A group of Black Israelis in their 20s and early 30s have been vigorously defending Israel online — and in English — since its war with Hamas began on Oct. 7.
During his d’var Torah, on the theme of showing respect for others, he acknowledged Ben Ammi Ben Israel, the late spiritual leader of his community who was known as “Abba Gadol,” or “Great Father.”
“If the Jewish community ever wanted to have a relationship with the Black community, I am the bridge that they would want to cross to get there,” Rabbi Tamar Manasseh says in the new documentary “Rabbi on the Block.”
The African Hebrew Israelites are a small community with little political power, yet their story is important because it reveals some of the challenges faced by non-Jewish minority groups in the Jewish state.
When do claims made by members of various Hebrew Israelite sects cross the line from historically and/or theologically contested to unequivocally antisemitic?