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Hebrew Israelites and Jews of color are not the same, and it’s not racist for us to say so
(JTA) — Conservative-Masorti Judaism strives to accommodate the rich diversity of the Jewish world. A crucial part of this mission is ensuring that Jews of color feel welcome in our communities and heeding the call for racial justice. The voices of Jews of color must be heard in our movement.
In that spirit, we — representatives of the Rabbinical Assembly and United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism — register our profound disquiet about the conflation of Jews of color and those who identify as Hebrew Israelites, Israelites, or another derivative of the religion.
The recent hiring of both an associate rabbi and a rabbinical intern at a Conservative movement-affiliated synagogue in Newark, New Jersey, raise serious concerns about the intersection between mainstream Judaism and Hebrew Israelites. Both men trained at the Israelite Rabbinical Academy in Queens, New York.
While we have great respect for other faith traditions, Hebrew Israelites and Jews are not members of the same religion. The Hebrew Israelite faith emerged in the 19th century from some in the African Diaspora, who, asserting historic ties to Abrahamic ancestry, appropriated aspects of Judaism into a novel faith. Hebrew Israelite factions run the gamut from those whose militant messianism includes overt disdain for Jews to those who have adopted practices that closely resemble those of mainstream Jewish denominations. The International Israelite Board of Rabbis seeks to distinguish their segments of the faith from practitioners who openly espouse antisemitic rhetoric, and we acknowledge that those under the purview of the board include some who have undergone conversion to mainstream Jewish denominations while still keeping — and occasionally deepening — their ties with their Israelite communities.
Nevertheless, Hebrew Israelites, even those whose rituals mirror normative Jewish ones, are not Jews according to halacha, Jewish law as understood and followed by the Conservative movement and indeed most Jewish denominations.
By the same token, Israelite clergy — who are called rabbis according to the seminaries that ordain them — are not appropriate to lead a Jewish congregation. And the Israelite Board of Rabbis’ rejection of factions that preach disdain for Jews does not make it a recognized movement of worldwide mainstream Jewry, nor does it affect the halachic status of its members or the congregants under their guidance.
Some Hebrew Israelites have attributed their exclusion from normative Jewish spaces to racism. This undercuts the legitimate concerns and needs of Jews of color — authentic members of our people.
Jewish institutions have a duty to be inclusive, especially vis-a-vis those who have historically been marginalized inside our institutions. In formulating a response to the inclusion of Israelites as clergy in one of our movement’s congregations in Newark, we have listened with care to the Jews of color in our fold. Jewish denominations have their own age-old criteria for membership in the Jewish people: The Conservative movement demands either continuous matrilineal descent — that is, that one’s mother is a Jew according to halacha — or a valid conversion. There are many Black Jews who fit this criteria and are respected members of our community and covenant. Being non-white — or presenting as non-white — does not supersede these standards for Jewishness, any more than it should create further barriers.
Of course, Hebrew Israelites who can trace Jewish matrilineal ancestry or undergo a halachic Jewish conversion are counted within the Conservative movement as Jews.
When Hebrew Israelites and their supporters cite racism as the essential cause of their rejection from mainstream Jewish institutions, they usurp intracommunal grievances of Jews of color and seek to dispossess Jews of color from our community’s genuinely shared heritage and identity. They also harm the cause of racial justice and inclusion in our movement. Jews of color must not be conflated with Hebrew Israelites on account of race — this detracts from their halachic status as Jews in good standing and falsely defines religious ties in terms of race.
Black Jews may share racial ancestry with practitioners of the Israelite faith, but they do not share a common religious nor community identity. This misunderstanding can cause real harm, such as the alienation that occurs when fellow Jews of colors are told that they would better “fit in” with Israelite communities — insinuating that Black Jews aren’t truly Jewish.
The labor of racial justice is hard and ongoing — demanding nuance and compassion from each of us. Jews of color hold space for Hebrew Israelites who wish to fully pursue membership within normative Judaism. No racial barriers should block such individuals from joining the Jewish community and covenant. Further resources will be forthcoming through USCJ channels to foster respectful discourse as we embark on this conversation on the intersections of Black and Jewish identities, and the discussion can begin with a broad overview from USCJ’s Racial Justice & Inclusion page.
Institutional Jewish life, particularly in North America, is tinged with racism, and that does affect Jews of color. The RA and the USCJ are proud to be working together to address Jews of color inclusion in Conservative Jewish spaces and inter-communal racial justice initiatives as a part of Conservative Jewish practice. In order to do so with integrity, it is imperative that we lay down this marker: Black and African-American Jews assert that Jewish racial justice and inclusion efforts are counterproductive when they include or misrepresent Hebrew Israelites as Jews of color.
They are simply not the same.
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PEN America president, defending Israel’s critics, resigns after report warns of threats to Jewish authors
(JTA) — The president of PEN America resigned over the weekend in protest of a report on boycotts targeting Jewish and Israeli authors, part of yet another round of internal division over Israel at the literary free-speech institution.
Dinaw Mengestu, an Ethiopian-American novelist and Bard College professor, told The Atlantic he was stepping down because he believed the PEN report, “A Silent Moratorium,” failed to defend the free-speech rights of participants in the movement to boycott Israel.
“It’s the First Amendment that allows all of us to engage in boycotts, not PEN America,” Mengestu told the publication. “PEN America as a free expression organization is supposed to defend that right.”
The author did not respond to multiple Jewish Telegraphic Agency requests for comment, but in an Instagram post Monday alluded to an interest in creating a new organization to rival the prominent nonprofit, which defends the free expression rights other writers.
In response to an interview request, PEN sent a statement to JTA saying it was “grateful” for Mengestu’s leadership and would “respect” his decision. The statement also alluded to PEN’s own past turmoil: “We tell hard stories, in politically challenging moments, about writers from a range of perspectives, even when it’s uncomfortable for us given our own recent history.”
In its report, published on its blog, PEN described “Jewish and Israeli writers who feel that the mainstream literary world is increasingly shutting them out because of their identity, nationality, or views.” Interview subjects include several Israel critics, as well as literary agents who assert that they face more difficulties signing Jewish authors after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel and amid the subsequent war in Gaza. The report also repeatedly cited a JTA report about a 2024 viral list of “Zionist” authors to boycott.
Among other details, PEN’s report revealed that Israeli novelist Etgar Keret and public radio host Ira Glass had cancelled a planned live event in Australia over fears of threats and protest.
“This silencing and exclusion of writers is a threat to what PEN America is fundamentally committed to defending: a culture of free expression for all,” according to the report.
In addition to the report, PEN also altered its institutional policy toward cultural boycotts, which the organization has long opposed. Although its report on Jewish authors asserted that boycotts “threaten the free expression rights” of their targets, the revised guidelines say that the group will also defend the right of writers to participate in boycotts.
Mengestu’s resignation comes at a perilous moment for Jews facing cultural boycotts, both within the standard-bearers of PEN and elsewhere. PEN’s Jewish former longtime CEO stepped down in 2024 following months of blowback from rank-and-file authors who felt the organization was insufficiently critical of Israel and caused PEN to cancel a festival for global authors.
Since the leadership change, PEN leadership has published and retracted a condemnation of a boycott effort trained at an Israeli comedian and also published a report cataloguing Israel’s “cultural destruction in Gaza.”
Mengestu had assumed the role of board president in 2025. But PEN’s report about Jewish and Israeli writers on Thursday, he wrote, “makes clear that [change] will not happen.”
The Anti-Defamation League said it was “deeply troubled” by Mengestu’s resignation Monday. “Freedom of expression means opposing efforts to boycott, silence, or exclude writers because of their identity or nationality,” the organization tweeted, saying that the author’s decision to leave PEN over his objections to the report on Jewish authors “sends a chilling message.” Jewish authors also objected.
“Imagine running a free expression org and resigning because it refuses to blacklist authors based on their nationality,” the author David Zweig wrote on X, musing whether Mengestu would object to boycotting authors from his birth country: “Ethiopia doesn’t exactly have a good human rights record.”
In response to The Atlantic’s story that quoted sources from inside PEN who were critical of his resignation, Mengestu wrote a lengthy Instagram post Monday in which he stated, “This piece is about trying to suppress constitutionally protected speech,” criticized past PEN reports critical of the BDS movement, and added, “What PEN America fails to understand is that boycott is a form of dialogue.”
He announced his intention to “help make something better,” receiving affirmative comments from notable authors including Viet Thanh Nguyen, Angela Flournoy, Jewish pro-Palestinian novelist Jess Row and Pulitzer Prize-winner Benjamin Moser, author of a forthcoming history of Jewish anti-Zionism.
Other Jewish authors on the left were among those defending Mengestu’s decision to step down.
“Dinaw is one hundred percent correct that this kind of fake victim propaganda can be used to support anti-Boycott legislation which violates the First Amendment and is everywhere as popular support for Palestinians grows,” author Sarah Schulman wrote on Facebook. Calling PEN’s blog about Jews “one of those fake anti-semitism pieces,” Schulman added, “If PEN wants to survive, they have to get out of the Israel/Zionism business.”
The post PEN America president, defending Israel’s critics, resigns after report warns of threats to Jewish authors appeared first on The Forward.
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Church of England backs study of Palestinian Christian document accusing Israel of genocide
(JTA) — The Church of England’s legislative body voted Monday to encourage churches across England to engage with a document produced by Palestinian Christians that accuses Israel of genocide despite requests from Jewish organizations and Britain’s chief rabbi to reject it.
The document is titled “Moment of Truth: Faith in a Time of Genocide” and is also known as Kairos II, after the Palestinian Christian movement Kairos Palestine that produced it. It describes Israel’s military campaign in Gaza as a genocide, states that Israel is a “colonial enterprise built on racism,” and says decades of “occupation,” “apartheid” and “settler colonialism” are at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The vote on Monday does not adopt the accusations as church doctrine but says the church should hear the documents as “heartfelt expressions of the lived experience of Palestinian Christians,” and to engage with them in order to better understand the conflict.
Ahead of the debate in York, several Jewish organizations expressed concerns, and Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis asked Synod members to reject the amendment. Mirvis called Kairos II “deeply concerning” and that it “risks undermining decades of careful relationship-building” between Christians and Jews.
“It is truly shocking that a document which purports to speak in the name of truth contains so much falsehood,” he said.
Afterwards, the president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, Phil Rosenberg, issued a statement calling the passage of the motion “highly problematic.”
“Kairos Palestine may come from a place of genuine pain, but the falsehoods and distortions of Kairos II, including its erasure of Jewish identity and experience, is a prescription for more division and not the answer to conflict in the Middle East,” he said.
“This document reflects the pain and trauma of the Palestinian people. As a pastor, I hear the cry of our Palestinian Christian sisters and brothers — a cry that rises from the ruins of Gaza, and from the violence and oppression of the West Bank,” she said.
She added, ”I also hear the concerns of the chief rabbi, the co-leads of the Movement for Progressive Judaism, and the Board of Deputies, and I thank them for their honesty.” She said the church remained opposed to antisemitism and committed to safety for Israelis as well as Palestinians.
The Synod debate followed Mullally’s visit to the West Bank in June, where she met Palestinian Christian communities in Birzeit. During the visit she said, “I will use my role as Archbishop to seek the peace you desire and the freedom you deserve.”
The debate marks the ascendance of Israel-related issues in another major church, after the Catholic Church’s Pope Leo XIV angered Jewish groups soon after being elected last year by endorsing an investigation into whether Israel committed genocide in Gaza.
The post Church of England backs study of Palestinian Christian document accusing Israel of genocide appeared first on The Forward.
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Mike Pence denounces alleged arson of Israeli flag in his Indiana hometown
(JTA) — Former Vice President Mike Pence has weighed in against antisemitism after officials in his Indiana town say a costly fire may have been caused by arson to an Israeli flag displayed on a local barn.
The alleged arson broke out early Friday morning, damaging a historic home in Zionsville, Indiana, where Pence lives, and causing an estimated $150,000 in damages, according to the Zionsville Police Department.
Zionsville Mayor John Stehr said during a press conference on Friday that officials believed the fire began when an individual set fire to an Israeli flag that had been displayed outside the building alongside an American flag. The town later announced that the FBI had joined the investigation and that officials were examining whether the arson “may have been motivated by bias” but said no determination had been made.
“Absolutely despicable,” Pence tweeted on Sunday. “There can be no tolerance in America for Antisemitism or political acts of violence, and it is heartbreaking to see in our adopted hometown of Zionsville, Indiana. We thank God no one was hurt and urge anyone with information to contact law enforcement.”
Pence has long cast himself as a staunch supporter of Israel, including after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel, and has also repeatedly spoken out against antisemitism in the conservative movement and beyond.
Republican Indiana Sen. Jim Banks also condemned the alleged arson in a post on X Saturday. “Antisemitism will not be tolerated. Not in Zionsville. Not in Indiana. Not anywhere,” Banks wrote. “Thank you to the federal, state, and local officials working to bring the perpetrators of this despicable arson attack to justice.”
On Sunday, the Jewish community in central Indiana hosted a rally condemning the alleged arson attack, chanting, “We will stand up,” according to local outlet Fox 59. While Zionsville does not have a large Jewish community of its own, other suburbs of Indianapolis have significant Jewish populations, and Zionsville is also the longtime home of a Reform movement summer camp, the Goldman Union Camp Institute, which is in session now.
“The founding fathers founded a country where we have the ability to resolve differences among each other; we don’t do it by firebombing homes,” rally organizer David Schiller told Fox 59. “It’s inexcusable and unacceptable.”
The Zionsville Police Department did not respond to an inquiry from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency about the status of the investigation on Monday.
The post Mike Pence denounces alleged arson of Israeli flag in his Indiana hometown appeared first on The Forward.
