There are many who would argue that Jewishness does not conform to the ethnoracial paradigm th= at defines other groups. They might argue that Judaism is a religion that peop= le of all ethnoracial backgrounds can and do pract= ice. Daniel and Jonathan Boyarin have tried to carve= out just such an exception. Their tact is a very interesting one. Rather than simply positing that Judaism is a religion of peace and love for all people—which it is for many—they concede that there are popular conceptions of Judaism that “promulgate racist or quasi-racist notion= s of Jewishness .” ..[if !supportFootnotes] [24] ..[en= dif] They further concede that the beli= ef in a distinct Jewish genealogy and the belief that there is something indefina= ble and found only in Jewish women (not Jewish men) that make their children Jewish, strongly implies that there is a biological component to being Jewi= sh. All the forgoing not withstanding, they argue that conversion to Judaism not only changes ones religion, it miraculously changes ones genealogy as well.= In the case of male converts, circumcision alters them physically so that they= now look like other Jews. In other words, by this process a convert is not some= one of another ethnoracial group who has chosen to practice Judaism, he is in fact and genealogy as Jew. [The implied differen= ce between practicing Judaism and being Jewish will become important to our discussion later.]
More revealingly, however, the convert's name is chang= ed to ' ben Avraham " = or "bas Avraham ," son or daughter of Abr= aham. The convert is adopted into the family and assigned a new "genealogical" identity, but because Abraham is the first convert= in Jewish tradition, converts are his descendants in that sense as well. There= is thus a sense in which the convert becomes the ideal type of the Jew.= = ..[if !supportFootnotes] [25] ..[en= dif]
The denouement of the Boyarin theory is not that Judaism can never be thought of as a kind of race, but that any= one who joins the religion simultaneously becomes a member of the same race. We= ll, that certainly would make being Jewish different from being black, white, or Asian—if it were true. However, if the Boyarins mean that all Jews are members of the same Jewish race in the eyes of God, = then it would not help us to see how Jews view each other—particularly tho= se who started out as members of other races.
In the 1930s, Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan advocated another = way of thinking about Judaism. His movement led to a new denomination of Judaism in the United States called Reconstructionist Jews. One basic tenet = of Reconstructionism is that Judaism is not necessarily a race, religion, or an ethnic group, but can be experienced as part of a “civilization.” Here the emphasis is on “Jewish culture” rather than any particular Jewish practices or beliefs. = ..[if !supportFootnotes] [26] ..[en= dif] If Judaism is a culture, as Reconstructionist h= old, does that culture have any bearing on race?
Walter Benn Michaels has s= tudied the relationship between cultural groups and race. He began by looking at h= ow social critics and historians such as Mellville = J. Herskovits attempted to define black people in America in purely cultural terms. Herskovits was intere= sted in understanding what role, if any, African cultures and American culture h= ad on the development of what might be called African-American culture. This included such things as art, music, literature, speech—anything except race. Michaels, who deplores racial classifications or distinctions, found = that most groups that define themselves as a culture rely on things that are inherently racial in nature for defining membership in their culture. Therefore, the term culture may sound race neutral, but often it is not. In= the case of African-Americans, it was fairly easy to prove, at least rhetorical= ly, that most of the cultural connections that were being made between people in one place and people in other place were based on the premise that both peo= ples were of the same race; i.e. black. Michaels noticed that the racial underpinnings of group cultures were not always as obvious as the example, = but they were usually present. As he explained:
It is only t= he appeal to race that makes culture an object of affect and that gives notions like losing our culture, preserving it, stealing someone else’s cultu= re, restoring people's culture to them, and so on, their pathos. Our race identifies the culture to which we have a right, a right that may be violat= ed or defended, repudiated or recovered. Race transforms people who learn to do what we do into thieves of our culture and people who teach us to do what t= hey do into the destroyers of our culture; it makes assimilation into a kind of betrayal and the refusal to assimilate into a form of heroism. Without race, losing our culture can mean no more than doing things differently from the = way we now do them--the melodrama of assimilation disappears. = ..[if !supportFootnotes] [27] ..[endif]
Michaels thesis is directly on point. His argument is = not about what constitutes a culture, he is concerned about what constitutes th= e our in “our culture,” or the their in “their culture.” That is where the racial element is to be found if it exist= s. When people refer to “Jewish” culture or “Jewish” civilization the things they point to may be racially innocuous; e.g. cooki= ng or music, but, when pressed to explain what is Jewish about it or what conn= ects them to it and each other, and the user of the cultural term soon finds him= self in a morass of racial euphemisms. The racial elements are what usually allow members of the group to explain why this is mine and that is yours. If we a= re all participants in something then that thing is de facto a part of = our shared culture. We are what we do. Race allows us to claim or deny connecti= ons based on who we are, not what we do. Like African-American culture, Jewish culture implies that this Jew and that Jew have something in common = that goes much deeper than the matzo balls. “The question which culture we belong to is relevant only if culture is anchored in race.” = ..[if !supportFootnotes] [28] ..[en= dif]
To be “ethnically Jewish” is to be Jewish according to white European or American standards. It was obvious and undeniable that the Beta Israel were doing Jewish things. By Michaels non-racial standards, people who do the same things share the shame culture unless a racial claim in made; ergo Beta Isr= ael are part of Jewish culture unless white folk say there not. However, we rec= all that the Boyarins asserted that Jews are people= who are Jewish by birth or conversion and who do Jewish things. Therefor= e, by the latter racialized definition, people who= are not recognized as being Jewish first, can do all the Jewish things they want for as long as they can and it will not make them Jewish—it can only = make them persistent, exhausted, and ultimately frustrated Jewish imitators.
Beta Israel , and black Jews in other areas, are discovering that neither who they are nor what they do guarantees their membership or acceptance within a racial cont= ext.
European Contact with Beth Yisrael
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In 1904, Dr. Jacques Faitlovitch (1880-1955) was given= a grant by Baron Edmond de Rothschild and the blessings of the Chief Rabbi of Paris, Zadok Kahn, to go to Africa and investigate persistent rumors of there being black Jews in Ethiopia . He returned to France the following year to report that the people he saw “are really Jews.” By 1906, Dr. Faitlovitch was trying to convince the rabbis of = Europe that the black Jews of Ethiopia were “our flesh and blood.” = ..[if !supportFootnotes] [29] ..[en= dif] This announcement by a prominent Jewish scholar was soon followed by photographs, articles, and speaking engagements. Unlike his predecessors, D= r. Faitlovitch was steadfastly committed to winning recognition for the Beta Israel. For the rest of his life he worked tirelessly on three continents a= nd through two world wars to remedy the plight of black Jews in Ethiopia . Although his methods and actions are open to scrutiny, his sincerity and dedication are not.
The first major victory that Faitlovitch won for the B= eta Israel came in 1906. He persuaded forty-four eminent rabbis to sign a letter addressed to the Beta Israel that referred to them as “our brethren, = sons of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob…our flesh and blood.” The signers included: Herman Adler (Chief Rabbi of London ), Raphael Meir Panigel ( Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Jersusal= em / Palestine ) and Jacob Reines of Russia (head of the Mizrachi movement) and others. = ..[if !supportFootnotes] [30] ..[en= dif] For a moment, it looked as if the world Jewish community was going to come = to the immediate and unconditional aide of their fellow Jews in Ethiopia . But, the following year a Turkish rabbi named Haim Nahoum made his own journey to Ethiopia and upon his return he reported that “It does not seem to me desirable that anything should be done.” ..[if !supportFootnotes] [31] ..[en= dif]
Thus would begin a cruel pattern of expressio= ns of enthusiastic support and solidarity followed by long periods of inactivity and indiffere= nce. Because the Beta Israel were frequently forgotten, they have been repeatedly rediscovered—most recently again during the dramatic airlift of fifty thousand Ethiopians to Israel in the 1980s. However, individuals like Faitlovitch consistently tried to k= eep the Ethiopian issue on the agendas of major Jewish organizations. In March = of 1914, just prior to the outbreak of World War One, Faitlovitch established = the Pro-Falasha Committee as a lobbying group solely dedicated to this cause. T= hey had officers in several European countries and one in = New York City . ..[if !supportFootnotes] [32] ..[en= dif] The Alliance Israelite Universelle , whic= h had been an early sponsor, thought the best way to help the Ethiopians was thro= ugh vocational training. Faitlovitch favored classical academic training. In ma= ny ways, their disagreement over the best way to help the Ethiopians parallels= the debate between Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois over the best way to help black people in the United States—Washington favoring vocational and DuBois , liberal arts—though in both cases the differences should not be exaggerated. Where they are similar, however, is that vocational training is an approach usually applied to the masses, while university training is usually directe= d at an educated elite.
Here we begin to see a troubling side to Dr. = Faitlovitch’s advocacy of the Beta Israel. Dr. = Simon Messing, who knew and interviewed Dr. Faitlovitch, explained that many peop= le of that period believed that Africans lacked the intellect to acquire a classical education. So, Faitlovitch “demonstrated Falasha mental capacity by a test that was accepted in the ethnocentric Europe of the time: One of his students had been brought to Switzerland where he had learned to speak fluent German!” = ..[if !supportFootnotes] [33] ..[en= dif] After this student, Faitlovitch created about six Ethiopian protégés who often accompanied him on speaking and fund raisi= ng tours. He arranged for their educations, attempted to direct their careers, reshaped their religious views, and tried to control their political activities. Dr. Faitlovitch fervently fought for the advancement of Ethiopi= an Jews, but he defined progress by his ability to make Ethiopian Jews = more like European Jews. Tragically, his program began to resemble a Jewish vers= ion of the “White Mans Burden;” i.e. it was the moral duty of Europ= ean Jews to save and civilize the Jews of Africa.
He was determined to rescue the Falashas and to bring = them into rabbinic Judaism, the pattern known in Western Europe as ‘Torah im Derkh-E= retz ’ (lit. Bible together with the Way of the Land), which signified strict religious Orthodoxy together with modern behavior in manner, clothing, shel= ter, fine arts and careers. ..[if !supportFootnotes] [34] ..[en= dif]
When the first of FaitlovitchR= 17;s students, Getye Jeremias, returned to his Ethiopian village “dressed in a European jacket and h= igh leather riding boots,” he was an envied model of what others should become. He next student, who would become the well-known Professor Taamrat Emmanuel and have an important interaction with the black Jews of Harlem, w= as literally rescued from a Chrisitan mission that= had already converted his parents. Faitlovitch was greatly impressed with the y= oung man who was fluent in Italian, Tigrinya (a local dialect), and his native Amharic . Faitlovitch took him to Paris where he lear= ned French, then to Italy where he studied at the Collegio Rabbinico , and finally to Jerusalem where = he was entrusted to the supervision of Herr Goldschmidt. Like Getye before him, Taamrat was installed as= the headmaster of one of the village Hebrew schools that Faitlovitch had created back in Ethiopia . Faitlovitch understood that he was making leaders; his students were being trained to lead their people out of darkness. ..[if !supportFootnotes] [35] ..[en= dif] However, Taamrat and some of his peers had their own ideas on how best to u= se their talents. They had also come to the attention of the Emperor Menilek a= nd his Regent in Addis Ababa , Ras Tafari Makonnen —who would later himself become the Emperor Haile Selassie I. = ..[if !supportFootnotes] [36] ..[en= dif]
What Faitlovitch did not realize at first and = then later strongly discouraged, was that his prized students were not only black Jews, but black Ethiopians as well. As they traveled and read they became a= ware of how the Western world viewed them and how their own leaders treated them. Faitlovitch opposed the development of any race consciousness or nationalist sentiments other than his brand of religious Zionism. When Taamrat, Yonah Boggale , and Mequria Segay temporarily= left their posts in the village Hebrew schools for government positions in Haile Selassie’s administration, Faitlovitch saw this as a personal betrayal and an abandonment of the missions for which they were trained. They were expected to shed their black identity and their Ethiopian identity; they we= re to master and emulate what they were taught; and, when enough of them had d= one this successfully, they would be accepted back into the Jewish fold. By tak= ing these jobs his students were not merely motivated by a personal desire for greater wealth and status—although those were, no doubt, factors—but, more importantly they were also sincere idealists who we= re swept up in the hope and optimism of creating a new Ethiopia and a new Africa . The significance of Haile Selassie’s rise to power in 1930 and the struggle for Ethiopian independence against Italian aggression, profoundly affected black people a= ll over the world—particularly black people in America and the Caribbean . Faitlovitch was less sanguine about these events. He returned to Ethiopia after WWII from Israel , his new home, and in “his forceful manner” cajoled Yonah to leave his post—which was dangerous sin= ce the Emperor had not agreed to release him. Taamrat retired from his position as “Cultural Attaché” at the Ethiopian Embassy in Paris in 1952, disillusioned by the slow rate of democratization and land reform.= He, too, immigrated to Israel but continued to march to the beat of his own drum until his death in 1968.= In many ways, Taamrat’s journey literally and symbolically adumbrated the physical, political, intellectual, and emotional journey of the thousands of black Jews who would follow him.
As a poltical activist, Ta= amrat regarded Faitlovitch as an antiquarian who was stern in his condemnation of Falasha “wrong practices” and insufficiently respectful of Falahsa pride in their long independence. Taamrat vie= wed the future of the Falashas as largely bound up with the modernization of Ethiopia . Only modern education of the general population could finally free the Fala= shas from being victimized by accusations of lycanthropy as “were-hyenas”. Neither did he think that Rabbinic Orthodoxy should be imposed on them to qualify them as Jews. ..[if !supportFootnotes] [37] ..[en= dif]
Taamrat Emmanuel’s struggle to find a balance be= tween preserving a healthy respect for the traditions of the Beta Israel, while at the same time trying to forge a meaningful relationship with European Jewry, proved to be illusory. Though well intentioned, Faitlovitch and those that followed him made what has become a classic liberal mistake: they setout to remake those they helped in their own image. This often has the consequence= of saving the people, but destroying their culture. Complete cultural assimila= tion unintentionally leads to the cultural annihilation of the dependent group. = The Nobel laureate, Chinua Ach= ebe , described in his fictional novel, Things Fall Apart, how the stable social fabric of a pre-colonial Nigerian village began to unravel before the juggernaut of Western conformity. In this context, European Jewry is the juggernaut that black Jewish communities fear, admire, resent, and need.In December of 1930, Taamrat ignored the urging of his handlers at the Pro- Falsha Committee in New York and journeyed uptown to Harlem were he met with Chief Rabbi Matthew and addressed the Commandment Keepers Congregation. Shortly thereafter, dozens of black Jews left the United States to establish a colony in Ethiopia that lasted until the Italian invasion and the death of Rabbi Arnold Ford in 1935. = ..[if !supportFootnotes] [38] ..[en= dif] During the years that followed, individuals from both communities would seek each other out whenever possib= le, but neither has been in a position to significantly help the other. Yet, the cry of Ethiopia continues to loom large in the hearts of black Jews all over the world for = we share a common struggle.
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Emperor Haile Selassie gre= eting Rabbi Hailu Paris, an Ethiopian-born leader and teacher in our community = at a gathering in New York City in which he and Chief Rabbi W. A. Matthew went= to meet the “Lion of Judah,” a direct descendent of King Solomon= and the Queen of Sheba.
..[if !supportEndnotes]
..[endif]
= = ..[if !supportFootnotes] [1] ..[end= if] Dan Ross, Acts of Faith: A Journey to the Fringe of Jewish Identity = (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1982), p.155.
= = ..[if !supportFootnotes] [2] ..[end= if] Ross, p. 150.
= = ..[if !supportFootnotes] [3] ..[end= if] I kings 10:1-10. Some scholars cavil about the meaning of the euphemism is = the cited passage; however, I think it is clear that Solomon’s material gifts w= ere “in addition” to satisfying her desire. Also, the Ethiopian explanation for the disappearance of the Ark , assuming of course that one existed, is as credible as other theories conce= rning its whereabouts.
= = ..[if !supportFootnotes] [4] ..[end= if] Ali A. Mazrui , The Africans: A Triple Herita= ge (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1986) pp.27-37. Mazrui argues that for political reasons European cartographers associate the Sinai Peninsula with Asia or the newer classi= fication “ Middle East ” even though it is geologic= ally a peninsula of the African continent. And, since the first Hebrews entered Egypt as a family and left 400 years later a nation of people, Judaism could be thought of as an African religion—or at least, a religion with deep African roots.
= = ..[if !supportFootnotes] [5] ..[end= if] Flavius Josephus, The Life and Works of Flavius Josephus, trans. Wil= liam Whiston ( New York : Holt, Rinehart and Winston ), p.252.
= = ..[if !supportFootnotes] [6] ..[end= if] Rudolph R. Windsor, From Babylon to Timbuktu r= evised ed., (Philadelphia: Windsor’s Golden Series Publications, 1988= ), p.38-39. Windsor also takes the controversial position that the Arabs who occupy these areas today are much lighter in complexion because of centuries of intermarriage = with Europeans.
..[if !supportFootno= tes] [7] ..[end= if] Simon D. Messing, The Story of the Falashas: “Black Jews” of Ethiopia ( Hamden, CT: Balshon Printing, 1982), pp.15-16.
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..[if !supportFootno= tes] [8] ..[end= if] Ibid.
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..[if !supportFootno= tes] [9] ..[end= if] Wolf Leslau , Falasha Anthology (New Haven: Yale Univ= ersity Press, 1951), pp.xii-xliii ; Dan Ross, Acts of Faith: A Journey to the Fringes of Jewish Identity ( New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1982) pp.143-166.
= ..[if !supportFootnotes] [10] ..[en= dif] Ibid.
= ..[if !supportFootnotes] [11] ..[en= dif] Ibid.
= ..[if !supportFootnotes] [12] ..[en= dif] Although female circumcision is admittedly not Jewish in origin, the fact that they practice it just proves that despite their isolation their culture has not been impervious to outsi= de influences—no Jewish community has.
= ..[if !supportFootnotes] [13] ..[en= dif] Ibid.
= ..[if !supportFootnotes] [14] ..[en= dif] Although the separation of women during menstruation may seem quite severe,= it is actually based on Leviticus 12. Orthodox Jews have a set of laws called = Niddah that govern the activities of Jewish women dur= ing menstruation as well. Theirs is a modification of Biblical practices.
= ..[if !supportFootnotes] [15] ..[en= dif] Ross, p. 147.
= ..[if !supportFootnotes] [16] ..[en= dif] Leslau , p.xx .
= ..[if !supportFootnotes] [17] ..[en= dif] The above examples were taken from= a lengthy description of the Beta Israel community from the CD ROM version of= the Encyclopedia Judaica , c.v. “Beta Israel (Falasha).”
= ..[if !supportFootnotes] [18] ..[en= dif] Leslau , p.xliii ; Pr= ofessor Ross was even more emphatic by asserting: “Ruling out some of the more fanciful theories is the easiest thing to do. It is not very likely that Falashas are descendants of Moses's followers w= ho turned right out of Egypt instead of left, ending up in Ethiopia instead of Palestine . Nor is it likely that they are descendants of the lost tribe of Dan (as Israel 's chief rabbis claim), or of Jewish soldiers posted in upper Egypt by the Per= sian emperors (as President Ben- Zvi believed) , or of refugees from the destruction of one Jerusalem Temple or the other. = In fact, it is not very likely that Falashas are descendants of Jews at all. Most historians now belie= ve that the ancestor of Falashas were Ethiopians, who adopted their Judaism lo= ng ago. What they are less sure of is when, and how." If these so-called scholars neithe= r know “when” nor “how,” then how can they be so sure of t= heir conclusions. And, how can they be so brazen as to make such an assertion and then admit that they lack the evidence to substantiate it?
= ..[if !supportFootnotes] [19] ..[en= dif] Yosef Ben- Jochannan = , We The Black Jews Vol I and II ( New York : Yosef Ben- Jochannan ), p.21,
= ..[if !supportFootnotes] [20] ..[en= dif] Naomi Zack, Thinking About Race (New York: Wadsworth Publishing Compnay , 1998) p.32.
= ..[if !supportFootnotes] [21] ..[en= dif] Ibid. p.30.
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