Israelite School of Universal Practical Knowledge (ISUPK) is an Americannon-profit organization andblack supremacist,[1][2][3]extremist religious sect[4] based inUpper Darby,Pennsylvania.
The group is part of theBlack Hebrew Israelite movement,[1][2][3][4] which regards black people as descendants of theTwelve Tribes of Israel.[3][4] TheSouthern Poverty Law Center has designated the ISUPK ahate group, citing its extremist ideology and black supremacist rhetoric.[1][2][3]
The group is a part of theOne West Camp movement, an offshoot of theIsraelite Church of God in Jesus Christ,[3] and uses a variation on the former name of that group.[3] Alongside numerous other sects and organizations within the Black Hebrew Israelite movement,[4] ISUPK expoundsextremist, black supremacist,religious anti-Semitic, andanti-white racist beliefs,[4] as well ashomophobic,transphobic, andsexist beliefs.[4]
In 2022,The Real Black Sabbath was released. It is adocumentary by British journalist Harry Robinson covering the beliefs and practices of the ISUPK, focusing on theOklahoma branch of the school.[5] The film won the award for 'Most Inspirational Film' at the 2022 Oregon Documentary Film Festival[6] and 'Best Oklahoma Film' at the 2022 Southwest Center Film Festival.[7]
In 2023, media reported that a woman ofPalestinian descent was arrested inIndianapolis aftercrashing her car into a building affiliated with ISUPK, having mistaken it for a school officially linked to theState of Israel. The ISUPK is actually opposed to the state of Israel.[8]
ISUPK hasdemonstrated many times at the corner of Seventh andH Streets inWashington, D.C., since 2004,[9] but residents complain that the group amplifies its open-air preaching to more than 90decibels and that its message is offensive.[10] Some homeowners say that the group accuseswhite andgay people of destroying historically black neighborhoods, and at least one resident has complained of being called a "cracker, a slave owner, [and] a white devil," but they reiterate that the volume of the group's message, rather than the message's content, is the real problem.[11]
The ISUPK's volume and the volume of other groups prompted Washington's municipal government to consider passing an ordinance in order to "resolve the issue."[12] The measure would have limited the volume of daytime noncommercial speech to 70 decibels, but it died because of free-speech concerns.[13] ISUPK's regional director, General Yahanna, defended the group, saying that residents' real issue was not sound, but the content of the group's message.[12] The group identifies its message as saving local residents' souls and discouraging people from drugs and crime; it regards its separatist teachings as the real objection which residents have.[11]