Black rabbi seeks to bridge racial Jewish divide
By BEN HARRIS / JTA

Rabbi Capers Funnye, spiritual leader of Beth Shalom B'nai Zaken Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation in Chicago, wants you to know that he likes gefilte fish - a lot.
"I love it," he told JTA in a recent interview. "I love lox. I love borscht. Some of my congregants don't even know what borscht is."

Funnye's congregants are predominantly African Americans from the South Side of Chicago, so perhaps that's no surprise. But while gefilte fish won't be debuting anytime soon at the kiddush at Beth Shalom, the rabbi is bringing his congregants closer to the broader Chicago Jewish community in ways most of his African American rabbinical colleagues have not yet dared.

"I have made it my point, on a personal level, to involve myself in the Jewish community," Funnye said. "I've worked for Jewish organizations. I've graduated from Jewish institutions. My children went to Jewish day school."

Just a few weeks ago, he attended the White House Chanukah party.

"It's important for me, on a very personal level, for my children and for other Jews, to see Judaism is beyond any racial group," Funnye said.

Black Jewish congregations - most prefer to be called "Hebrews" or "Israelites" - have existed in the United States since the first decades of the 20th century, but they generally have remained apart from the broader Jewish community.

...

The problem is exacerbated by the belief, central to the black Jewish narrative, that the original Jews were Africans. Like other African Americans who have embraced non-Christian faiths, black Jews see in Judaism a means to recapture a heritage denied them by the slave trade - a fact that likely explains their great affinity for the story of Exodus. As a result, some are reluctant to undergo conversion or otherwise take steps that might promote greater acceptance by the white Ashkenazi majority for fear it would undermine their claims to be of Jewish descent.

"We are people that are coming back into the knowledge of who we are," said Moshe Ben Yisrael, the Chicago synagogue's president, who everyone refers to as Elder Moshe. "We are finding out something about our identity. We identify with the God of the Tanach, of Israel."

Funnye is one of the few Jews, black or white, working actively to bridge the racial divide among Jews. He is believed to be the only black rabbi in the country to serve on his local board of rabbis, and he cooperates with a number ofJewish communal institutions, including Tobin's institute, where he is a research associate. He encourages exchanges between his congregation and mainstream synagogues in Chicago's northern suburbs.

Funnye was ordained at the Israelite Rabbinical Academy in New York, where all such black Israelite rabbis are trained.

"What's interesting about Capers is that he bridges the world between white, normative mainstream Judaism in the United States," Tobin said. "He's unique, which is unfortunate."

Funnye's acceptance by the broader Jewish community was made possible in part by his willingness to undergo a formal conversion - or "reversion" as he likes to say - with a mixed rabbinic court of Orthodox and Conservative rabbis in 1985.

All newcomers to Beth Shalom are required to do the same, including immersion in a mikvah and, for men, a ritual drawing of blood to symbolize the covenant. For men who are not circumcised, Funnye makes them undergo the full procedure, conducted under anesthetic with the assistance of an Orthodox urologist. He estimates that he has converted 40 members of his congregation.

"If they came here to this congregation under my leadership and under my tutelage, then they had to go through the 'standard halachic precepts' for one to be a Jew," Funnye said. "But that does not diminish our understanding that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were Jews of color."

Though it's been two decades since Funnye first participated formally in a mainstream Jewish organization, the memory still causes him to stretch out in his chair, throw his head back and let out a hearty belly laugh.

"I wasn't invited to the first Jewish-African American conclaves," Funnye recalled. "Until one Protestant, very prominent minister, back in the 80s, made an accusation about the Jews being racist and using black people. And one rabbi said, 'Oh no. We have black Jews!'"

Services at Beth Shalom would be familiar to any shul-goer. The full Torah portion is read in Hebrew from a scroll. Prayers are chanted mostly in English from the Artscroll Siddur, a widely used Orthodox prayerbook.

Men and women sit separately, but there is no physical barrier, or mechitzah, between them. After services, Funnye blesses the wine and bread in Hebrew before digging into a lunch of chicken, turkey and spaghetti.

But the congregation also maintains traditions uniquely their own that are deeply colored by the African-American experience. After the Torah service, a Gospel-style choir takes the stage and - accompanied by a CD and live drums and guitar - performs several numbers, including "Lift Every Voice," also known as the "Black National Anthem." Men greet each other by grasping at the elbow and bringing their heads together three times, symbolic of the three forefathers. Some wear pendants with maps of Africa around their necks.

Read the rest...

This sounds like the Jewish form of black Islam (which started out pretty radical and has since been largely mainstreamed). Do these guys keep shabbos and kosher etc?

There's even black chassidim in (I think) Baltimore that wear black hats and all, very similar to the people from the article.

You can't beat the map of Africa pendants tho.

Did you read the part that said that,

I believe that someone posted a thread about these congregations a few months ago. It was very interesting. There was a long video presentation about this congregation, recorded by one of the Chicago stations, and posted on YouTube.

Since they don't keep halacha, this "racial divide" thing is the least of their problems.

I've heard of crazy "Black Hebrew" groups before, but this is the first congregation I've heard of that makes people convert al pi halacha and seems to practice (something that resembles) Judaism...

I don't even know where to begin. I will say this, the group in Baltimore is worlds apart from the Answaullah, who are worlds apart from the Igbo, who are worlds apart from the Ethiopian Hebrew community, who are worlds apart from - I give up. I somehow don't think anyone here cares about the distinctions.

I will say this, the oldest, independent black congregation in the US uses kosher sifre Torah and uses the Western Sepharade siddur...

Related, I believe, to this group.

More info here and here.

(i'd be interested in checking out one of these places-- one day.)

go to queens then, saint albans i think

There's a bunch of them in Israel. I remember I was south somewhere (near Ber Sheva) I bumped into a bunch of them. They were from the Bronx.



Do you have a link to some more info about them?



Not similar at all.

Chasidim in Bmore?

There are black people in Baltimore?

yes, b, ever seen the wire?!

could that really be the rabbi's real name? whenever i see him scheduled to speak around town i think it's a purim or april fool's day event.

You mean to ask, "There are white people in Baltimore?"

How childish can you be? Yes, Capers Funye (IIRC, pronounced foon-yay) is his real name.