The Torah says in the book of Ezekiel chapter 37 that there will be a "Spiritual Awakening" among the exiled 12 Tribes of Israel, this awakening will be initiated and inspired by Divine Providence, Not conversion. In other words God will cause to rise among us, spiritual leaders and teachers who will pave the way to the "Reclamation" of our Spiritual heritage and identity - Yisrael.
Meet the Pioneers
Rabbi Arthur Wentworth Mathews
Founder & Spiritual Leader of the Commandment Keepers (Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation of Harlem) in 1919.
Rabbi Arnold Josiah Ford
Founder of Beth Bnai Abraham in 1924 and the Musical Director of Marcus Garvey's U.N.I.A - Universal Negro Improvement Association.
The above photos take us on a pictorial journey back in time to an era in America where it was extremely dangerous to be a "Black Man" living in America, who through racism and to some significant extant even acts of terrorism, were nearly reduced to an "endangered-species" under the conditions of slavery and post slavery psychological effects. In light of this, God caused to arise among us, a spiritual awakening as conveyed in the prophetic writings of the Torah, which would evoke a spirit of nationalism, cultural-ism, and even heroic spiritualism; for the freedom fighters who sprung up among us, inspired generations of men, women, and children who proactively fought against the injustices of the systematic destruction of the living descendants of the "Trans-Atlantic-Slave-Trade".
It is highly significant to note that the very first spiritual movement to arise among the slaves was "Judaism" and the reclamation of national, cultural, and spiritual identity; for the very first person to Unite large groups of Men of Color in the United States and abroad in the West Indies and Africa, was none other than Marcus Mosiah Garvey. A man whose very spirit was attached to it's ancient roots, for Marcus Garvey was known to teach that the so-called "Blacks" of America and the West Indies were the "Lost Tribes of Israel", by way of Ethiopia and the Trans-Atlantic-Slave-Trade.
These spiritual images were drawn for Marcus, by the Rabbi Josiah Ford, who was a poet, musician, and Choir leader of the Marcus Garvey founded U.N.I.A'S (United Negro Improvement Association) choir and spiritual hymns division. Rabbi Ford, after inspiring Marcus Garvey with the message of his (Garvey's) true ancestral lineage and spiritual calling, moved to Ethiopia in the year 1930 for the coronation of Haile Selassie, an Ethiopian Emperor, who is believed by the people of Ethiopia to be a direct descendant of King Solomon through the Queen of Sheba. Rabbi Ford however died five years later in Ethiopia trying to unite the diaspora of Israel in the Northern Hemisphere.
Before dying however, Rabbi Ford ordained Arthur Wentworth Mathews, another outstanding Black Jew of Harlem, as Chief Rabbi of the diaspora. Rabbi Mathew later through his congregation "The Commandment Keepers", became the foundational teacher and leader of All Jews of Color in the Unites States. These men and the people they touched became a beacon of light and inspired every subsequent spiritual movement among the descendants of the Trans-Atlantic-Slave-Trade who were actually descendants of the biblical "Israelites".