CultNEWS101 Articles: 9/4/2019

La Luz del Mundo, Transcendental Meditation, Hebrew Israelites, Yahweh ben Yahweh, Electus Per Deus, Chosen by God

Cesnur: La Luz del Mundo Alive and Growing Notwithstanding the Apostle's Detention

"Last year, I attended in Guadalajara, Mexico, the welcome ceremony preparing the yearly Holy Supper of La Luz del Mundo, a Mexican religious movement with some five million members internationally. I wrote a short travelogue explaining why there are good reasons to believe that La Luz del Mundo is the fastest growing religion on earth. Readers would find there some general information on this Church.

I was particularly impressed by the domestic and international network of charity institutions developed by La Luz del Mundo. These institutions help the poor and the needy everywhere, with a special attention to women victims of domestic violence and Latino immigrants in the United States and elsewhere. They cater to all those in need, not only to members of La Luz del Mundo. I was pleased to be part of the jury that on May 13, 2019, awarded the FIRMA Charity Award, at the Turin Book Fair, to the leader of La Luz del Mundo, Apostle Naasón Joaquín García, and to be called to personally deliver the award to the Apostle's representative. I was not alone. The Luz del Mundo's good deeds in the field of charity and human rights earned the Apostle in the last few years several dozen such awards, including by the Mexican Parliament."

Real Clear Religion: Why Schools Are Banning Yoga

" ... [S]ome observers question the research on yoga's benefits. Amy Wax, a University of Pennsylvania law professor who specializes in social-welfare policy, in a 2016 Atlantic story criticized some existing studies on yoga and mindfulness as being of "low quality and dubious rigor." Julia Belluz, a senior health correspondent for Vox, has notedthat despite a drastic increase in recent decades in the number of studies on yoga, the research tends to rely on small numbers of participants and imperfect comparisons, among other limitations. And some parents argue that yoga's potential benefits aren't enough to justify the spending at a time when public schools already struggle with limited funding."

Local10: Yahweh ben Yahweh: Miami cult leader or caught up in a conspiracy?

" ... Was Yahweh ben Yahweh, the charismatic leader of his creation, the Nation of Yahweh, earnestly empowering his flock by leading them in what he believed was the truth? Maybe he had been chosen from on high as a messiah to reveal the true heritage of black Americans.

Or was Hulon Mitchell Jr. a cult leader who gave orders to his followers to kill anyone who was against him? Who implored so-called "death angels" to bring back proof that his subjects had killed white devils by cutting off their ears and returning them to their leader? Who insisted his male followers be circumcised and performed the procedures himself?

Or was it his destiny? A pre-ordained Biblical prophecy that the government would condemn him? That the star witness was a lying Judas who would testify against Yahweh: A former professional football player turned Yahweh member, who pleaded guilty and admitted multiple killings he said were directed by Yahweh ben Yahweh?"

IOL: Life terms for three Krugersdorp Satanic cult killers

The three Krugersdorp serial killers who formed part of a Satanic cult dubbed "Electus Per Deus" (Chosen by God) and carried out a spate of murders in Krugersdorp were sentenced to life in prison in the high court in Johannesburg on Monday.

Judge Ellem Jacob Francis sentenced mastermind Cecilia Steyn to at least 13 life sentences while Zak Valentine was handed eight life sentences. Their co-accused Marcel Steyn was handed seven life sentences.

The trio were found guilty on 32 counts between them, including 11 of murder. The other counts include fraud, racketeering and robbery, which they committed between 2012 and 2016.

The judge described the case as the worst case he has presided over in his 18 years as a judge.

Marcel, who is only 21 years old, is believed to have been 14 when she and her accomplices went on their deadly spree."

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INSIDE THE HEBREW ISRAELITE MOVEMENT THAT'S INSPIRING KENDRICK LAMAR & KODAK BLACK

The community feels conflicted about its new celebrity fans.

SAM KESTENBAUM
GENIUS
August 2, 2017

Kendrick Lamar’s dropped his fourth studio album DAMN. back in April, and attentive fans may have caught a new reference in the rapper’s dense and allusive rhymes. On the album’s third track “YAH.,” the Compton rapper declares:

I’m an Israelite, don’t call me black no more

A few moments later, he adds:

My cousin called, my cousin Carl Duckworth
Said know my worth
And Deuteronomy say that we all been cursed

Kendrick is referencing the book of Deuteronomy in the Bible, where Moses addresses the Twelve Tribes of Israel who have made their exodus from slavery in Egypt and wandered for 40 years in the desert. The Israelites are about to enter the land promised to them by God, and Moses gives them God’s holy law and warns of dire consequences should they break it.

Kendrick’s lyrics often delve into spiritual territory, but the Old Testament fire and brimstone is a new theme for him. Perhaps disillusioned by what many see as a dark turn in the country’s history, he is searching for roots by referencing the teachings of the Hebrew Israelites, a black religious movement that has thrived on the margins of the country’s spiritual landscape for over a century.

Lamar is not alone. Two months after the release of DAMN., Kodak Black echoed Kendrick’s lines on “First Day Out,” the first single he dropped after being released from prison:

I’m a Israelite

“I Can’t Lie I’m #Israel #12TribesOfIsrael,” Kodak announced on Instagram, posing with a Star of David pendant dangling around his neck.

While affinity with the Israelites is common in broader African-American religious discourse, Hebrew Israelites identify as the literal genealogical descendants of the people mentioned in the Bible. The movement is theologically diverse; some follow the New Testament, others study only the Hebrew Bible. Israelites understand their spiritual practice not as a religion but as an ancestral way of life to which they are returning. There is no single patriarch of the Israelite movement but rather generations of 19th and 20th century leaders who taught similar messages, evoking ancient ancestry and teaching spiritual uplift.

The movement’s emergence can be traced to the late 19th century, when former slaves had their hopes for a more just United States dashed after Reconstruction was abandoned by the Federal government due to intense resistance from white supremacists. Blacks in the South became subject to restrictive Jim Crow laws and were the victims of periodic racial violence across the country.

Hebrew Israelites point to the chapter of Deuteronomy 28—in particular a passage that describes how the biblical Israelites will be sent “back in ships to Egypt” for their disobedience to God—as a prophetic foretelling of the enslavement of African people in the Americas.

It was Deuteronomy 28 that caught Kendrick’s attention during one-on-one Bible sessions with his cousin Carl Duckworth, a member of an Israelite organization called Israel United In Christ who goes by the Hebrew name Karni Ben Israel. “The guy is really looking and searching for this truth,” Duckworth explained in a late April Periscope broadcast from IUIC, speaking about his famous cousin. “When Deuteronomy 28 came out, it was like he was blown away, it was like — wow.”

Carl Duckworth can be heard referencing the Deuteronomy 28 prophecy in a voicemail recording towards the end of the song “FEAR.”

Kodak Black also encountered a teacher who introduced him to Israelite beliefs. While serving 97 days in a Florida jail for violating house arrest, Kodak met an Israelite teacher known as Priest Kahan who does regular prison ministry in the state. Kodak, who is of Haitian descent, was particularly impressed with the Israelite teaching that present-day nationalities are descended from Twelve Tribes of Israel. Haitians, according to a widely circulated “tribe chart,” are descended from the priestly tribe of Levi.

Just as Israelite beliefs crystallized in the wake of Reconstruction, contemporary events may be leading to renewed interest.

“Hebrew Israelite beliefs are experiencing something of a renaissance,” said André Key, a professor of African-American Studies at Claflin University who writes about Hebrew Israelites. On the heels of Donald Trump’s upset victory, the country finds itself in political turmoil. “In these times, people who are spiritually or religiously oriented may look toward alternative spiritual perspectives or solutions,” Key told Genius, “and this is one of them.”

According to Israelite doctrine, political activism is futile: hardships will continue to plague people of color until they return to their Hebrew heritage. As Kendrick’s cousin says on “FEAR.,” “Until we come back to these commandments, until you come back to these commandments, we’re gonna feel this way, we’re gonna be under this curse.”

Hip-hop has provided a platform for alternative black spiritual movements for years. Rap pioneers like Rakim as well as Wu-Tang Clan members incorporated the beliefs of the 5 Percenters into their music; Ice Cube peppered his songs with the teachings of the Nation of Islam; in his very early days Jay-Z even referenced Dr. York’s Nuwaubian Nation. Hebrew Israelites, on the other hand, have enjoyed a relatively low profile. But they’ve been out there.

On Doug E. Fresh’s 1988 single “Keep Risin’ To The Top,” a Brooklyn Israelite makes a brief cameo in the video as Fresh raps:

As a brother extended out his hand to me
And asked me would I rock the microphone
I just gave him a pound and said Shalom

On Killah Priest’s “One Step,” a single from his 1998 debut Heavy Mental, the Wu-Tang affiliate spits:

Early natives related to thrones of David, captured by some patriots and thrown on slave ships

The “thrones of David” is a reference to the genealogical line of Israelite descendants coming from the biblical King David. Later on, he continues:

Deuteronomy 28, verse 68, it all relates.

St. Louis rapper Chingy, famous for 2003’s “Right Thurr,” later abandoned mainstream rap, adopting an Israelite identity. In 2013, he released the single “King Judah” to mark the transition.

The latest mainstream breakthrough has generated excitement in the Israelite community. Lamar’s pronouncement launched “FEAR.”-inspired memes, freestyles from underground Israelite rappers, and even fan art.

“This young man has an audience of millions,” said Nathanyel, the leader of IUIC, the Israelite group that Kendrick’s cousin belongs to, in an April YouTube broadcast. “Prophecy is being fulfilled.”

The small Hebrew Israelite community has also met the celebrity cosigns with ambivalence; it’s glad to have its views broadcast, but questions the orthodoxy of these new advocates. “There’s excitement, but there is also hesitation,” said Tyrone Webb, the publisher of the community magazine Hebrew Israelite Nation Times, to Genius. “Will these stars pick up this truth and then drop it right away? Will they be good representations? You never know what will happen.”

Some have denounced artists like Kendrick and Kodak, doubting their dedication to the movement and saying they are still mired in the “sinful” world.

“We gonna go in on these so-called celebrity Israelites,” one member of the Israelite group known as Grand Millstone said in a YouTube video. “Kendrick Lamar… not putting his whole heart into Yahawah Bahasham Yahawashi,” he said, using a Hebrew rendering of the names of God and Jesus.

There is even dissent in the group closest to Kendrick with some members preferring music produced with Israelite doctrine firmly in mind. In a periscope broadcast, a member of IUIC also cautioned listeners against buying Kendrick’s new album. “I wouldn’t suggest just going out and buying the album,” a leader known as Deacon Abbayael said. He took the opportunity to add, “we got some albums out.”

IUIC has its own roster of rappers and producers who put out polished music videos promoting the group’s message and work. In one video entitled “Purple Reign,” referencing the group’s distinctive purple garb, a group of MCs trade lines in front of a foreboding, computer-generated skyline. The group’s charismatic leader delivers snippets of sermons between verses.

A year before Kendrick told listeners “I’m an Israelite, don’t call me black no more” the rapper Obadia recited, “No Afro-American, Hebraic heritage, backed with biblical doctrinates” on his single “Israelite Boy.”

Israelite artists themselves are embracing the new attention brought by their mainstream competitors, although they have some qualms.

Georgia-based artist Beloved Daud, who released his debut album last year, tells Genius that he would welcome any sincere devotee, but was dismayed by some lyrics from Kodak and Kendrick, which seemed to celebrate money or degrade women. “No one likes a lukewarm believer,” he said. “I can see they love more of the world than the righteousness.”

Still, Daud says he’s seen a wave of new interest following their Israelite-inspired lyrics and he welcomes it. “They started a mass search,” he says. “They put that vibration in the air.”


Sam Kestenbaum is a religion writer and reporter at The Forward.

https://genius.com/a/inside-the-hebrew-israelite-movement-that-s-inspiring-kendrick-lamar-kodak-black

Who Are The Hebrew Israelites?

World-Wide Religious News
"Forward" 

June 29, 2017

Their story rarely finds its way into the mainstream news. When it does, readers are surprised.

A cousin of First Lady Michelle Obama is a black rabbi in Chicago? Generations of African Americans — not religious converts — who observe the Sabbath and read the Torah? A star NBA player decides to move to Jerusalem on a spiritual journey, calling himself the descendent of an “ancient tribe of the Hebrew Israelites?” What does it mean?

Parallel to the American Jewish story, another complex spiritual tale has been unfolding for over a century — that of the Hebrew Israelites.

Who are Hebrew Israelites?

Hebrew Israelites are people of color, mostly African Americans, who view the biblical Israelites as their historic ancestors. For Hebrew Israelites, the transatlantic slave trade was foretold in scripture and they understand those Africans who were enslaved in the Americas as Israelites, severed from their heritage. Now they are returning.

Israelites of all stripes today point to specific scriptures as prophetic proof of their ancestry, particularly Deuteronomy 28. For Israelites, the chapter describes a foretelling of slavery and servitude in the Americas: “The Lord will send you back in ships to Egypt on a journey I said you should never make again.” The chapter also describes those Israelites being made to serve false gods and lose knowledge of their true identities.

How old is the movement?

Over a century. There is no one “founder” of the movement, instead an entire generation of patriarchs who shared related beliefs. These figures were commonly called Black Jews in their lifetimes, but later generations carrying on their traditions have gravitated towards Hebrew Israelite or simply Israelite.

These patriarchs include a former runaway slave named William Saunders Crowdy, who gained a following in the 1890s, teaching that blacks were the “lost sheep of Israel” and that they should return to the ancient ways of the Hebrews as described in the bible.

In New York, a Barbadian musician named Arnold Josiah Ford founded a Harlem congregation in 1924 and also taught that blacks should take on the Hebrew faith. Ford was an associate of nationalist leader Marcus Garvey and led a small group of followers to Ethiopia in 1930 where he lived until his death.

Arguably the most influential leader was another Caribbean-born rabbi named Wentworth Arthur Matthew, who was ordained by Ford. Matthew founded an influential congregation in Harlem known as the Commandment Keepers in 1919. That congregation became a hub of high-profile activity for decades, visited frequently by Jewish journalists (including reporters from the Yiddish Forverts). Matthew formed a rabbinical school and taught an entire generation of spiritual leaders.

More details about the formative years of these groups can be found in the book “Chosen People,” by Jacob Dorman, a professor of history at Kansas University. For a perspective from the Israelite Board, Rabbi Sholomo Ben Levy maintains a website, with many pages of insider history, about “people who identify as Black Jews or Israelites.”

Why ‘Israelites’ and not Jews?

From around the the 1890s to the mid 1960s, the leaders mentioned above were most commonly called Black Jews. Beginning in the mid 1960s, a younger generation of community members ushered in the term Hebrew Israelite.

The term Hebrew Israelite, or often simply Israelite, is used today by members to distinguish themselves from the religion practiced by Ashkenazi, Sephardi or Mizrachi Jews. Israelites maintain that they are practicing their ancestral way of life, not coming into a foreign religion. Still, there has long been a debate about what terms to use.

And categories are never static. Hebrew Israelites may also identify as Jews and move fluidly between Israelite and Jewish prayer spaces or organizations. Take, for example, Rabbi Capers Funnye, who holds an Israelite ordination and also attended the mainstream Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership. Funnye has said that, to him, the terms Black Jew, Hebrew Israelite and Black Hebrew are all synonymous — and simply mean “Jew of African descent.”

What are those biggest groups today?

The International Israelite Board of Rabbis was founded in 1970 by a group of Rabbi Matthew’s students. The newly-elected chief rabbi of the board is Funnye, a cousin to Michelle Obama and a well known cleric from Chicago.

The Church of God and Saints of Christ, organized by Crowdy, is another very large group which also teaches the New Testament and calls Jesus Christ a prophet. A new chief rabbi has recently been named for this organization, which is based in Virginia.

A third well-known group, originally based in Chicago, Illinois, is the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem, formerly led by a man known as Ben Ammi. This group caused international headlines when they left America and ultimately settled in Dimona, Israel, starting in 1969. The have had a fraught relationship with the Israeli government for decades, but relations have improved in recent years.

Another high-profile category of Hebrew Israelites preaches have their origins in a teacher called Abba Bivens, a former member of the Commandment Keepers who formed a school of his own in Harlem in the 1960s. Collectively, they are widely known as 1 West camps, taking the name from the Harlem street address of Bivens’ original school. Bivens’ disciples splintered into many different groups with varying doctrines over the decades. In general, they teach that those called Jews today are imposters and usurpers of Israelite tradition. These Israelites have perhaps the most public presence today and are recognizable by their colorful garb and confrontational street corner preaching.

Where are they?

Everywhere. New York, Chicago, Virginia, Atlanta and Philadelphia have been historic hubs and there are Israelite outposts in the Caribbean and also in Africa. Individuals may also self-identify as a Hebrew Israelite without officially belonging to one branch or congregation. The Internet has also contributed to an active online community, which can be geographically diffuse.

Are they ‘recognized’ by other Jews?

That depends on what “recognized” means. Most Israelites are not looking for validation or recognition and in fact may not identify as Jews. Still, some Jewish American groups have sought to bring Israelites into the fold — but often suggest conversion, which many Israelites object to.

Some of those early efforts at outreach also failed to distinguish the Israelites from Jews of color who belong to mainstream denominations. And some African American Jews have been among sharpest critics of the Hebrew Israelites, both historically and in recent months.

Under the leadership of Rabbi Funnye, however, the topic of engagement with American Jewry and the State of Israel has again come to the fore for some Israelites. Funnye holds an Israelite ordination but also converted in a Conservative beit din. He also sits on the Chicago Board of Rabbis. Now chief rabbi of the International Israelite Board of Rabbis, Funnye has asked member congregations of the board to support the State of Israel and to reach out to other Jews. Still, this is not to seek validation — Funnye emphasizes — but to seek common ground.

https://wwrn.org/articles/47045/

With new chief rabbi, black Hebrew-Israelites make bid to enter the Jewish mainstream

Sam Kestenbaum
The Washington Post
October 30, 2015

The chief rabbi is installed in a ceremony that hasn’t been seen in 16 years.
Israelite leadership leads the congregation in prayer over their new chief,
seated in the middle, hands open. From left to right: Rabbi Eliyahu Yehudah,
Rabbi Yeshurun Levi, Rabbi Baruch A. Yehudah, Chief Rabbi Capers C. Funnye,
Rabbi Sholomo Levy, Aaron Funnye and Rabbi Yahat Yehudah
Photo by Carlos Javier Ortiz

The Israelites walked slowly, chanting in Hebrew and wrapped in loose white robes. A reverential silence spread across the crowd as one figure emerged above the rest. Hundreds had gathered to witness a sacred moment. “I came so that my children’s children would remember this day,” said one Israelite. “Hallelujah,” called another.

It was a scene out of the Torah: after years of uncertainty a new leader was being installed.

But these Israelites, unlike their biblical namesakes, had not come from scattered desert encampments, but from Georgia, New York, California, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Delaware. They were gathered not on a craggy mountain overlooking the valleys of the Holy Land, but deep in the Southside of Chicago.

And their new leader? South Carolina-born African American rabbi, Chief Rabbi Capers C. Funnye Jr.

Funnye has already made headlines. He’s the cousin of Michelle Obama and the first African American to join the Chicago Board of Rabbis. He has spent his career redrawing racial and religious boundaries. In sermons Funnye quotes from Malcolm X, Marcus Mosiah Garvey and old spirituals, but also Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, Rabbi Louis Jacobs and the Talmud.

“My blackness and my Jewishness, they synthesize,” said Funnye on the day of his installation as chief rabbi last weekend. His office was lined with weathered books on Judaism; a map of Africa hung on the wall. “I’m not in anybody’s box. We need this community recognized by the Jewish people. And I am their spokesperson.”

The Hebrew-Israelites, whose practice of Judaism draws from early black nationalism and its message of empowerment, have lived for nearly a century on the fringes of the Jewish world. There have only been two other chief rabbis in this group’s history; the last died in 1999.

Since then, “something hasn’t been right, something hasn’t been in the correct order,” said Rabbi Sholomo Ben Levy, president of the board. “Today we are able to get back in order.”

The new chief rabbi of the International Israelite Board of Rabbis, the main rabbinical body in the Israelite world, wants to both bring unity to the group and reach out.

“We have to build bridges,” said Funnye, “amongst ourselves and to other communities.”

Funnye was nominated as chief rabbi last fall. Earlier this year, he released his vision plan and spoke about his platform in a series of public meetings. A specially-formed electorate body made up of rabbis representing their communities, in this country and abroad, took a vote at the beginning of the month.

The results came in on Oct. 4. It was unanimous.

And finally, following Sabbath services at Funnye’s home congregation, Beth Shalom B’nai Zaken Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation in Chicago, a chief rabbi was installed.

“The International Israelite Board of Rabbis,” Levy said during the ceremony, “have elected and elevated our brother Rabbi Capers Funnye to the highest honorable office of chief rabbi to the Israelite congregations of the United States, the Caribbean, Africa and around the world under our auspices.”

The congregation’s choir, rivaling any gospel group, sang in a mixture of Hebrew and English; the crowd was dressed in its finest: colored kufis, knit skullcaps, dashikis and white prayer shawls.

“My father devoted his life to a movement,” said Rabbi Shalem Knaizadek Yeshurun, whose father was an early Israelite rabbi in Brooklyn. “Now we can show to the world: we’re not going to let that legacy die. We have a chief rabbi now, we talk for ourselves.”

A struggle to be accepted by the mainstream

This branch of Israelites traces its history back to Harlem where, in 1919, a Caribbean-born man named Rabbi Wentworth Arthur Matthew founded one of the county’s first black synagogues, the Commandment Keepers Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation.

A charismatic cleric from St. Kitts, Matthew taught that African Americans had ancient connections with the biblical Israelites and that they should leave Christianity and return to Judaism. New members went through a ritual process of return, Levy said, which they viewed as comparable to conversion.

The synagogue became the center of a movement and branches spread to other parts of the country and abroad.

Matthew wasn’t only interested in reaching out to black Americans. He also sought connection with mainstream Jews and wanted his growing community to be accepted. Matthew applied to join the New York Board of Rabbis (twice), but was turned down because he was ordained by an earlier Israelite teacher, not from a recognized school. One early critic dismissed the community as having “nothing to do with Judaism.”

Things got slightly better in the next decades. But not by much.

The ’60s and early ’70s saw failed attempts to usher the Israelites into the mainstream, spearheaded by (largely white) Jewish liberals who ultimately pushed for conversion instead of accepting the Israelites’ claims to the religion, and history of practice, at face value.

To many Israelites, then and now, the politics of conversion is a fraught topic, said Rabbi Baruch A. Yehudah, executive secretary of the Israelite board and second-generation Israelite. “I’m not going to allow you to tell me who I can be or can’t be. I was born like this. My knees have bowed to no other God. I’m not asking for anyone’s permission.”

Starting in the late ’70s, the second chief rabbi, Rabbi Levi Ben Levy, re-vamped both the Israelite rabbinical board and the rabbinical college. Independent of the Jewish world, Israelite groups blossomed across the country.

There are some groups who identify as Israelites but embrace a more separatist message. The board, however, recognizes all practitioners of Judaism, regardless of their “race, tradition, or terminology.”

Funnye studied at the Israelite rabbinical academy but also decided to enroll in Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership in Chicago. And, after consulting his Israelite rabbi, Funnye also went through a conversion in a Conservative rabbinical court.

“I know who I am,” said Funnye, recalling his thought process and decision to go through a conversion. “I just want you to be comfortable, too.”

Unlike some of his predecessors, Funnye said, he didn’t feel like the conversion took anything away from his being an Israelite. It would also open doors.

“I am an Israelite and a Jew,” Funnye said. “We’re not trying to emulate or pattern ourselves after any Jewish community. We are our own community.”

Today, a dozen U.S. congregations are associated with the board, where membership in each synagogue ranges from under 75 to hundreds.

Funnye’s vision is expansive. He looks to the Caribbean, South America and Africa. Already the board has ties with synagogues in Barbados, Uganda, Ghana, and over thirty in Nigeria. Funnye wants to build more, also reaching out to the Lemba Jews of South Africa.

New chief rabbi helps Israelites find their place

During his 30 years of leadership in Chicago, Funnye’s synagogue in Chicago emerged as one of the most popular Israelite congregations in the country. He was accepted on the Chicago Board of Rabbis (making him the first Israelite to sit on any city board) and is also board president at the city’s Jewish Council of Urban Affairs.

Rabbi Debra Newman Kamin, spiritual leader of Am Yisrael, a Conservative synagogue in Chicago, has watched Rabbi Funnye’s steady rise as a leader. Twenty five years ago, Rabbi Kamin says, his congregation was a “mystery to Chicago Jewry.” Now Rabbi Kamin regularly visits his synagogue with her congregants. “He has worked hard to be part of the Jewish community.”

Michael B. Oren, former Israeli ambassador to the U.S. and close friend of Funnye’s, flew in for the weekend. “You are part of the Jewish people,” said Oren, speaking to a crowd of Israelites. “You are a part of the nation state. And we are proud and delighted to have you.”

On a drizzling afternoon in Chicago, the board presented Funnye with a signed scroll, giving him his new authority as chief. The sun, struggling to break through all morning, finally did. The sanctuary was bathed in light.

Would the community embrace Funnye’s desire to work with wider Jewry? Could they leave past divisions behind? And would wider Jewry accept the Israelites? There was a group prayer on Funnye’s behalf. And, for a moment which seemed to stretch on, Funnye stood silently. Children crowded to the front, the crowd watched expectantly. The size of his mandate came to him, he explained later, and he prayed for guidance.

“I accepted the position because many of my elders and teachers have passed,” said Funnye. “Now, when I go anywhere, they will be with me. I will be speaking on behalf of them and their descendants.”

Sam Kestenbaum is a writer based in New York City. You can reach him on Twitter at @skestenbaum

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2015/10/30/with-new-chief-rabbi-black-hebrew-israelites-bid-to-enter-the-jewish-mainstream/