African Americans in Israel

African americans making aliyah to Israel

Ethnic group

African Americans in IsraelTotal population

25,000[1]
Regions with significant populations
Tel Aviv, Dimona, Jerusalem, Ein Shemer, Haifa, Ariel, Eilat, Ashkelon
Languages
English, Hebrew
Religion
Judaism, Black Israelism, Christianity.
Related ethnic groups
African Americans
Part of a series on

African Americans

History

|  Periods

* Timeline
* Atlantic slave trade
* Abolitionism in the United States
* Slavery in the colonial history of the US
* Revolutionary War
* Antebellum period
* Slavery and military history during the Civil War
* Reconstruction era
* Politicians
* Juneteenth
* Civil rights movement (1865–1896)
* Jim Crow era (1896–1954)
* Civil rights movement (1954–1968)
* Black power movement
* Post–civil rights era

Aspects

* Agriculture history
* Black Belt in the American South
* Business history
* Military history
* Treatment of the enslaved

Migrations

* Great Migration
* Second Great Migration
* New Great Migration

Culture

|  Lifeways

* Dance
* Family structure
* Film
* Folktales
* Music
* Musical theater
* Names
* Neighborhoods
* Newspapers
* Soul food

Schools

* Education during the slave period in the US
* Education of freed people during the Civil War
* History of African-American education, after the Civil War
* Historically black colleges and universities
* Fraternities

Academic study

* Studies
* Art
* Literature

Celebrations

* Martin Luther King Jr. Day
* Black History Month
* Juneteenth
* Kwanzaa

Economic class

* African-American businesses
* Middle class
* Upper class
* Billionaires

Symbols and ideas

* African-American beauty
* Black is beautiful
* Black pride
* African-American hair
* Good hair
* Stepping
* "Lift Every Voice and Sing"
* Self-determination

Religion

|  Institutions

* Black church

Theologies

* Black theology
* Womanist theology

Non-Christian groups

* Hoodoo
* Black Hebrew Israelites
* African-American Jews
* African-American Muslims
* Nation of Islam
* Louisiana Voodoo
* African Diaspora Religions

Politics

|  Organizations

* Congressional Black Caucus
* Joint Center
* National Black Caucus of State Legislators
* National Conference of Black Mayors

Ideologies

* Afrocentrism
* Anarchism
* Back-to-Africa movement
* Black power
* Capitalism
* Conservatism
* Garveyism
* Leftism
* Liberalism
* Nationalism
* Pan-Africanism
* Patriotism
* Populism
* Radicalism
* Socialism

Civic/economic groups

|  Organizations

* Association for the Study of African
American Life and History
* Black conductors
* NAACP
* National Black Chamber of Commerce
* National Council of Negro Women
* National Pan-Hellenic Council
* National Urban League
* TransAfrica
* UNCF

Sports

* Negro league baseball

Athletic associations and conferences

* Central (CIAA)
* HBCU (HBCUAC)
* Mid-Eastern (MEAC)
* Southern (SIAC)
* Southwestern (SWAC)

Sub-communities

|  Multiethnic

* African-American Jews
* Afro-Puerto Ricans
* Alabama Creole people
* Black Indians
* Black Seminoles
* Mascogos
* Blaxicans
* Brass Ankles
* Creoles of color
* Dominickers
* Freedmen
* Great Dismal Swamp maroons
* Louisiana Creoles
* Melungeon
* Carmel
* Redbone

Specific ancestries

* Americo-Liberians
* Creek Freedmen
* Gullah
* Merikins
* Nova Scotians
* Samaná Americans
* Sierra Leone Creole

Sexual orientation

* LGBT community

Dialects and languages

|  English dialects

* African-American English
* African-American Vernacular English
* Liberian English
* Samaná English
* Tutnese

Languages and other dialects

* Gullah
* Afro-Seminole Creole
* Negro Dutch
* Black American Sign Language

Population

|  US states

* Alabama
* Arkansas
* California
* Florida
* Georgia
* Illinois
* Indiana
* Iowa
* Kansas
* Louisiana
* Maryland
* Mississippi
* Nebraska
* New York
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US cities

* Black mecca
* List of neighborhoods
* Atlanta
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* Lexington
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* San Francisco

Historic places

* District of Columbia
* Florida
* Georgia
* Mississippi
* Missouri
* Omaha, Nebraska
* North Carolina
* South Carolina
* Texas
* West Virginia

Population count

* US states and territories
* US metropolitan areas
* US cities
* US communities
* Places by plurality of population

Diaspora

* Africa
* Canada
* France
* Ghana
* Israel
* Liberia
* Nova Scotia
* Sierra Leone

Prejudice

|  Racism

* Black genocide
* Race and ethnicity in the US census
* Racism against Black Americans
* Reparations for slavery
* School segregation in the US
* Unarmed African Americans killed by police officers

Stereotypes and media depictions

* Blackface
* Criminal stereotypes
* Hollywood
* Magical Negro
* Minstrel show

* United States portal
* Category
* Index

* v
* t
* e

African Americans in Israel number at least 25,000,[1] comprise several separate groups, including the groups of African American Jews who have emigrated from the United States to Israel making aliyah, non-Jewish African Americans who have immigrated to Israel for personal or business reasons, pro-athletes who formerly played in the major leagues in the United States before playing in Israel on local basketball and other sports teams, as well as foreign students studying in Israeli universities, businessmen, merchants, and guest workers, along with Israeli citizens of African American ancestry. African Americans have served in the Israel Defence Force,[2][3] and have largely been accepted and into Israeli society, and have represented Israel in numerous international forums such as the Olympic Games, and the Eurovision Song Contest. African American-Israelis have had a major cultural impact in Israel, particular in the arts and culture, music and sports.[4] In addition, there as a large community of Black Hebrew Israelites numbering at least 5,000 people, who originally immigrated to Israel from Chicago in the 1960s, and live mostly in the southern Israeli town of Dimona.[3]

## African American Israelis

[edit]

African American-Israeli basketball player Shawn Dawson, son of American-born Israeli Joe Dawson and his Yemenite Jewish wife African American-Israeli sprinter Donald Sanford represented Israel at the 2016 Olympics.

There are a large number of African American Israelis including the American-born Israeli basketball player Joe Dawson and his Israeli-born son Shawn Dawson who live in Eilat, and American-born Israeli Olympic athlete Donald Sanford who lives in Ein Shemer with his Ashkenazi-Israeli wife.[5]

## African American Jews

[edit]

There are a number of African American Jews who have made aliyah to Israel. All African American Jews are eligible for Israeli citizenship, like all other Jews, according to the Israeli law of return. They span the full range of denominations of Judaism including Reform, Conservative, Orthodox and various streams of Haredi Judaism. Notable African American Jews who moved to Israel include Nissim Black, Amar'e Stoudmire, Nikia Browne, From Kohav Nolad season 8 and others.[6]

## African American athletes in Israel

[edit]

Jamie Arnold, a retired African American-Israeli basketball player with dual citizenship who played for the Israeli national basketball team

A number of African American pro athletes have moved to Israel to play for local Israeli sports teams. The majority of these athletes are basketball players, and some have decided to stay in Israel permanently following their time in the Israeli national basketball league.[7]

## Black Hebrew Israelite community in Israel

[edit]

Main article: Black Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem

The African Hebrew Israelite Nation of Jerusalem (also known as the Black Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem, the Black Hebrew Israelites, or simply the Black Hebrews or Black Israelites) is a spiritual group of African Americans in Israel, now mainly based in Dimona, Israel, whose members believe they are descended from the Twelve Tribes of Israel. The community now numbers around 5,000.[8] They came from a group of African Americans, many from Chicago, Illinois, who migrated to Israel in the late 1960s.

The group was founded in Chicago by a former steel worker named Ben Carter (1939–2014, also known as Ben Ammi Ben-Israel). In his early twenties Carter was given the name Ben Ammi by Rabbi Reuben of the Chicago Congregation of Ethiopian Hebrews.[9] Ben Ammi was working in an airline factory when he first discovered the Black Hebrew movement and its philosophy.[10] According to Ben Ammi, in 1966, at the age of 27, he had a vision in which the Archangel Gabriel[11] called him to take his people, African Americans, back to the Holy Land of Israel.[12]

Initially, the African Hebrew Israelites asserted that they were the only rightful inheritors of the land of Israel.[13][14] They refused to convert to Judaism and asserted that most Israeli Jews were not descendants of the ancient Israelites.[15] By the late 1980s, the group tempered their beliefs. They came to see Israel as a nation of many cultures, races, and religions.[13]

## Notable African-American Israelis

[edit]

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|

African American-Israeli sprinter Donald Sanford representing Israel

* Jamie Arnold\- African American-Israeli basketball player who played for the member of the Israel men's national basketball team.
* Eddie Butler\- Israeli singer of African Hebrew Israelite origin, who later converted to Orthodox Judaism and was a member of the band Eden. Butler was the first person of African American descent to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest when he represented Israel twice at the 2000 and 2006 editions of the event.
* Joe Dawson\- African American -Israeli professional basketball player

Israeli basketball player Shawn Dawson

* Shawn Dawson\- Israeli basketball player of African American and Yemenite Jewish descent, son of Joe Dawson, and member of the Israel men's national basketball team.

D'or Fischer, an African American-Israeli professional basketball player with dual citizenship who has represented Israel on their national team

* D'or Fischer[16] (born October 12, 1981) is an American–Israeli professional basketball player for Elitzur Eito Ashkelon of the Israeli National League. He is originally from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania but has lived in Israel since the early 2000s and has been married to an Israeli woman since 2008. Fischer has also represented the senior Israeli national team. Standing at 2.11 m (6 ft 11 in), he plays at the power forward and center positions.
* Ahuva Gray\- African American-Israeli religious author and memoirist. She is a former Baptist minister from Chicago who converted to Orthodox Judaism and chronicled her changing beliefs in the book My Sister, the Jew, and has lived in Bayit VeGan, Jerusalem, Israel since the late 20th century.
* Aulcie Perry\- African American-Israeli professional basketball player who played for Maccabi Tel Aviv between 1976 and 1985, who converted to Judaism and became an Israeli citizen in 1978.
* Donald Sanford\- African American-Israeli Olympic sprinter originally from Inglewood, California, who represented Israel at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics and is married to Israeli basketball player Danielle Dekel-Sanford since 2008, and resides in Kibbutz Ein Shemer. Sanford won a gold medal in the Men's 400m at the 2013 Maccabiah Games, and was named the 2014 Israeli Sportsman on The Year after he became only the second-Israeli to win the bronze medal in the 400 metres sprint at the European Athletic Championships held in Zurich on August 15, 2014, with a new Israeli record of 45.27 seconds. He dedicated his medal to the Israel Defense Forces. He also represented Israel at the 2012 and 2016 Summer Olympic Games.

## See also

[edit]

* Israel portal
* United States portal
* Africa portal
* Judaism portal

* Americans in Israel
* Doms in Israel
* Ethiopian Jews in Israel
* Beta Israel
* African American Jews
* African American diaspora
* African American–Jewish relations

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b Cohen, Shaul. "African Americans in Israel (in Hebrew)": 138. `{{cite journal}}`: Cite journal requires `|journal=` (help)
2. ^ Mandela, Barack. "African American-Israeli Hero in the Israel Defense Forces". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 13 September 2021.
3. ^ a b Esensten, Andrew (2019). "Yah's Exemplary Soldiers: African Hebrew Israelites in the Israel Defense Forces". Religions. 10 (11): 614. doi:10.3390/rel10110614.
4. ^ Blackwell, Ben. "Hip Hop In The Holy Land - The 'Black Hebrew' Rap Star of Israel - Episode 3". Noisy by VICE on Youtube. Retrieved 13 September 2021.
5. ^ Levin, Mitchell .A (2015-06-09). "This Day ... In Jewish History". jewish1191.rssing.com. Retrieved 2022-05-18.
6. ^ Reich, Aaron (2021-07-05). "On this day: Law of Return passed to ensure citizenship for all Jews". The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com. Retrieved 2022-05-18.
7. ^ Clemente, Lisis (2020-05-30). "Holy Land Hoop Dreams: Why Americans love playing basketball in Israel". religionunplugged.com. Retrieved 2022-05-18.
8. ^ Remennick, Larissa; Prashizky, Anna (2012). "Russian Israelis and Religion: What Has Changed after Twenty Years in Israel?". Israel Studies Review. 27 (1): 55–77\. doi:10.3167/isr.2012.270104. ISSN 2159-0370. JSTOR 41804786.
9. ^ Eugene V. Gallagher; W. Michael Ashcraft (1 October 2006). Introduction to New and Alternative Religions in America [Five Volumes]. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 4\. ISBN 978-0-313-05078-7. Retrieved 10 January 2013.
10. ^ Finley, Stephen C.; Alexander, Torin (2009). African American Religious Cultures. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 9781576074701.
11. ^ Margaret Puskar-Pasewicz (16 September 2010). Cultural Encyclopedia of Vegetarianism. ABC-CLIO. p. 13\. ISBN 978-0-313-37556-9. Retrieved 10 January 2013.
12. ^ Anthony B. Pinn; Stephen C. Finley; Torin Alexander (10 September 2009). African American Religious Cultures. ABC-CLIO. p. 112\. ISBN 978-1-57607-470-1. Retrieved 10 January 2013.
13. ^ a b Markowitz, Fran (1996). "Israel as Africa, Africa as Israel: "Divine Geography" in the Personal Narratives and Community Identity of the Black Hebrew Israelites". Anthropological Quarterly. 69 (4): 193–205\. doi:10.2307/3317528. JSTOR 3317528.
14. ^ "Law of Return". www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org. Retrieved 2018-11-10.
15. ^ Weisbord, Robert (1985). Israel in the Black American Perspective. London: Greenwood Press. pp. 66–67.
16. ^ Dor Anthony Naheem FISCHER (ISR).

* v
* t
* e

Demographics of Israel

Israelis by religion|

* Judaism
* Rabbinic
* Conservative
* Reform
* Karaite
* Haymanot
* Islam
* Sunni
* Shia
* Ahmadiyya
* Christianity
* Eastern Orthodox
* Catholic
* Protestant
* Druzism1
* Samaritanism
* Bahai
* Hinduism
* Buddhism

Jews|

* Ashkenazim
* Romanian
* Russian
* Mizrahim
* Bukharan
* Iraqi
* Iranian
* Kurdish
* Moroccan
* Mountain Jews
* Yemenite
* Sephardim
* Bulgarian
* Moroccan
* Turkish
* Karaites
* Romaniotes
* Italkim
* Gruzinim
* Indian
* Cochin
* Bene Israel
* Bnei Menashe
* Bene Ephraim
* Ethiopian
* Beta Israel
* Falash Mura

Arabs|

* Arab Muslims
* Madani and Fellahin
* Bedouin
* Galilee
* Negev
* Arab Christians
* Druze1
* Lebanese

Other Semitic|

* Assyrians
* Samaritans
* Arameans2
* Maronites
* Lebanese

Other non-Semitic groups|

* African Americans
* Armenians
* Dutch
* Indians
* Russians
* Subbotniks
* Circassians
* Bosniaks
* Vietnamese

Foreign nationals|

* African-American Hebrews
* Argentines
* Chileans
* Chinese
* Filipinos
* Greeks
* Turks
* Kurds
* Mexicans
* Palestinians
* Doms (Gypsy)
* Sudanese

* 1 Druze have a status aparte from Muslim Arabs in Israel, since 1957.
* 2 Arameans have a status aparte from Christian Arabs in Israel, since 2014.

* v
* t
* e

African Americans

History|

* Timeline
* Abolitionism
* African American founding fathers
* Afrocentrism
* American Civil War
* Atlantic slave trade
* Black Codes
* Black cowboys
* Black genocide
* Black Lives Matter
* Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
* Children of the plantation
* Civil Rights Acts
* 1964
* Voting Rights Act of 1965
* 1968
* Civil rights movement 1865–1896
* Civil right movement 1896–1954
* Civil rights movement 1954–1968
* Montgomery bus boycott
* Browder v. Gayle (1956)
* Sit-in movement
* Freedom Riders
* Birmingham movement
* March on Washington
* Freedom Summer
* Selma to Montgomery marches
* Chicago Freedom Movement
* Post–civil rights era
* Cornerstone Speech
* COVID-19 impact
* Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857)
* Free Negro
* Free people of color
* George Floyd protests
* Great Migration
* Second
* New
* Exodusters
* Inauguration of Barack Obama 2009 / Inauguration of Barack Obama 2013
* Jim Crow laws
* Lynching
* Military history
* Million Man March
* Nadir of American race relations
* The Negro Motorist Green Book
* Partus sequitur ventrem
* Plantations
* Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
* Reconstruction Amendments
* Reconstruction era
* Redlining
* Separate but equal
* Silent Parade
* Slavery
* Treatment of slaves
* Tulsa race massacre
* Underground Railroad
* Women's suffrage movement

Culture|

* Afrofuturism
* Art
* Black mecca
* Businesses
* Dance
* Family structure
* Film
* Folktales
* Hair
* Harlem Renaissance
* New Negro
* Hoodoo
* Juneteenth
* Kwanzaa
* LGBTQ community
* Literature
* Music
* Musical theater
* Names
* Negro National Anthem
* Neighborhoods
* Newspapers
* Soul food
* Stereotypes
* Middle class
* Upper class

Notable people|

* Ralph Abernathy
* Maya Angelou
* Crispus Attucks
* James Baldwin
* James Bevel
* Julian Bond
* Amelia Boynton
* James Bradley
* Carol Moseley Braun
* Edward Brooke
* Blanche Bruce
* Ralph Bunche
* George Washington Carver
* Shirley Chisholm
* Claudette Colvin
* Frederick Douglass
* W. E. B. Du Bois
* Medgar Evers
* James Farmer
* Henry Highland Garnet
* Marcus Garvey
* Fred Gray
* Prathia Hall
* Fannie Lou Hamer
* Kamala Harris
* Jimi Hendrix
* Jesse Jackson
* Ketanji Brown Jackson
* Michael Jackson
* Harriet Jacobs
* Barbara Jordan
* Coretta Scott King
* Martin Luther King Jr.
* Bernard Lafayette
* James Lawson
* Huddie Ledbetter
* John Lewis
* Joseph Lowery
* Malcolm X
* Thurgood Marshall
* Toni Morrison
* Bob Moses
* Diane Nash
* Barack Obama
* Michelle Obama
* Rosa Parks
* Adam Clayton Powell Jr.
* Colin Powell
* Gabriel Prosser
* Joseph Rainey
* A. Philip Randolph
* Hiram Revels
* Paul Robeson
* Al Sharpton
* Fred Shuttlesworth
* Clarence Thomas
* Emmett Till
* Sojourner Truth
* Harriet Tubman
* Nat Turner
* Denmark Vesey
* C. T. Vivian
* David Walker
* Booker T. Washington
* Ida B. Wells
* Roy Wilkins
* Oprah Winfrey
* Andrew Young
* Whitney Young

Education, science
and technology|

* Black studies
* Black schools
* Historically black colleges and universities
* Inventors and scientists
* Museums
* Women
* in computer science
* in medicine
* in STEM fields

Religion|

* African-American Jews
* Islam
* American Society of Muslims
* Nation of Islam
* Black church
* Azusa Street Revival
* Black Hebrew Israelites
* Black theology
* Doctrine of Father Divine

Political movements|

* Anarchism
* Back-to-Africa movement
* Black power
* Movement
* Capitalism
* Conservatism
* Leftism
* Pan-Africanism
* Populism
* Raised fist
* Self-determination
* Nationalism
* Socialism

Civic and economic
groups

* Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH)
* Black Panther Party
* Committee to Eliminate Media Offensive to African People (CEMOTAP)
* Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)
* National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
* Nashville Student Movement
* National Black Chamber of Commerce (NBCC)
* National Council of Negro Women (NCNW)
* National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC)
* National Urban League (NUL)
* Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)
* Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
* Thurgood Marshall College Fund
* United Negro College Fund (UNCF)
* Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA-ACL)

Sports|

* Negro league baseball
* Baseball color line
* Black players in professional American football
* Black NFL quarterbacks
* Black players in ice hockey
* Muhammad Ali
* Arthur Ashe
* Jack Johnson
* Joe Louis
* Jesse Owens
* Jackie Robinson
* Serena Williams

Athletic associations
and conferences

* Central (CIAA)
* Mid-Eastern (MEAC)
* Southern (SIAC)
* Southwestern (SWAC)

Ethnic subdivisions|

* By African descent
* Fula
* Gullah
* Igbo
* Yoruba
* Alabama Creole
* Black Indians
* Black Seminoles
* Cherokee Freedmen
* Choctaw Freedmen
* Creek Freedmen
* Black Southerners
* Blaxicans
* Great Dismal Swamp maroons
* Louisiana Creole
* of color
* Melungeon

Demographics|

* Neighborhoods
* list
* U.S. cities with large populations
* 2000 majorities
* 2010 majorities
* Metropolitan areas
* States and territories

Languages|

* Afro-Seminole Creole
* American Sign
* Black American Sign
* English
* American English
* African-American English
* African-American Vernacular English
* social context
* Gullah
* Louisiana Creole

By state/city|

* Alabama
* Arkansas
* California
* Los Angeles
* San Francisco
* Florida
* Jacksonville
* Tallahassee
* Georgia
* Atlanta
* Hawaii
* Illinois
* Chicago
* Indiana
* Iowa
* Davenport
* Kansas
* Kentucky
* Lexington
* Louisiana
* Maryland
* Baltimore
* Massachusetts
* Boston
* Michigan
* Detroit
* Mississippi
* Nebraska
* Omaha
* New Jersey
* New York
* New York City
* North Carolina
* Ohio
* Cleveland
* Oklahoma
* Oregon
* Pennsylvania
* Philadelphia
* Puerto Rico
* South Carolina
* South Dakota
* Tennessee
* Texas
* Austin
* Dallas–Fort Worth
* Houston
* San Antonio
* Utah
* Virginia
* West Virginia

Diaspora|

* Africa
* Gambia
* Ghana
* Liberia
* Sierra Leone
* America
* Canada
* Dominican Republic
* Haiti
* Mexico
* Trinidad and Tobago
* Israel
* Europe
* France

Lists|

* African Americans
* Activists
* Actors
* Astronauts
* Billionaires
* Journalists
* Jurists
* Mathematicians
* Republicans
* Singers
* Sportspeople
* Spingarn Medal winners
* US cabinet members
* US representatives
* US senators
* Visual artists
* Writers
* African-American firsts
* Mayors
* Sports firsts
* US state firsts
* Historic places
* Index of related articles
* Landmark African-American legislation
* Lynching victims
* Monuments
* Neighborhoods
* Topics related to the African diaspora

* Category
* United States portal

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