Watch Bruce's talk on
Where God
Was Born at the National Book Festival on the Mall.
Watch a preview of Walking the Bible on PBS, now available on DVD.
Join an online discussion on our new Message Boards.
Hear a podcast of Bruce Feiler on Speaking of Faith.
Hear President Bush Discuss Abraham on C-SPAN.
Blog photos courtesty of
Andrew Feiler
Black Jews Rising
Sunday, Jun 22, 2008
The AJC says the number is at 150,000 in the U.S. alone -- and rising. The paper profiles a former evangelical couple who are making the conversion. "For a black male to put on a kipah and go wandering around in a predominately black community, you get the strangest looks," said Pamela Harris.
Highland, where Pamela Harris works as the senior nonclerical staff member, at least eight of the roughly 20 people learning about Judaism with Rabbi Hillel Norry are black.The numbers here seem a little large. I've been to dozens of synaogues in the last few years and I can count the number of black Jews I've seen on one hand. Am I missing something?At the Marcus Jewish Community Center in Dunwoody, roughly 20 percent of the nearly two dozen people enrolled in Steven Chervin's introduction to Judaism classes are black.
Although there are no sound statistics on the subject, anecdotal evidence suggests that, in the past 15 years, increasing numbers of black Americans are exploring Judaism, said Gary Tobin, president of the Institute for Jewish & Community Research in San Francisco.
"Ten years ago, it was almost unheard of that a black person would come in and want to convert," said Rabbi Ilan Feldman, who is working with the Harrises and two other black people pursuing conversion.
Posted by Bruce Feiler
comments
Permalink
Digg this Post
Email this Post
From Beliefnet
Wednesday, Jun 11, 2008
Dear Readers--
Due to a planned technical upgrade taking place on Wednesday June 11th, the Beliefnet Blogs will not display any new content, and commenting will be disabled.
We aim to be back up and running by the end of the day, and thank you in advance for your understanding.
Best,
The Beliefnet Team
. . .
"Another Chapter Should Be Added to the Bible"
Thursday, Jun 05, 2008
Jesse Jackson on Barack Obama: "I cried all night. I'm going to be crying for the next four years," he said. "What Barack Obama has accomplished is the single most extraordinary event that has occurred in the 232 years of the nation's political history. . .
Joshua at AIPAC
Wednesday, Jun 04, 2008
No Moses at AIPAC this morning, but Joshua! "Together, we can join our voices together, and in doing so make even the mightiest of walls fall down."
And a life narrative that aligns his story with the great Jewish story -- and the great American story -- the search for the Promised Land.
I first became familiar with the story of Israel when I was eleven years old. I learned of the long journey and steady determination of the Jewish people to preserve their identity through faith, family and culture. . .
 |
 |
 |
