Ronald Dalton Jr., who is not known to be associated with a specific Hebrew Israelite group. He claims to have received divine revelations, which inspired him to make the film.
One of the claims Dalton puts forth is a genetic one: “Black people…are realizing that the Sephardic, Ashkenazi, and Mizrahi Jews in Israel are just religious converts with no biblical blood connection to the ancient Twelve Tribes of Israel.”
This statement is bizarre. While Judaism is a religion that accepts converts, and some Sephardic, Ashkenazi, and Mizrahi Jews joined the Jewish people through conversions, the majority of Jews around the world were born into the religion. Given the current state of genetic testing and tracing, it is impossible to link anyone living today, Jewish or not, to the ancient Israelite population. In any case, Jews trace their lineage back to ancient Israel not through DNA but through historical, archaeological, cultural, and spiritual paths.
Dalton also asserts in his film that Jews gained power over others through deception, and their lies include the following: “1) The Jews are ‘Israelites,’ and thus God’s Chosen People; 2) Jesus Christ was a Jew; 3) That 6 million Jews were killed in a holocaust during WWII; 4) That all races are equal, or that all are brothers; and, 5) That Jews are just another religious group.” (According to the ADL, Dalton did not come up with these five lies. The original source of the quote is an antisemitic screed published in 1978 by Walter White Jr. titled “The Hidden Tyranny.”)
By promoting the myth that Jews are engaged in a conspiracy to control the world and denying the scope of the Holocaust, Dalton has clearly crossed the line into antisemitic territory.
To what extent does Hebrew Israelite ideology put Jews in real-world danger?
While there have been isolated cases of violence perpetrated against Jews by those who were exposed to Israelite beliefs, no Israelite groups promote violence as a means of achieving their spiritual goals. A recent report from George Washington University’s Program on Extremism states, “The predominant threat today is from individuals loosely affiliated with or inspired by the movement rather than by groups, organizations, or institutions.”
Not one writer has addressed the issue of the validity of the claim by the Jewish people to the whole land of Israel, when historiclly and biblically tis is not factual. The Jewish nation as the descendants of the tribr of Judah nver ruled more than the southern portion of the land and the land in the center which was given to the tribe of Benjamin. The north has always been known as Israel proper and the kingdom of Israel is a historical and reality that is glanced over and mostly ignored today. The concept of a “Jewish” state called Israel is as offensive as anti-semitism to those of the northern kingdom, because there is no Israel without Joseph/Ephraim!