So many questions popped up in my mind that I didn't even bother to mention them in the class. It would have taken all day to answer them to my satisfaction, let alone an hour and a half.
So starting from the top. What have I researched so far has answered some of my questions and left me with even more unanswered ones. First website that caught my eye as I searched for some enlightenment was http://www.blackjews.org/Essays/WhoAreWe.html. It is the story of Rabbi Sholomo Levy, a black jew who shows us what it was like for him growing up as a black jew. He starts off with an interesting point of view, showing the following ad.
It's an advertisement for Jewish Rye, demonstrating a black child savoring the bread to get the point across that you don't have to be Jew to enjoy their food. Does this mean that our communities automatically assume that a black person can't be a Jew, maybe even opposite of Jew?Ads such as this one made Rabbi Sholomo Levy feel like what he describes is an "invisible Jew." Specially since his name happened to be Levy just like the brand of the product.
It's hard to determine the amount of black Jews in America since their are different types of Jews who have different denominations for what is a Jew. For example, Orthodox Jewish Law called "Halackah", believes that one can only be considered Jew if he/she is born to a Jewish mother. In my opinion, this not only makes the number of black Jews difficult to count but also all other Jews.
After some small amount of research. I believe that it is necessary for people to recognize Judaism as more of a culture and religion than a race. I think that in order to learn more about the black Jewish community I must personally speak with a black Jew. I'm inspired now to interview a black Rabbi for my interviewing project.
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