Monday, June 07, 2004
Black Jewish population growing in America
Growing numbers in a congregation of black Jews in Chicago has necessitated a move to a bigger synagogue, once a safe house for Martin Luther King Jr. Rabbi Capers Funnye leads Beth Shalom B'nai Zaken Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation, which this weekend moves from a 1902 synagogue to the larger facility, the Chicago Tribune said. Beth Shalom B'nai Zaken traces its lineage to a congregation founded in 1915. The flock is mostly African-American, though there also are two white families, blacks from the Caribbean and a Russian whose father was a black American. The group has grown from 55 families to 70 in recent years. "We fully expect over the next 20 years for the face of Judaism (in the United States) to change dramatically from largely a white, Eastern or Central European group to include many more Asians, Latinos and blacks," said Gary Tobin, president of the San Francisco-based Institute for Jewish & Community Research. James Landing, a professor emeritus at the University of Illinois at Chicago who has studied black Judaism, says their numbers probably do not exceed 10,000. I guess now when you talk about a shvartze you'll have to specify if he's a Heimishe or not.
Growing numbers in a congregation of black Jews in Chicago has necessitated a move to a bigger synagogue, once a safe house for Martin Luther King Jr. Rabbi Capers Funnye leads Beth Shalom B'nai Zaken Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation, which this weekend moves from a 1902 synagogue to the larger facility, the Chicago Tribune said. Beth Shalom B'nai Zaken traces its lineage to a congregation founded in 1915. The flock is mostly African-American, though there also are two white families, blacks from the Caribbean and a Russian whose father was a black American. The group has grown from 55 families to 70 in recent years. "We fully expect over the next 20 years for the face of Judaism (in the United States) to change dramatically from largely a white, Eastern or Central European group to include many more Asians, Latinos and blacks," said Gary Tobin, president of the San Francisco-based Institute for Jewish & Community Research. James Landing, a professor emeritus at the University of Illinois at Chicago who has studied black Judaism, says their numbers probably do not exceed 10,000. I guess now when you talk about a shvartze you'll have to specify if he's a Heimishe or not.
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