Mordecai Herman

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Mordecai Herman
Born
Mordecai Herman

OccupationBlack Hebrew Israelite leader

Mordecai Herman was a pioneering Black Hebrew Israelite religious leader in New York City who founded the Moorish Zionist temple at 127 West 134th Street in Harlem.

Life

A

Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). Herman was a Zionist who supported a shared homeland for Black Jews and others in Palestine.[5][6]

Legacy

In 2016, a mural in Jerusalem was unveiled that honors Mordecai Herman. The mural was painted by the British-Israeli artist Solomon Souza.[7]

According to the Black Orthodox Jewish writer and activist Shais Rishon, Mordecai Herman was non-Jewish as Herman never "belonged or converted to any branch of Judaism." Rishon believes that the Black Hebrew Israelite movement is not part of "the mainstream normative Black Jewish community" that practices Rabbinic Judaism.[8]

See also

References

  1. ^ "In and Out of Africa". Jewish Review of Books. 12 June 2013. Retrieved 2022-04-24.
  2. ^ "Yiddisher Black cantors from 100 years ago rediscovered thanks to rare recording". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 2022-04-23.
  3. ^ "Black Jewish Congregations in Harlem". New York 1920s. Retrieved 2022-04-23.
  4. ^ "Object Lesson: James Van Der Zee photographs of Daddy Grace and Rabbi Mordecai Herman". New Orleans Museum of Art. 31 March 2020. Retrieved 2022-04-23.
  5. ^ "A Black-Jewish perspective on the Jazz Age". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 2022-04-23.
  6. ^ "Black Culture and Black Zion". Swarthmore College. Retrieved 2022-04-23.
  7. ^ "On Jerusalem Walls, Artist Memorializes Black Rabbi from Harlem". The Forward. 31 March 2016. Retrieved 2022-04-23.
  8. ^ "A Case of Mistaken Identity: Black Jews & Hebrew Israelites". TribeHerald.com. 16 August 2020. Retrieved 2022-04-23.