Download or read book The Jews of Africa Lost Tribes Found Communities Emerging Faiths written by Jono David and published by . This book was released on 2021-03-13 with total page 429 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: THE JEWS OF AFRICA: LOST TRIBES, FOUND COMMUNITIES, EMERGING FAITHS is a veritable journey into the Jewish communities across the length and breadth of the continent. The eBook features 230 visually stunning and thematically intriguing images by photographer Jono David. THE JEWS OF AFRICA explores, examines, and delineates the Jewish history of Africa in 14 essays contributed by some of the biggest Jewish Africa scholars, rabbis, and esteemed members of African society. The contributors are: historian Dr. Tudor Parfitt / researcher Dr. Shalva Weil / director of the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre Tali Nates / Head Emissary of the Lubavitch Rebbe for Central Africa Rabbi Shlomo Bentolila / anthropologist Dr. Edith Bruder / the last Jewish resident of Asmara, Eritrea Dr. Samuel Cohen / researcher Dr. Vanessa Paloma Elbaz / Honorary Life President and religious leader of the Windhoek Hebrew Congregation Zvi Gorelick / professor Dr. Magdel Le Roux / chief curator of the Museum of Moroccan Judaism Zhor Rehihil / CEO & Spiritual Leader of the African Jewish Congress Rabbi Moshe Silberhaft / researcher and historian Dr. Remy Ilona / Chief Rabbi of Uganda and member of parliament Rabbi Gershom Sizomu / assistant to the chief rabbi of Tunisia Moché Uzan / with art by expert printmaker Pauline Jakobsberg.=In August 2012, independent photographer, Jono David, set out on an audacious Jewish African journey. His aim was to document the life, culture, and history of the Jewish people from one end of the continent to the other. Over the next 4 years, he would take 8 unique trips totaling some 60 weeks of travel to 30 countries and territories. His adventures led him from the continent's largest communities strewn across Southern Africa to ancient yet vibrant communities in Morocco and Tunisia to emerging Jewish groups in unexpected places like Uganda, Gabon, Cameroon, Ghana, and Madagascar. It is the largest Jewish Africa photographic survey of its kind.=In words and images, THE JEWS OF AFRICA brings the entire journey to life and aims to answer one central question: Who are the Jews of Africa? The answer is as complex and rich as the communities themselves particularly as the phenomenon of the emergence of Jewish communities is gaining rapid and wide traction, notably in West and Central Africa.=*** Purchasers of THE JEWS OF AFRICA will have exclusive access to 4 online bonus galleries featuring some 300+ photographs and numerous anecdotes not featured in the eBook. The photographs are also available to purchasers at a special reduced rate. ***

Download or read book The Black Jews of Africa written by Edith Bruder and published by . This book was released on 2008-06-05 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The last several decades have seen the emergence of a remarkable phenomenon: a Jewish "rebirth" that is occurring throughout Africa. A variety of different ethnic groups proclaim that they are returning to long-forgotten Jewish roots, and African clans trace their lineage to the Lost Tribes of Israel. Africans have encountered Jewish myths and traditions in multiple forms and various ways. The context and circumstances of these encounters have gradually led, within some African societies, to the elaboration of a new Jewish identity connected with that of the Diaspora. This book presents, one by one, the different groups of Black Jews in western, central, eastern, and southern Africa and the ways in which they have used and imagined their oral history and traditional customs to construct a distinct Jewish identity. It explores the ways in which Africans have interacted with the ancient mythological sub-strata of both western and African ideas of Judaism. It particularly seeks to identify and to assess colonial influences and their internalization by African societies in the shaping of new African religious identities. The book also examines how, in the absence of recorded African history, the eminently malleable accounts of Jewish lineage developed by African groups co-exist with the possible historical traces of a Jewish presence in Africa. This elegant and well-researched book goes beyond the well-known case of the Falasha of Ethiopia, examining the trend towards Judaism in Africa at large, and exploring, too, the interdisciplinary concepts of "metaphorical Diaspora," global and transnational identities, and colonization.

Download or read book Black Jews in Africa and the Americas written by Tudor Parfitt and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2013-02-04 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Black Jews in Africa and the Americas tells the fascinating story of how the Ashanti, Tutsi, Igbo, Zulu, Beta Israel, Maasai, and many other African peoples came to think of themselves as descendants of the ancient tribes of Israel. Pursuing medieval and modern European race narratives over a millennium in which not only were Jews cast as black but black Africans were cast as Jews, Tudor Parfitt reveals a complex history of the interaction between religious and racial labels and their political uses. For centuries, colonialists, travelers, and missionaries, in an attempt to explain and understand the strange people they encountered on the colonial frontier, labeled an astonishing array of African tribes, languages, and cultures as Hebrew, Jewish, or Israelite. Africans themselves came to adopt these identities as their own, invoking their shared histories of oppression, imagined blood-lines, and common traditional practices as proof of a racial relationship to Jews. Beginning in the post-slavery era, contacts between black Jews in America and their counterparts in Africa created powerful and ever-growing networks of black Jews who struggled against racism and colonialism. A community whose claims are denied by many, black Jews have developed a strong sense of who they are as a unique people. In Parfitt’s telling, forces of prejudice and the desire for new racial, redemptive identities converge, illuminating Jewish and black history alike in novel and unexplored ways.

Download or read book The Soul of Judaism written by Bruce D Haynes and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2018-08-14 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A glimpse into the diverse stories of Black Jews in the United States What makes a Jew? This book traces the history of Jews of African descent in America and the counter-narratives they have put forward as they stake their claims to Jewishness. The Soul of Judaism offers the first exploration of the full diversity of Black Jews, including bi-racial Jews of both matrilineal and patrilineal descent; adoptees; black converts to Judaism; and Black Hebrews and Israelites, who trace their Jewish roots to Africa and challenge the dominant western paradigm of Jews as white and of European descent. Blending historical analysis and oral history, Haynes showcases the lives of Black Jews within the Orthodox, Conservative, Reconstruction and Reform movements, as well as the religious approaches that push the boundaries of the common forms of Judaism we know today. He illuminates how in the quest to claim whiteness, American Jews of European descent gained the freedom to express their identity fluidly while African Americans have continued to be seen as a fixed racial group. This book demonstrates that racial ascription has been shaping Jewish selfhood for centuries. Pushing us to reassess the boundaries between race and ethnicity, it offers insight into how Black Jewish individuals strive to assert their dual identities and find acceptance within their respective communities. Putting to rest the simplistic notion that Jews are white and that Black Jews are therefore a contradiction, the volume argues that we can no longer pigeonhole Black Hebrews and Israelites as exotic, militant, and nationalistic sects outside the boundaries of mainstream Jewish thought and community life. The volume spurs us to consider the significance of the growing population of self-identified Black Jews and its implications for the future of American Jewry.

Download or read book The Lost Tribes of Israel written by Tudor Parfitt and published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson Limited. This book was released on 2002 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tudor Parfitt examines a myth which is based on one of the world's oldest mysteries - what happened to the lost tribes of Israel? Christians and Jews alike have attached great importance to the legendary fate of these tribes which has had a remarkable impact on their ideologies throughout history. Each tribe of Israel claimed descent from one of the twelve sons of Jacob and the land of Israel was eventually divided up between them. Following a schism which formed after the death of Solomon, ten of the tribes set up an independent northern kingdom, whilst those of Judah and Levi set up a separate southern kingdom. In 721BC the ten northern tribes were ethnically cleansed by the Assyrians and the Bible states they were placed: in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan and in the city of Medes. The Bible also foretold that one day they would be reunited with the southern tribes in the final redemption of the people of Israel. Their subsequent history became a tapestry of legend and hearsay. The belief persisted that they had been lost in some remote part of the world and there were countless suggestions and claims as to where.

Download or read book Becoming Jewish written by Netanel Fisher and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2016-12-14 with total page 440 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the most striking contemporary religious phenomena is the world-wide fascination with Judaism. Traditionally, few non-Jews converted to the Jewish faith, but today millions of people throughout the world are converting to Judaism and are identifying as Jews or Israelites. In this volume, leading scholars of issues related to conversion, Judaising movements and Judaism as a New Religious Movement discuss and explain this global movement towards identification with the Jewish people, from Germany and Poland to China and Nigeria.

Download or read book Scattered Among the Nations written by Bryan Schwartz and published by WeldonOwn+ORM. This book was released on 2016-04-29 with total page 594 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A beautifully presented book on Jewish diversity around the world . . . opens windows into lives from the hills of Portugal to the plains of Africa.” —The Jerusalem Post With vibrant photographs and intricate accounts Scattered Among the Nations tells the story of the world’s most isolated Jewish communities in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Former Soviet Union and the margins of Europe. Over two thousand years ago, a shipwreck left seven Jewish couples stranded off India’s Konkan Coast, south of Bombay. Those hardy survivors stayed, built a community, and founded one of the fascinating groups described in this book—the Bene Israel of India’s Maharasthra Province. This story is unique, but it is not unusual. We have all heard the phrase “the lost tribes of Israel,” but never has the truth and wonder of the Diaspora been so lovingly and richly illustrated. To create this amazing chronicle of faith and resilience, the authors visited Jews in thirty countries across five continents, hearing origin stories and family histories that stretch back for millennia. “Beautiful, even breathtaking . . . a Jewish (Inter) National Geographic, wisely reminding us that the strategies for survival of Jews in distant lands may be relevant to our own.” —Rabbi Lawrence Kushner, Emanu-El Scholar at Congregation Emanu-El of San Francisco and author of I’m God; You’re Not “This exquisite book is a gift to the Jewish people, dramatically stretching our understanding of ‘Jewish’ . . . A book to be savored, read and re-read, and transmitted from one generation to the next.” —Yossi Klein Halevi, Senior Fellow, Shalom Hartman Institute, Jerusalem

Download or read book African Zion written by Edith Bruder and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2012-03-15 with total page 325 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the last hundred years, in Africa and the United States, through a variety of religious encounters, some black African societies adopted – or perhaps rediscovered – a Judaic religious identity. African Zion grows out of a joined interest in these diversified encounters with Judaism, their common substrata and divergences, their exogenous or endogenous characteristics, the entry or re-entry of these people into the contemporary world as Jews and the necessity of reshaping the standard accounts of their collective experience. In various loci the bonds with Judaism of black Jews were often forged in the harshest circumstances and grew out of experiences of slavery, exile, colonial subjugation, political ethnic conflicts and apartheid. For the African peoples who identify as Jews and with other Jews, identification with biblical Israel assumes symbolical significance. This book presents the way in which the religious identification of African American Jews and African black Jews – “real”, ideal or imaginary – has been represented, conceptualized and reconfigured over the last century or so. These essays grow out of a concern to understand Black encounters with Judaism, Jews and putative Hebrew/Israelite origins and are intended to illuminate their developments in the medley of race, ethnicity, and religion of the African and African American religious experience. They reflect the geographical and historic mosaic of black Judaism, permeated as it is with different “meanings”, both contemporary and historical.

Download or read book Jews and Judaism in African History written by Richard Hull and published by Markus Wiener Pub. This book was released on 2009 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a narrative about Jews and Judaism in Africa, from antiquity to the present. Jews have often been a marginalized minority, yet they have played a role in the history of the continent hugely disproportionate to their numbers. They have enriched Africa culturally and economically, serving as innovators and middlemen, government servants and educators. Along the way, they have been victims and victimizers, mercenaries and proxies for others as well as adjuvants in long-distance trade and sustainable development. While some have converted to other religions and been assimilated into indigenous society, most have retained their Jewish identity in various forms. Jews and Judaism have practically disappeared from Africa today but their legacy will surely endure.This book covers topics such as Jews in Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt; Jews in the western Mediterranean through the Inquisition; 'New Christians' and the making of the Atlantic world, including the early phases of the modern sugar economy and the slave trade; Jews in Ethiopia from antiquity to the 20th century; Jewish communities in the Muslim world; Morocco and West Africa; Sudanic civilizations from the 11th to the 21st century; Jewish communities in North Africa; Jews in the making of modern South Africa; and, the relationship between modern Israel and Africa.

Download or read book The Lemba written by Magdel Le Roux and published by Unisa Press. This book was released on 2003 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Lemba people regard themselves as Jews or Israelites who migrated southwards into Yemen and later as traders into Africa. Many of their rituals suggest a Semitic influence or resemblances, embedded in an African culture. In 2010, the book was also translated into Venda, an indigenous language within South Africa, and has been reprinted due to popular local demand.

Download or read book We the Black Jews written by Yosef Ben-Jochannan and published by Black Classic Press. This book was released on 1993 with total page 518 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dr. Ben destroys the myth of a "white Jewish race" and the bigotry that has denied the existence of an African Jewish culture. He establishes the legitimacy of contemporary Black Jewish culture in Africa and the diaspora and predates its origin before ancient Nile Valley civilizations.

Download or read book Scattered Among The Nations written by Bryan Schwartz and published by Weldon Owen. This book was released on 2015-12-08 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With vibrant photographs and intricate stories Scattered Among the Nations tells the story of the world’s most isolated Jewish communities in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Former Soviet Union and the margins of Europe. Over 2,000 years ago, a shipwreck left seven Jewish couples stranded off India’s Konkan Coast, south of Bombay. Those hardy survivors stayed, built a community, and founded one of the fascinating groups described in this book—the Bene Israel of India’s Maharasthra Province. This story is unique, but it is not unusual. We have all heard the phrase “the lost tribes of Israel,” but never has the truth and wonder of the Diaspora been so lovingly and richly illustrated. To create this amazing chronicle of faith and resilience, the authors visited Jews in 30 countries across five continents, hearing origin stories and family histories that stretch back for millennia. Sixteen chapters featuring photographs and stories of the world’s most isolated Jewish communities, from: - The hills of northeastern India, on the border of Myanmar - Sub-Saharan Africa, in Ghana, on the border of Ivory Coast - The last Jewish villages in Eastern Europe and Central Asia - Jews at the heart of the Amazon - Marranos coming out of hiding in Portugal and Mexico - Jewish gauchos and ostrich barons, in the Argentine pampas and the South African veld A foreword from Tudor Parfitt, and over 500 full color photographs and illustrations accompany these beautiful stories, and many more. The culmination of 16 years of collaboration between writers and photographers, Scattered Among the Nations is a stunning work of research and storytelling, and a rich visual documentation of the planet’s most isolated and unusual Jewish communities. Above all, it is a testament to the power of the Jewish people, and the connection that binds such different groups into one great tribe.

Download or read book The Jews of Ethiopia written by Tudor Parfitt and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-04-15 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With a special focus on Europe and the role of German, English and Italian Jewish communities in creating a new Jewish Ethiopian identity, the book investigates the formation of a new Ethiopian Jewish elite.

Download or read book Judaising Movements written by Tudor Parfitt and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-12-16 with total page 181 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The history of Judaising movements has been largely ignored by historians of religion. This volume analyzes the interplay between colonialism, a Judaism not traditionally viewed as proselytising but which at certain points was struggling to heed the Prophets and become a light unto the Gentiles' and the attraction for many different peoples of the rooted historicity of Judaism and by the symbolic appropriation of Jewish suffering. This book will look at the role of colonialism in the development of Judaising movements throughout the world, including New Zealand, Japan, India, Burma and Africa. Particular attention will be paid to the Lemba tribe of Southern Africa. A remarkable parallel movement in 1930s Southern Italy will also be dealt with. The history of the converts of San Nicandro is seen in the context of currents of Jewish universalism, messianism and Zionism. Gender issues are also discussed here as the converted women assumed powers they had not hitherto enjoyed.

Download or read book The Myth of the Twelve Tribes of Israel written by Andrew Tobolowsky and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2022-03-17 with total page 299 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Myth of the Twelve Tribes of Israel is the first study to treat the history of claims to an Israelite identity as an ongoing historical phenomenon from biblical times to the present. By treating the Hebrew Bible's accounts of Israel as one of many efforts to construct an Israelite history, rather than source material for later legends, Andrew Tobolowsky brings a long-term comparative approach to biblical and nonbiblical “Israelite” histories. In the process, he sheds new light on how the structure of the twelve tribes tradition enables the creation of so many different visions of Israel, and generates new questions: How can we explain the enduring power of the myth of the twelve tribes of Israel? How does “becoming Israel” work, why has it proven so popular, and how did it change over time? Finally, what can the changing shape of Israel itself reveal about those who claimed it?

Download or read book Between East and West written by André Chouraqui and published by . This book was released on 1973 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Africana Jewish Journeys written by Edith Bruder and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2018-12-14 with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The contemporary phenomenon of people’s attraction to Judaism around the world is remarkable. Additionally, millions of people who are not of Jewish descent are increasingly identifying themselves as Jews or are converting. In this volume, scholars and practitioners from a wide variety of disciplines explore multiple sources and meanings of this new shaping of modern Jewish identities in Africa, the United States, and India.