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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 West Indies immigrant to New York City, Herman claimed direct Ethiopian lineage. Like other Black Hebrew Israelite religious leaders, Herman believed that Afro-Caribbean people had admixture with Iberian Sephardi Jews. Herman spoke Hebrew, as well as some Yiddish. Herman founded the Moorish Zionist temple in Harlem in 1921. One of the earliest Black Hebrew Israelite congregations in New York City, the Congregation of the Moorish Zionist Temple of the Moorish Jews in Harlem blended the belief that Black people were the descendants of the Biblical Israelites with aspects of traditional Judaism, elements from Christianity, and aspects of pan-African nationalism. Herman was a supporter of the Garveyist movement and was a member of Marcus Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). Herman was a Zionist who supported a shared homeland for Black Jews and others in Palestine.

Legacy

In 2016, a mural in Jerusalem was unveiled that honors Mordecai Herman. The mural was painted by the British-Israeli artist Solomon Souza. Mural at: https://forward.com/schmooze/337231/on-jerusalem-walls-artist-memorializes-black-rabbi-from-harlem/

According to the opinion of Black Orthodox Jewish writer and activist Shais Rishon, Mordecai Herman was non-Jewish as no records have been located to support that Herman ever "belonged or converted to any official branch of Judaism." However, it is probable that Herman was, in fact, an Ethiopian Jewish Rabbi, as he operated a formal Hebrew school for Jewish boys until his death. Rishon believes that the Black Hebrew Israelite movement is not part of "the mainstream normative Black Jewish community" that practices Rabbinic Judaism.

See also

• Black Jews in New York City

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.

• American pan-Africanists
• American Zionists
• Black Hebrew Israelite religious leaders
• People from Harlem
• Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League members
• African-American founders