In Judith Weisenfeld’s first chapter was the first time that black Jewish people had been discussed. Some parts of the chapter were a little hard to wrap my head around like how Rabbi E. J. Benson called black Jews Hebrews and white Jews ‘Jews.’ But white Jews were called ‘Jews’ because they were Jews of European descent. I kind of understand that and the need to separate themselves from white Jews. And it was not strange to me that the black Jews did not want to be called ‘Negroes.’ Benson told his congregation to call themselves ‘Ethiopian Hebrews’ and not ‘Negroes’ as that was an insult. There was a lot of background information, such as black Jews being descendant of Abraham because he had smooth skins while the white Jews were descendants of Esau because they had hairy skin. This confuses me because I guess that I am unaware of these “stereotypes.” I just don’t understand how they could come up with that conclusion. What exactly specifies as being hairy?

Rabbi Matthew is a man very dedicated to his orthodox Hebrew lifestyle and very harsh towards Christianity. But Rabbi Matthew may have had something going on. He saw Christianity as a way to give into the white man’s ploy. He wasn’t wrong. He also knew the origins of  Judaism stemmed from Africa, specifically Ethiopia. But creating a curriculum with the intention of converting most of the African American population is ambitious. Rabbi Matthew saw African Americans as the chosen people of God and thought he could save them. He was able to encourage eight thousand people to join his cause as he did make some convincing points in conversation and in his curriculum but I feel like he’s being a little contradictory as he trying to convert everyone to look into his ideology.

Here is a crash course on Rabbi Matthew ans his legacy

(Link located in Legacy)

I think that a lot of generalizations are made about African-American religions, and I will admit that I fell into such a category before taking this class. African-American religion is not just Christianity, and it’s not just Protestant denominations like the Baptists or Methodists. As we’ve studied and will continue to discover, African-American religious thought is so much more than that — it’s Catholicism, indigenous African traditions, Christian denominations like COGIC, it’s Islam, Nation of Islam, and Santeria and Vodun; it’s rural, it’s urban, and it can’t clearly fit into societal lines.

In Weisenfeld’s two chapters, she had two related, but separate theses. In the first she discussed Arnold Ford and the Ethiopian Hebrews, Noble Drew Ali and the Moorish Science Temple, and Arthur Matthew and the Commandment Keepers. In the second, she explained the origins and evolution of the Nation of Islam under WD Fard and Elijah Muhammad, as well as Father Divine and the Peace Mission.

Her thesis for the first chapter was that regardless of how far from the “norm” these religious traditions were, like many African-American Christians of the time, they connected their religious heritage to Africa. The two groups even were in dialogue together — they “participated in a shared discourse with many black Christians that linked racial identity and spiritual destiny to their homeland [Africa].” The roots of Africa grounded believers with a deep significance put place especially, a sacred geography. This connection to Africa served as a foundation for the identity they formed for themselves as believers and as black people in the United States.

While the second chapter also emphasized connections to Africa, WD Fard and Elijah Muhammad did not create such relationships with the Christians around them. They went so far as to say the Bible was a “poisoned book.” However, they still used the ideas of Africa and heritage to forge identities for their followers. They did reject ideas of “American,” in favor of “Asiatic.” Their emphasis was on black people’s being a nation, “which has no beginning or end.” Father Divine also had ideas that would have not agreed with mainstream Christian thought, since he saw himself as the embodied manifestation of God.  The traditions in this chapter seemed to go beyond just America, and even beyond Africa, and had believers see themselves in a different time and place, and the place of the divine and the individual within human history.

The second chapter closed with the idea that “the power of the narratives to draw blacks in the urban north into new identities that did not rely on slavery as the experience that created black peoplehood.” Blacks became the “religious agents,” rather than the “objects of missions.” I think that sentiment is powerful, in that we’re beginning to see the development of religious thought and identity on a group’s own terms, rather than them trying to fit within an already pre-determined mold.