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Culture is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior and norms found in human societies.
The knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities and habits of the individuals in these specific groups are expressed through its culture. Through music, we can share our intellectual and moral faculties, customary beliefs, social forms.
An African American History: From Israel, through Africa to America Paperback
Spike Lee's and Steve Harvey's anguish over African American loss of history and culture spurred me to finish this book which I started when I was studying for an advanced degree at Florida International University, Miami, Florida. I began to look at the question of the African American Hebrew Israelites assertion that they are descendants of biblical Israelites, and discovered that in fact some African Americans have Israelite ancestry, and that the founding fathers of some African American religious movements might have known that they were Israelites.This study examines the subject thoroughly. It also scrutinizes how it has been studied, which led to the sidelining of the subject in the media and academia. It dealt extensively and intensively with history of slavery and the culture of the African ancestors of the African Americans who are Israelites, and adduced impeccable evidence that shows that the African American assertion was found on facts.
An African American History: From Israel, through Africa to America
This 2007 State of the Arts story features Wendel A. White's photographs of the African Hebrew Israelite community of Dimona, Israel. Also featured is Emily Raboteau, who wrote about the group of African Americans from the Chicago area who established the community more than 35 years ago. The images in this portfolio describe various aspects of daily life.
Wendel White: Village of Peace
Produced by Eric Schultz, narrated by Amber Edwards.
Experience Hebrew Culture
The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., twentieth century prophet, African American Baptist minister and activist who became the most visible spokesperson and leader in the "Freedom Struggle" of African Americans (commonly called the Civil Rights Movement), whose birth we celebrate (1955 until his assassination in 1968) and whose life we are deeply thankful for, sang, he and his followers, sang songs of deliverance as they marched though trials and tribulations. In every era, God has chosen men and women to serve the needs of his people, and Martin Luther King, Jr. was such a servant.
"Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and Marcus Garvey are familiar names to those knowledgeable about the freedom struggle. Yet few African Americans know anything about a man named Ben Ammi Ben Israel (October 12, 1939 – December 27, 2014), who successfully led a group of Blacks out of America in the 1960s and established a holistic, God-centered community in Israel. Ben Israel’s recent death in Israel went largely unnoticed by most Black Americans even though he inspired thousands of Blacks worldwide."
In the Footsteps of Garvey, Malcolm and Martin
Israel OKs status of 'Black Hebrews'
(AP)-Israel's "Black Hebrews," a close-knit group of vegan polygamists who arrived in the country from the United States in 1969, are celebrating the government's announcement that they are finally eligible for citizenship in the Jewish state.
In the desert town of Dimona in southern Israel, home to about 1,500 Black Hebrews, there was a feeling Monday that a 34-year history of statelessness was coming to an end with news of their permanent resident status.
"There's going to be a lot of dancing, singing, shouting and eating," said former Chicagoan Adiv Ben-Yehuda. "It's the greatest day since the community arrived in Israel."
Other members of the 2,500-strong group live in Arad and Mitzpeh Ramon, other towns in Israel's south.
As permanent residents, members will be able to serve in the Israeli army and establish their own residential communities, an Interior Ministry statement said. Ministry spokeswoman Tova Ellinson said that under normal practice, permanent resident status would lead to full citizenship after an unspecified period of time.
"We're ready to take on responsibilities and obligations as permanent members of the community," said Ben-Yehuda, 50, a former college basketball player with two wives and 12 children. His American drawl is undimmed after 30 years in Israel.
The exodus from Chicago of the Black Hebrews - the self-styled African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem - is one of the stranger odysseys of the 1960s.
About 350 black Americans left the United States in 1967 as followers of Ben Carter, a Chicago bus driver who changed his name to Ben Ammi Ben-Israel after receiving, he said, a visitation from the angel Gabriel informing him he was God's representative on Earth.
Believing that African-Americans are one of the 10 lost tribes of Israel, Ben Ammi and his followers set out - first for Liberia in West Africa; then, their numbers diminished, for Israel in 1969.
The group's members dress in colorful, self-made clothes, practice polygamy, shun birth control, and refrain from eating meat, dairy products, eggs and sugar.
The new arrivals met with skepticism and bafflement from many Israelis. A succession of Israeli interior ministers resisted upgrading the Black Hebrews' status as temporary residents, with limited legal and civil rights.
Arriving in Israel on tourist visas, they lived through the 1970s and 1980s unrecognized by the government as Jews and occasionally deported by the dozen after their visas expired.
Housed in a huddle of bungalows in a former immigrant reception center in Dimona - a poverty-stricken town in the Negev desert - the Black Hebrews persevered. They established businesses in crafts and tailoring, formed a respected gospel choir, started a factory producing tofu ice cream and set up several vegan restaurants.
Several members made headlines. Two Black Hebrew singers represented Israel in the annual Eurovision song festival in 1999. Another singer was killed in a Palestinian shooting attack at a Jewish family celebration in the Israeli city of Hadera on January 17, 2002.
"The original group is still here, and we've been able to teach the next generation how to govern themselves," said 64-year-old Prince Elkanann, one of the 1969 arrivals.
"I'm satisfied with the choices I've made," said Elkanann, who like other members of his community gave up his American name and his U.S. passport after joining the group. "Anything you want, you have to sacrifice for."
Over the years, the group has accumulated high-profile supporters - politician Jesse Jackson campaigned for them to receive Israeli citizenship, and singer Whitney Houston visited them this May.
In 1990, the group was given temporary resident status - allowing them to receive social benefits and government support for their 600-pupil school and other facilities - on condition no more members of the group came form the United States.
The group's members insist they want to play a full part in Israeli society. Their children grow up speaking Hebrew and American-accented English. Several are at Israeli universities.
The community has outgrown the cramped bungalows of their original home, and hopes to move next year to a newly built neighborhood on the outskirts of town. Their new status allows them to solve their housing crisis by building their own village if they choose.
By JILL LAWLESS, Associated Press
Published: July 29, 2003, 07:27:54 PM PDT
The African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem "A Village of Peace "
Most of the time around the world, when men speak of the Kingdom of God, they do so metaphorically. It is only some mythical paradise located in outer space, where the problems which have plagued humanity, magically cease to exist. What's more, one could only reach this heaven after death.
But in this land, Israel, Northeast Africa our perspective is different. Here the Biblical prophets, especially Isaiah and Daniel, taught us of this very real kingdom. The scriptures told us that it will be established in this land, at a time when larger nations dominate the global scene. This kingdom would start as a mustard seed, minute and obscure. Yet it will eventually grow, and never be destroyed.
What does this mean to mankind now? That somewhere in this land, there is a body of people dedicated to the fulfillment of this prophecy...in order that the words inspired by the Holy One of Israel, will not fail. Moreover, it is clear that Israel must live out its prophetic purpose... to be a light unto humanity demonstrating the benefits of living according to the word of God.
The African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem are comprised of approximately 2,000 men, women and children residing in three development towns - - Dimona, Arad and Mitzpe Ramon - - in southern Israel. We maintain a vibrant culture which includes a communal lifestyle, a vegan diet, a system of preventive health care and high moral standards - - a holistic approach to life based on righteousness. Our intent is to live according to the laws and prophecies of God.
Since our arrival in Dimona, in 1969, it has been our objective to be the foundation for the establishing of God's Kingdom on Earth. The accomplishments of the past years have only strengthened our faith in the words of the prophets. Perhaps it will be hard for many to conceive that the former African Americans would be the source of this inspiration, and readily leave the pleasures of the ultra-modern America for life in the desert wilderness. But it is true. It is time now to bear testimony to the infallible word of God.
"Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law; fear not the reproach of men, neither be afraid of their revilings (insults)."
Isaiah 51:7
Although our presence (in previous years) raised opposition, controversy and much political clamor, we continue to nurture from within a lifestyle which is proving to be inspiring as well as refreshing to everyone in a world that has waxed cold.
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