Resource Center for Afrikan Jews in the Americas

The phrase Black Jews has changed meanings through time. Originally it had nothing to do with race or skin colour but signified a heretic. Though the Jews of Wargla in Algeria were dark skinned they were called black because of a few practices they had that stood outside gaonate norms.

The first and for centuries the only self-named Black Jews were those of Cochin along the Malabar Coast in India. They used this title to distinguish their complexion from later arrivals to India such as the Iraqi Jews and Ashkenazi Jews. The Cochin community was established in Solomonic times as evidenced by tukee (peacock), a loan word from Malabar in the Tanakh. The community was strengthened and expanded by other Israelite migrants seeking refuge at the time of the Assyrian, Babylonian, and Roman exiles. The 12th century traveler Benjamin of Tudela reported when visiting Malabar that:

"The inhabitants are all black and the Jews also. They know the Law of Moses and the Prophets, and to a small extent the Talmud and the Halakha."

Changing anthropological views have reclassified Indians as brown instead of black. But still in Israel during a wheat shortage shopkeepers told them: "White bread for white Jews and black bread for black Jews". But even light skinned Jews are blacks in Israel if they hail from North Africa or the Middle East. In the English language, black has replaced colonial and euphemistic terms for Afrikan peoples such as negro and colored. So in common parlance Beta Israel, Abayudaya, Lemba, the Israelite community of the United States, etc., are all called Black Jews although each has their own distinct history, culture and customs.

RCAJA was instituted primarily to informationally aid those of the Western African diaspora. However, our domain includes sub-Pyrennean Europe, the Arabian Peninsula and the Indian sub-continent as well as other Afrikans. You could say that our focus is upon those land masses washed by the Indian Ocean and the dispersal of 'Am Yisrael there in the old Æthiopia, including their descendants abroad.

USE OUR SITE SEARCH ENGINE TO FIND TOPICS OR CLICK ON "SITE MAP" FOR A LIST OF ALL OUR ARTICLES. VISIT SOME OF THE GROUPS FROM THE MENU ON THE LEFT TO MEET, CHAT AND NEW MAKE FRIENDS -- ENJOY!