Blog
Thoughts on race, religion, and other topics that interest me.
Ben Ammi and me
By now, the news has traveled around the world that Ben Ammi Ben Israel, the spiritual leader of the African Hebrew Israelites, passed away on Saturday at the age of 75. I wrote an obituary for Haaretz but want to share a few personal recollections of him here. When I...
“The Black Jews have come home”: Letters from the Israel state archives
The Israeli-Canadian journalist and anti-racism activist David Sheen has posted on his website a number of letters that he found among the files on the African Hebrew Israelites at the Israel State Archives in Jerusalem. Addressed to then-Prime Minister Golda Meir,...
“The feeling was that they trusted us”: An interview with the directors of “Sister-Wife”
Earlier this month, I wrote in Haaretz about a new documentary on the African Hebrew Israelites. In reporting the story, I spoke with the Israeli directors of "Sister-Wife," the first full-length documentary on the community. I wasn't able to use much of the interview...
“I fight for what’s right”: The African Hebrew Israelites and the IDF
In his new book on the African Hebrew Israelites, the anthropologist John Jackson, Jr. writes that the community’s youth serve in the Israel Defense Forces voluntarily, when in fact they are obligated to do so. I point out the...