By Trymaine Lee, New York Times
In yeshivas, they are sometimes taunted as “monkeys” or with the Yiddish epithet for blacks. At synagogues and kosher restaurants, they engender blank stares.
And dating can be awkward: their numbers are so small, friends will often share at least some romantic history with the same man or woman, and matchmakers always pair them with people with whom they have little in common beyond skin color.
They are African-Americans and Orthodox Jews, a rare cross-cultural hybrid that seems quintessentially Brooklyn, but received little notice until last week, after Yoseph Robinson, a Jamaican-born convert, was killed during a robbery attempt at the kosher liquor store where he worked.
At his funeral and in interviews afterward, a portrait emerged of a small, insular but energized community that is proud but underpinned by a constant tug of race and religiosity.
In Crown Heights, one of the city’s hubs of Orthodox Jewish life, blacks and Jews have long lived side by side and have occasionally clashed. In 1991, riots broke out after a car in a motorcade carrying a Hasidic leader veered onto the sidewalk, killing one black child and badly injuring another.
Nobody keeps track of how many black Orthodox Jews are in New York or across the nation, and surely it is a tiny fraction of both populations. Indeed, even the number of black Jews over all is elusive, though a 2005 book about Jewish diversity, “In Every Tongue,” cited studies suggesting that some 435,000 American Jews, or 7 percent, were black, Hispanic, Asian or American Indian.
Through the Internet, younger black Orthodox Jews are coming together in ways they never could before.
In Crown Heights, a group has struggled to form a minyan, though Mr. Robinson’s death leaves them one short. On the first Wednesday of each month, about 15 to 20 called “Jews of color” (not all of them Orthodox) meet to trade their experiences and insights.
“They are strengthening their blackness through Judaism,” said Asher Rison, 62, a black Jew who lives in the Mill Basin section of Brooklyn, said of the younger generation. “They don’t have a place of their own, so they are trying to carve out their own niche.”
i was in the park and a little african american girl needed help filling up a water balloon so i helped her and asked what her name was she told me and then left and this jewish girl comes over to me and says : why were you talking to that shvartze?! i told her cause she needed help and she’s like so what?! she isnt jewish!
A little less words and a lot more honest soul searching……
The only monkey here is the liberal monkey brain inside the authors tiny skull. The author has probably never stepped foot in a yeshivah and is quite frankly full of crap!!
Instead of making unsubstantiated statements as to whether these yidden were or were not subject to any derogatory labels, would it not be wiser to ask THEM whether it occured (which is what I believe is the case) and then find ways to correct the situation and/or mindset of those individuals who spew such drivel.
Face it. this charge of “In yeshivas, they are sometimes taunted as “monkeys” ” is utterly false generalization. I have never in my life heard any frum yid refer to a black ger in that manner. And I don’t live in a little box. But, heck, the writer of the article, probably a brainless liberal, needs parnassah to pay for his hybrid clonker, so he does what he is trained to do, sensationalize, and fabricate “truth.
I know a geiress from Puerto Rico — absolutely and completely committed to her Judaism, of course!.
She deals with not only people not believing she’s a Jew, but also with people who think she’s an illegal alien!
(There are actually still people who don’t know that Puerto Rico is part of the US — meaning that that those who are born there are US CITIZENS, just like those born in Brooklyn, California, Nebraska, etc.!!!)
You sound like someone who is not so knowledgeable about living a fully Jewish life, where you’re truly immersed — body and soul — in acknowledging Hashem in all things, physical and spiritual. What a pity that you only seem to look at Judaism as an “ethnicity”.
Wake up — as I’ve taught our children, Jews come in all colors!
To periodically get together with friends going through like experiences is not “self-segregating,” even if it includes davening together while mourning the loss of a friend !!!
Is a support group “self-segregating”? Of course not!
Please don’t be a blockhead, so quick to look for trouble where it does not exist!
first and formost the rebbe never held by this the rebbe loved all jews from all around the world . no matter what they look liked . and the only thing that a jew should be worried about is how to live like a jew and keep its laws that we were given by moshe rabeinu at har sinai. everything esle is a shtus .people like to seperate themselves from poor people if there rich have yichus dont have yichus from china not from china wake up yiden racisim is a goyisha zach from american goyim and some yidden use… Read more »
I have been living in Jewish communities my whole life and never once heard a racist comment about black Jews.
They are excluding themselves because the white Jewish community exclude them, people like # 3,
you definetly CAN be of darker colour skin AND be a Jew.. My grandchildren are Jews through their Mother, (my daughter), and have darker colour skin from their Father.. racism in the Jewish community … absolutly and unfortunetly.. Hashemi wouldn’t approve or would The Rebbi.. shame on all who are racist..goyim IS an offensive title to all non Jews.. and parents that use that word have their children use it also and many fights and worse have come from it… look into yourselves and see what you’re doing to youselves and your children.. STOP the racism now so your children… Read more »
Obviously Y LOVE AND MR RISON ARE more interested in THEIR OWN SKIN. IF THEY CANT GET BEYOND IT HOW CAN THOSE AROUND THEM GET OVER IT?
GROW UP!
WHOEVER YOU ARE.
ITS ALL ABOUT BEING PROUD ABOUT YOURSELF. HAVING A HEALTHY SELF ESTEEM.
THE JEWISH WORLD IS ALREADY USED TO ALL SORTS OF JEWS EXCEPT THOSE WHO ARE UNCOMFORTABLE WITH THEMSELVES – PERIOD
IF A MEXICAN JEW WOULD WALK AROUND ALL DAY WITH BEADS AND A HOT TAMALE PEOPLE WOULD GIVE HIM THE EYE TOO.
ARTICLES LIKE THESE JUST MAKE ALL THE GOOD PEOPLE SICK!
maybe it’s just me but I have no clue what you’re saying….
so, you can’t be american and Jewish???
C’mon! Everyone knows there’s racism in the Jewish community both against non-Jews and Jews of color. Being honest about our faults is one step towards remedying the problem.
The plan to make any convert feel part of the Jewish people was already introduced by Hashem in the Torah several times, Vaahavtem es haGer etc.
There is a Jewish family living in CH who happen to have black skin, and as far as I can tell they are well integrated.
It might have to do with their positive attitude.
So David, please come to 770 and we’ll make you feel welcome.
Why do you have a problem with black Jewish culture? Do you have a problem with Litvish Jewish culture? Moroccan Jewish culture? Chassidic Jewish culture? Modern Orthodox Jewish culture? Yemenite Jewish culture?
This article is definitely over sensationalized. I have never heard any one of my friends refer to black Jews derogatively, although I do sense a latent racism in comments 3 and 4.
I have been living in Crown Heights for about 10 years and NEVER heard anybody or of anybody speaking to or about black Jews like the reporter mentions in his first paragraph.
Sensationalism is not honesty.
Hershel Moss
It is not the color of skin, but community attitudes and apathy which causes racism against the black community. Even in the recent tragedy of the convert to orthodox judaism, it was black on black crime, as the assailant was african american.
@#6 The difference is, you are describing a color, culture and ethnicicity otherwise they would be called American Jews. again how do you live successfully on both sides of the fence. Why does it have to be black and?…why not Jew, only? and what exactly does it mean to be black and Jewish? to segregate? to proclaim victimhood?
there are sephardi jews, ashkenazi jews, yemenite jews, black jews and they all have their distinct culture. But theyre all jewish just the same.
i don’t get the issue. I doubt any of the commenters here who are saying its a contradiction know what it means to be black and Jewish, so why be so quick to judge?
While I do not agree with the whole concept of Jews of Color shuls and dating networks ect. We can not ignore this issue, there is clear racism in our community, not just against black goyim but the black yidden. Yes number 1 you may not treat Blacks that way but it doesn’t mean other don’t. There is no question Black Yidden feel as though they are not part of the community. I say all the leaders of the Frum world from Chabad to YU need to come together and come up with a plan to make Black Yidden feel… Read more »
Why would you ask to become Jewish and then want to self segregate yourself based upon the color of your skin. If you are uncomfortable being a part of the whole of Judiasm because of the color of skin perhaps a reevaluation of who you really are is in order. Judiasm is being used like a church where people join for religious reasons and continue to live in your distinguished cultures.
You can not be black and Jewish at the same time, nothing to do with color, skin tones do not make you either of them, however if you identify as Black that in itself is a culture Judiasm is a religion that also has it’s on unique culture that needs no tweeking,to attempt to mix them (the cultures) is wrong,they both have very rich culture’s, I do not understand why anyone would join any group and then only want to accept what they want or attempt to change or create something that it is not meant to be.
I’ve never never never, and neither has my husband or his family called yidden that. I don’t let my kids call goyim that. How offensive. These articles always over dramatize things.