Mr. Kenyatta, I think history matters, so that is where I begin my answer to your questions involving Jews.
The Jewish origin story begins on Monday, the 7th of October (3,761 years before the birth of Christ). That is the date G-d created the world (Genesis). Clearly, archeology, geology, astronomy and anthropology did not exist – yet. Anyways, as the story goes…
1,948 years after G-d created the world, Abraham was born. Abraham would unite people who would become known as Hebrews (Jews).
533 years later, people who had been enslaved for hundreds of years followed Moses out of Egypt. The journey of slaves to freedom is known as Exodus. In Canaan, the Hebrew tribes formed the United Kingdom of Israel that would be led by Kings Saul, David, then Solomon.
When King Solomon died, the Hebrew tribes revolted and divided the Kingdom of Israel.
198 years later, the Assyrians conquered the northern Kingdom of Israel and drove the ten tribes off their land. If I understand Black Israelites correctly, they are the descendants of the 10 lost tribes. So, let’s spend some time on this part of the story.
Inasmuch as the Mediterranean lay to their west, and the Assyrians ruled to their north and east, I think it likely that the fleeing Jews headed south, back into Africa. The dates correspond as well.
People in Ethiopia have been practicing Judaism for more than 3,000 years. The Covenant of the Ark, is said to be in Ethiopia. In the Kebra Negast (the Ethiopian origin story) Ethiopia’s Queen of Sheba, visited the Kingdom of Israel, and bore King Solomon a son, named Menelik. Raised in Ethiopia, Menelik returned to Jerusalem as a young man. When Menelik went back to Ethiopia, his father, King Solomon, sent the sons of noblemen with him. And it was these unhappy scions, not Menelik, who took the Covenant of the Ark (with them to Ethiopia) – or so it is said.
King Solomon was in an awful fix, for the Ark contained the two stone tablets with the Ten Commandments that G-d had given Moses on Mount Sinai. Politically speaking, this would be akin to Monica Lewinsky visiting Bill Clinton and taking the Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights and Constitution with her, when she left the Oval Office. King Solomon denied the Ark was gone. But it has never been seen in public again.
In the 4th century CE, European colonialists arrived in Ethiopia, and forced people to convert to Christianity. People who continued to practice Judaism were called “Falasha” (a derogatory term meaning outsider).
Leaping ahead to our time, his Holiness Abuna Paulos, patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, who holds a PhD in theology from Princeton University, explains: "We've had 1,000 years of Judaism, followed by 2,000 years of Christianity, and that's why our religion is rooted in the Old Testament."
During the political unrest of 1991, Israel airlifted 14,000 Ethiopian Jews to safety in Israel. Unfortunately, Ethiopian Jews who had been converted to Christianity were left behind. Ethiopian Israelis (known as Beta Israel, meaning House of Israel) have been trying to bring their family members to Israel ever since. Suffice to say, Israel’s immigration policies are as divisive as America’s, and for much the same reason (religious ideology).
The Lemba people of South Africa and Zimbabwe also claim their ancestors carried the covenant of the arc to their ancestral home in the Dumghe mountains. The Smithsonian published a good article about this.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/keepers-of-the-lost-ark-179998820/
Okay, back to the before times.
The Greek, Alexander the Great, created a gigantic empire and his succesors fought for control Jewish lands. 164 BCE, the Greek Seleucids gained control, forbid the practice of Judaism, and dedicated the Jews’ Temple to the Greek G-d Zeus. Eventually, the Seleucids brutal persecution of Jews led to a revolt and the Jewish Maccabees regained control.
Then the Romans came from the west. And then, Christ was born. For Christians, the birth of Christ was their origin story, so they started a new calendar at year zero.
After years of Roman cruelty, Jews revolted. In 70 CE, the Romans breached the walls of Jerusalem, destroyed the second Temple, and slaughtered one million Jews. Many who remained alive fled north into Europe (and into the diaspora). Other survivors secretly practiced Judaism and were often tortured, then murdered.
The persecution continued, and in 132 CE another revolt resulted in the Jews being banned from Jerusalem. The banned Jews headed north. Tragically, the Roman Empire was also moving north, eventually conquering almost all of Europe, with the Roman Catholic church following all the way.
In 1096 CE, the Massacre of Jews in Europe began with first Crusade. It was the beginning of centuries of pogroms and persecution of Jews in Europe. Pogroms refer to the organized slaughter of entire towns, villages and settlements of Jewish men, women and children.
If you are a poetic man, I recommend Chaim Nachman Bialik’s poem, In the City of Slaughter (about the 1903 Kishinev pogrom in Russia). If you want to read more about Bialik’s experience in Kishinev, I suggest…
https://www.teachgreatjewishbooks.org/resource-kits/haim-nahman-bialiks-city-slaughter
In 1231, the inquisition began. First instituted by Pope Innocent Ill in 1198, the pope appointed the first “inquisitors of heretical depravity” in 1231. In 1242, the Inquisition condemned the Talmud and burned thousands of volumes. In 1288, the first organized mass burning of Jews on the stake, took place in France.
In 1492, Portugal expelled all Jews and the Queen of Spain sent Christopher Columbus off to chart an ocean route to China. Apparently, Columbus found some Jews “useful” and took them with him.
In 1516, the first ghetto was created, in Venice, Italy and Jews were legally required to remain inside the ghetto walls. Eventually, ghettos sprang up all across Europe.
In the late 1800s, “ghettos” crossed the Atlantic and moved into New York’s Lower East Side and Chicago’s Near West Side. Immigrants quickly found themselves trapped by discrimination in housing and hiring inside these overcrowded districts. The fact, that these ghettos became known as “working-class ghettos” is telling.
In white ideology, “working class” refers to “others” who’ve been deemed unfit or unworthy by America’s ruling class (aka WASP). You and I are others. That said, I have white skin, so I can leave the “working class ghetto” and no one will notice. If I am willing to “assimilate” I can even blend in and live outside the ghetto walls. However, as my mother often warned us, “assimilation will consume you”.
I will end here, and in another comment pick up in 1933.
PS. I just read the new comments here and I sure hope you plan to stick around on Medium.
