African American Jews

Several years ago, we had a black rabbi visit my temple. He came to discuss race and religion within Judaism. His name escapes me at the moment. Anyway, he said that he was raised in a Catholic home where he was told to not read the Bible and to listen to the pastor. When he went to college, he decided to read the Bible and he discovered that "there were a lot of Jews in the Bible". Apparently, his pastor never mentioned that. Eventually, this African American man started studying Judaism and converted after college. A few years later, he married an African American woman who was willing to convert to Judaism. He described the obstacles facing a man who is African American and Jewish. For one, "he is a KKK's worst nightmare" and additionally, his children were accepting of two powerful ethnic groups. He went on to describe their temple at home. The demographics of this temple is mostly white. He said that he is sometimes worried that the white children in the temple will feel weird about being in class with African American Jews but that wasn't the case.

African American Jews are starting to become a larger part of the Jewish community. Additionally, it helps to have an African American president with a wife who has a cousin who is a rabbi. (Sorry if this post is odd, but I'm tired and not exactly sure what to say)