Black Zion: African American Religious Encounters with Judaism (Religion in America) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 019511258X ISBN 13: 9780195112580

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2000

Synopsis

This volume explores the myriad ways in which African American religions have encountered Jewish traditions, beliefs, and spaces. In contrast to previous works, which have typically focused on the social and political relationship between blacks and Jews, Black Zion places religion at the center of its discussion, thereby illuminating a critically important but little explored aspect of black-Jewish relations in America. The essays gathered here examine groups such as the Nation of Islam and the Hebrew Israelites, individuals such as Martin Luther King, Jr., and Abraham Joshua Heschel, and topics such as the transformation of synagogue space into African American churches and the symbolic role of the Jew in the Haitian religious imagination. This collection draws on sacred texts, interviews, and ethnographic and archival research to discuss the shared elements in black and Jewish sacred life, as well as the development and elaboration of new religious identities by African Americans.
Featuring contributions from a group of renowned scholars and writers, this groundbreaking volume reveals a great deal about both African American religions and the meaning of Judaism in the contemporary world. It is essential reading for students of religion, history, cultural studies, black studies, and American studies.

About this title

About the Author

Yvonne Chireau and Nathaniel Deutsch are both at Swarthmore College.

From Kirkus Reviews

paper 0-19-511258-X A timely collection of ten essays, all by scholars, that sensitively examine the deep but often fraught religious ties between Jews and African-Americans. As the editors, both professors of religion at Swarthmore, explain in their introduction, these essays do not propose a theory about dialogue or relations between the two groups but rather ``explore the critical role of religion in defining and shaping the relationship between the two peoples.'' It is a role they feel has been neglected in favor of political and social associations that underestimate the potent religious symbols and beliefs that connect them. During the period of slavery, African-Americans were comforted by the example of Moses leading his people from bondage in Egypt to freedom in the Promised Land. Editor Chireau, in Black Culture and Black Zion, describes how analogies in the experiences of blacks and Jews have led to a concentration on the Hebrew Scriptures as well as a growing identification with Judaism itself. Blacks who thought of themselves as Jews established congregations with their own rabbis. African American Jews depicts the often challenging efforts of black Jews or children of interracial marriages to practice their faith, while Another Exodus describes the history and fate of the American- born Black Hebrew Israelites, who have emigrated to Israel in search of deliverance and now live, after an often rocky relationship with the Israeli government, in a Negev Desert settlement. Other essays detail the ways in which readings of Biblical texts have shaped the relationship between the Nation of Islam and Jews; the transformation of inner-city synagogues into black Christian churches; and the close friendship between Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel and Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who both believed in a loving God, rather than the ``unmoved Mover'' of the Aristotelian tradition. An illuminating corrective to conventional wisdom and conventional prejudice. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 019511258X
• ISBN 13: 9780195112580
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256
• Editor: Chireau Yvonne