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Black Zion: African American Religious Encounters with Judaism Edited by Yvonne Chireau and Nathaniel Deutsch (Oxford University Press, 2000, Pp 241, $17.95)

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Black Zion: African American Religious Encounters with Judaism Edited by Yvonne Chireau and Nathaniel Deutsch (Oxford University Press, 2000, Pp 241, $17.95) and assist the Israelis in resolving it as soon as possible. participate significantly, as partners, in financing 0 We continue to believe that the primary the rescue and the initial absorption. We are not in responsibility for financing the absorption should be the position to finance the long-term absorption. that of the Israeli government. However, as has been the case in past rescue efforts, we are prepared to Stqhen D. Solender is President and CEO of UJC. Black Zion: African American Religious Encounters with Judaism Edited by Yvonne Chireau and Nathaniel Deutsch (Oxford University Press, 2000, pp 241, $17.95) Perhaps it is less than scientific, but I have an acid salt. But they are troubling when used in passages test for evaluating new titles. in American Judaica: Books that question our commitment to Judaism. To that, that include "African-American Jews" in their indexes Wolfson adds even more fantastic claims, including go into the keeper pile. Those that do not are scoured that Alliance members "believed white Ashkenazi for the inevitable mention of Louis Farrakhan, after which Jews in the United States were fundamentally racist" I make a mental note to someday inform Alan - a charge totally unsubstantiatedby quotes real or Dershowitz, Sylvia Barack Fishman, or whomever that imagined. their works would be far more credible if they referenced To the uninitiated, the essay will read as a the 200,000-odd Black Jews in America before worrying charming depiction of warm and furry zoo specimens, about a tenth as many members of the Nation of Islam. a tone consistent in chapters analyzing the Black Black Zion: African American Religious Encounters Hebrew community of Dimona, Israel, and Jewish 0 with Judaism passes the index test. But immodesty iconography in Haitian Vodouism. Exceptions are in allowed, I was surprised to discover my own name Deutsch's essay on Judaic influences on the Nation of missing from it, along with those of my fellow co- Islam and Susannah Heschel's study of theological founders of the Alliance of Black Jews, despite similarities between her father, Abraham Joshua widespread media attention since the group's formation Heschel, and Martin Luther King Jr. But while the latter five years ago. I was doubly shocked to find myself two works may deserve note, the whole is tainted by nonetheless liberally quoted, as well as pictured, in an C hireau's admission that fact-checking was delegated essay by Bernard Wolfson entitled, "African American to the contributors. In his errors, Wolfson proved that Jews: Dispelling Myths, Bridging the Divide." standard virtually nonexistent. U nf o rt u n ate Iy, Wo If so n d is pe Is t hose myths To be clear, Chireau (who is black and not Jewish) poorly. A onetime Boston Herald colleague, Wolfson and Deutsch (Jewish and not black) maintain their covered the Alliance's founding as a freelance reporter volume is not specifically about Black Jews, but an but recounts that event with gross misstatements of analysis of Judaism's influence on African-American fact and deed. Among transgressions is a description religiosity. In that regard, Black Jews were not eagerly of the Chicago congregation of Rabbi Capers Funnye, sought out as contributors, Chireau said, to avoid an Alliance co-founder, as partaking in "lots of "confessional" rather than academic writing. That's cornbread" during the "seven [sic] days of Passover." regretful. Aside from the fact that there are some Funnye calls the cornbread pure fiction; the "seven pretty good Black Jewish writers -from Walter Mosely days" is a Wolfson invention displaying his ignorance to James McBride to Julius Lester -we clearly would of basic Judaism. Similarly, Wolfson misquotes an off- have been less likely to err on the tenets of our own the-record remark by me that I keep kosher with "an religion and culture. inexplicable exception for clams" - an exception I At the least, we'd make sure our names were indexed. do make, but with very clear reasons that I could not possibly have termed "inexplicable." Robin Washington is a columnist for the Boston Culinary mistakes may be remedied with a grain of Herald. 0 Sh'ma April 2000 0 http:/ /www.shma.com .
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