Rabbi W.A. Matthew – The Black Jews of Harlem

ברוּך שׁנתן תוֹרה לעמוֹ ישראל

Blessed be He Who giveth the Torah to His people Israel.

M

y background and most of my information comes from working with those congregations that derive from the late Chief Rabbi Wentworth Arthur Matthew (1892-1973). Rabbi Matthew founded the Command-ment Keepers Congregation in Harlem, New York in 1919. He trained and ordained many of the rabbis who later founded synagogues in various places of the United States and the Caribbean. Rabbi Matthew, it turns out, was a close associate of Rabbi Arnold J. Ford who was the musical director of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) which was organized by Marcus Garvey in 1911.

The emergence of Judaism among people of African descent in the first half of the Twen-tieth Century was made possible by a combin-ation of the following factors: (1) A strong religious tradition in the background of the person who became Jewish that embodied Jewish practices from an early but unclear source. When interviewed, many of the older members of this community recall memories of their parents observing certain dietary laws, such as abstaining from pork or salting their meat. Others recall traditions related to observing the Sabbath or festivals such as Passover and Sukkot. In most cases these practices were fragmentary and observed by people who simultaneously practiced Christi-anity.

The possible origins of these Hebraic tradi-tions could be traced to West Africa were a number of tribes have customs so similar to Judaism that an ancient connection or maybe even descent from one of the "ten lost tribes" is believed. Other possibilities for these well-documented practices are through association with Jewish slave owners and merchants in the Caribbean and North America. In this case, the number of Jewish slave owners is known to have been small, yet it has been shown that Jewish masters, particularly in the Caribbean, attempted to proselytize their slaves just as their Christian counterparts had. Therefore, the three main sources of Judaism for African Africans today are: (1) Indigenous African Ancestry, (2) Conversion during or after slavery, (3) Intermarriage between white Jews and people of African descent, and (4) Shuvah, the conscious reclaiming of Judaism by people of African descent whose ancestors were forced into Christianity.

Many African Americans who practice Juda-ism today maintain that they have always had a close affinity with the Hebrews of the Old Testament. This is true whether or not they recall particular rites that remind them of the Jewish traditions they now follow. Scholars such as Albert Raboteau have described in books such as Slave Religion that the biblical struggles of the Hebrew people—particularly their slavery and exodus from Egypt—bore a strong similarity to the conditions of African slaves and was therefore of special importance to them. This close identification with the biblical Hebrews is clearly seen in the lyrics of gospel songs such as "Go Down Moses" and remains a favorite theme in the sermons of black clergy today.

What all this proves is that there was a foundation – be it psychological, spiritual, or historical – that made some black people receptive to the direct appeal to Judaism that Rabbi Matthew and others made to them in this century. If black people were fertile ground for the harbingers of Judaism, then the philosophy of Marcus Garvey was the seed that helped to bring it to fruition. Put most simply, Garvey's message was one of Black Nationalism and Pan Africanism. His goal was to instill pride in a people who were being humiliated through institutionalized racism and cultural bigotry. Garvey and Matthew attemp-ted to challenge old stereotypes that either minimized a black presence in history or the Bible, or, that completely excised black people from these texts. They argued that such distortions and omissions were harmful to the self-image that many black people had of themselves. They debunked these myths by extolling the contributions that black people made to the development of human civiliza-tion. To some extent this meant focusing on the achievements of African societies such as Egypt and Ethiopia in highly rhetorical and romantic way. It also meant attacking the false image that all the people in the bible looked like Europeans. They pointed out that by normative standards the dark hues of the ancient Hebrews would cause them to be classified as black in today's world. This was a revelation to thousands of black people who had previously accepted the all white depic-tions without question.

Rabbi Ford and Rabbi Matthew took Garvey's philosophy one step further. They reasoned that if many of the ancient Hebrews were black, then Judaism was as much a part of their cultural and religious heritage as is Christianity. In their hearts and minds they were not converting to Judaism, they were reclaiming part of their legacy. This fit very neatly with the biblical prophecies that spoke of the Israelites being scattered all over the world, being carried in slave ships to distant lands, and of being forced to worship alien gods (Deuteronomy 28).

Rabbi Matthew found himself in the pecu-liar position of having to both justify his small following of black Jews in Harlem, and also to explain the presence of so many white Jews. His position on this subject went through various stages. He always maintained that the "original Jews" were black people – or at least not European; however, he did not deny the existence or legitimacy of white Jews. In fact, as his services, synagogues, and attire show, he deferred to orthodox conventions on many matters. For example, he maintained separate setting for men and women, he used a stan-dard Orthodox siddur (prayer book) to conduct his services, worshippers wore tallitzim and kippot (prayer shawls and yarmulkes), they affixed mezuzot, wore tefillin, used standard texts in their Hebrew and rabbinic schools and read from a Sefer Torah.

Rabbi Matthew believed that although the "original Jews" were black people, white Jews had kept and preserved Judaism over the centuries. Since we, black Jews, were just "returning" to Judaism it was necessary for us to look to white Jews on certain matters—particularly on post-biblical and rabbinic holi-days such as Hanukkah which could not be found in the Torah. However, it is important to note that Rabbi Matthew felt free to disagree on matters where he had a strong objection. He also recognized that since many customs, songs, and foods were of European origin, that he had the right to introduce some African, Caribbean, and American traditions into his community. Of course, his right to do this was often challenged, sometimes by Jews who had “Europeanized” Judaism in the past or who were "Americanizing" Judaism in the present. Rabbi Matthew was constantly aware of appar-ent double standards within Judaism. After decades of trying to find common ground with white Jews by speaking at white synagogues around the county and at B'nai Brith lodges internationally, and after repeated attempts to join the New York Board of Rabbis, Rabbi Matthew concluded that black Jews would never be fully accepted by white Jews and certainly not if they insisted on maintaining a black identity and independent congregations. Since his death in 1973, there has been very little dialog between white and black Jews in America.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This article is reprinted from BlackJews.org. We are thrilled with African Americans identifying so strongly with Judaism and the Jewish people. However, it is unfortunate that these good people have adopted Judaism while rejecting the Jewish Messiah!

The last sentence is somewhat dated. In recent years, many white Jews have been seeking out and encouraging the Black Jewish people in our midst. We recently attended a film documentary called The Commandment Keepers completed by Elaine Glicksman for Lost Tribes Films. This was shown at Temple Beth El a synagogue in Rochester NY. This film and lecture were heavily attended by thou-sands of both white Jews and African-Americans, some of whom were sporting kippot. Rabbi Shlomo Levy – one of the current spiritual leaders of the Black Jewish community – came for the question and answer session after the presentation.

This documentary permitted us to see the lives of these African-American Jews. It would be impossible to know how many of them have Jewish blood coursing through their veins. However, it is obvious that they are practicing Jews. We saw them rejoicing with a genuine Torah scroll, and thoroughly cleaning for Pass-over. We saw many interviews with different members of the Black Jewish community. We were especially impressed with the spiritual fervor of these people. In this respect, white Jews could learn much from these people. It would be far easier for them to simply find a nice church to go to. However, they have chosen to cast their lot with the Jewish community, making them a minority within a minority.

Via this film, we also got to “visit” various Black Jewish congregations as well as some of the Black Rabbis in this movement. We happen to have a Black Jewish synagogue on Leopold Street in Rochester. We hope you get a chance to view this documentary some day! RAC