African Americans in Israel number at least 25,000,[1] comprise several separate groups, including the groups ofAfrican American Jews who have emigrated from theUnited States toIsrael makingaliyah, 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 othersports teams, as well asforeign students studying inIsraeli universities, businessmen, merchants, andguest workers, along withIsraeli citizens ofAfrican American ancestry. African Americans have served in theIsrael Defence Forces,[2][3] and have largely been accepted intoIsraeli society, and have represented Israel in numerous international forums such as theOlympic Games, and theEurovision 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 ofBlack Hebrew Israelites numbering at least 5,000 people, who originally immigrated to Israel fromChicago in the 1960s, and live mostly in the southern Israeli town ofDimona.[3]
African American-Israeli basketball player Shawn Dawson, son of American-born IsraeliJoe Dawson and hisYemenite Jewish wifeAfrican American-Israeli sprinter Donald Sanford representedIsrael at the 2016 Olympics.
There are a large number of African American Israelis including the American-born Israeli basketball playerJoe Dawson and his Israeli-born sonShawn Dawson who live inEilat, and American-born Israeli Olympic athleteDonald Sanford who lives inEin Shemer with hisAshkenazi-Israeli wife.[5]
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]
TheAfrican Hebrew Israelite Nation of Jerusalem (also known as theBlack Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem, theBlack Hebrew Israelites, or simply theBlack HebrewsorBlack Israelites) is a spiritual group of African Americans in Israel, now mainly based inDimona, Israel, whose membersbelieve they are descended from theTwelve Tribes of Israel. The community now numbers around 5,000.[8] They came from a group ofAfrican Americans, many fromChicago, Illinois, who migrated to Israel in the late 1960s.
The group was founded in Chicago by a former steel worker namedBen 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 theBlack Hebrew movement and its philosophy.[10] According to Ben Ammi, in 1966, at the age of 27, he had avision in which the ArchangelGabriel[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]
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.
Donald Sanford- African American-Israeli Olympicsprinter originally fromInglewood, California, who represented Israel at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics and is married to Israeli basketball player Danielle Dekel-Sanford since 2008, and resides inKibbutzEin Shemer. Sanford won a gold medal in the Men's 400m at the2013 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 the2012 and2016 Summer Olympic Games.
^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.ISSN2159-0370.JSTOR41804786.
^abMarkowitz, 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.JSTOR3317528.
^"Law of Return".www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org. Retrieved2018-11-10.
^Weisbord, Robert (1985).Israel in the Black American Perspective. London: Greenwood Press. pp. 66–67.
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