The Enterprise. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 192?-1930, 1927-08-12
200 Black Jews
Live in Harlem


CONTINUED from Page one)
Hebrew or Yiddish they know is tn,
phrase quoted above; all that they
know about Judaism is that orthodo,
Jews observe Sabbath on the seventh
day. But this bit of information ha.
become the source of livelihood Of
quite a. few hundred black schnor.
rers! Mordecai Hermens and his grour
of real black Jews have had numer.
Gus quarrels with the Negro Adven.
lists and that's how he managed to
get himself arrested.
Il want to warn the Jews of New
York. went on Reichelieu, not to be
taken in by these Adventists parading
as Jews. They can easily be un.
masked. All that is necessary is to
require them to write receipt in He
brew for the donation received. The
members of Rabbi HeSmen's cone1e-
cation are all of them versed in He
brew lore and can write and speak
Hebrew or Arabic. Not SO the Ad-
ventists, who are ignorant of the He
brew language, ignorant of the Jew
ish religion and traditions. / don't
want any one to think / am asking
the Jews to refuse to help Negro
Christians. On the contrary, the lot
of the Christian Negro is bad
enough, and every Jew should be glad
OF an opportunity to do something
for the black men. But / am up in
arms against the fakirs who pretend
to be black Jews when they are not
and take money under false pretense.
All day long the Adventists col
lect money from the gullible white
Jews, only to buy with il Christian
prayer books, ham sandwiches and
pork chopsp
There are black Jews in New
York-genuine orthodox Jews. Nor
decai Hcrmens is one of the lot. So
is Elihu Reichelieu. Among the rest
are a number of Yemen Jews, men,
bers of the Benz Israel of India I;
Moroccan Jews, Egyptian Jews, Alb
yssinian Jews-20 all told. Reiche-
lieu was born at Caro-, Egypt; Her
mems comes from Morocco.
"The late Joseph Jacobs, in his
famous work '0n the Race of Mod
ern Jews, classified all Jews into
three groups: 1, Jews by religion and
by race, which group includes the
Ashkenazim, the Sephardim and the
Samaritans; 2, Jews by race, but not
by religion, which includes the so.
called Crypto-Jews, such as Anussim
of the Balearic Islands, the Maimi.
MIN In Saloniki, European Turkey,
and the Donmeh. The latter are de-
scendants of Spanish Jewish exiles,
who followed Sabbath Zebi and
became converts to Mohammedanism
Those remaining today are outwardly
moslems, but secretly observe certain
Jewish rites. They keep apart from
their Moslem. neighbors, with whom
they do not intermarry, and they
have secret synagogues; 8, Jews by
religion and not by race, including
the Falashas in Abyssinia; the Ka-
rates, the Benz Israel in India, the
Negro Jews of Algeria, Tunis and
Tripoli and the Yemeniti Jews OF
southwestern Arabia. The Yemenite
Jews, for example, belonc to the
Arabs racially, but ADOPTED Judaism
about 1000 years ago. Most of the
remaining Karaites are found in
Russia and few in Galicia and Tur-
key; some think they are the descen-
dants of the Khozars, a Turainian
tribe which adapted Judaism in the
eighth century.
Professor Reichelieu had much to
tell about the Jews in Africa. There
are no reliable statistics, but 40 years
ago the approximate number of black
Jews in Africa was as follows: Tripo-
Ii, 10000; Tunis, $4,000; Morocco,
100000; Algeria, $4,000, and Egypt,
10000. In addition, Abyssinia had
anywhere from 100000 to 200 900
Falashas.
"'You will not find a Jew in
Egypt Reichelieu assured me, who
is not a learned Talmudist. Egypt
was the cradle of the Jewish race.
There has not been a time since the
days of Joseph that Egypt hasn't had
a Hebrew community. In modern
times the Jews in Egypt enjoy civil
and religious liberty. The general
condition is favorable Professor
Reichelieu has studied in European
Yeshibas. He has visited every Jewish
community in Europe and has lived
eight years in the United States. At
present his home is in Newark, where
he is fevorably known to the white
Jews.
"Of Morocco, where Mordecai Her
mems was born, Reichelieu spoke
with little enthusiasm. A Jew can
not expect common justice in Mo-
rocco.
From the cradle to the grave the
Moroccan jew is vilified and discrim-
mated against. He is not even per-
mitted to wear the same clothes as
his Moslem neighbors, but must al
ways go about clad in a special gab-
ardine, slippers and skull cap. He
lieves in a separate part of the city,
and at night the gates of his ghetto
are shut tight. Small wonder that
early in life Mordecai Hermens fled
from the poverty stricken town in
which he had been born and enlisted