Who the Hebrew Israelites Are

What you'll learn

Trace the main historical streams of Hebrew Israelism from the late nineteenth century to today's online camps
Summarise the movement's core claims (the twelve tribes chart, Deuteronomy 28, KJV and Apocrypha, Torah observance) in terms an adherent would recognise
Distinguish Hebrew Israelites from Messianic Jews and from Ethiopian Jews (Beta Israel), and from one another

A family of movements, not one church

The label 'Black Hebrew Israelites' is common in news reports, but many adherents dislike it. They prefer 'Hebrew Israelites', 'Israelites' or simply 'the so-called Negro, the true Hebrew'. The common thread is the belief that people of African descent in the Americas (and, in many groups, other peoples scattered by colonialism) are physical descendants of the biblical tribes of Israel.

Beyond that thread there is huge variety. Some groups are quiet congregations with synagogues, choirs and community programs. Some are Christian in name and confess Jesus as Lord. Others are militant camps whose street teaching is openly hostile to white people and to Jewish people. Treat the person in front of you as an individual: ask which group they follow before assuming you know what they believe.

A rough map helps. Two questions sort most groups: What do they say about Jesus? and How do they speak about other peoples? The categories below overlap, so use them as a guide, not a box.

Judaic Israelite congregations: synagogue-style communities that keep the Sabbath and festivals and do not worship Jesus as God. Examples are the main branch of Crowdy's church (below) and the Commandment Keepers, founded in Harlem in 1919 by Wentworth Arthur Matthew, which began as a church and moved toward Orthodox-style Jewish worship.
A separate community in Israel: Ben Ammi's African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem, who do not regard themselves as Christian.
Christ-confessing Israelite groups: groups that confess Jesus (often as 'Yahawashi') as Messiah and Saviour, usually alongside required Torah-keeping and often without the Trinity. IUIC ('Israel United in Christ') is the best known, though it also comes from the street-camp tradition described below.
Militant street camps: groups in the One West tradition whose public teaching is sharply racial toward white and Jewish people.
Unaffiliated individuals: many people are absorbing ideas from videos without belonging to any group, and some still attend church.

Example: Finding out what a friend actually believes

Jaylen: I've been watching these Israelite teachers. They say we're the real Hebrews.

You: I'd like to hear about it. Which teachers are you watching? Are they part of a particular group or camp?

Jaylen: IUIC mostly, and a few others. I'm not part of anything. I just watch.

You: Thanks. Those groups differ a lot, so I don't want to assume. What do they say about Jesus?

Jaylen: They say he's the Messiah, but his real name is Yahawashi, and you have to keep the commandments.

You: So you still see Jesus as the Saviour. That's something we share. What drew you to the videos in the first place?

Jaylen: Honestly? Nobody ever told me where my people came from. They talk about slavery and Deuteronomy 28, and it hit me.

You: That makes sense. What was done to enslaved Africans was evil, and I'm glad you want to understand it. Could we read Deuteronomy 28 to 30 together this week, and talk about what it says and who it points to?

Jaylen: Yeah, okay. I'd like that.

Why should you ask someone which group they follow before you respond to what they believe?Show answer

The movements share one common thread: the belief that people of African descent in the Americas (and in many groups, other scattered peoples) are physical descendants of the tribes of Israel. Beyond that there is huge variety, from quiet congregations with synagogues and choirs, to groups that confess Jesus as Lord, to militant camps hostile to white and Jewish people. Asking which group someone follows treats them as an individual and stops you assuming you already know their beliefs.

shared belief about descent from Israel
huge variety between groups
some confess Jesus, some militant
treat the person as an individual

What two questions help you sort Hebrew Israelite groups, and how do a Judaic congregation and a Christ-confessing group differ on the first one?Show answer

Ask what the group says about Jesus and how it speaks about other peoples. A Judaic congregation, such as the main branch of Crowdy's church or the Commandment Keepers, keeps the Sabbath and festivals in a synagogue style and does not worship Jesus as God. A Christ-confessing group such as IUIC confesses Jesus (often as Yahawashi) as Messiah and Saviour, usually alongside required Torah-keeping and often without the Trinity.

what they say about Jesus
how they speak of other peoples
Judaic groups do not worship Jesus as God
Christ-confessing groups like IUIC confess him as Messiah

Early streams (1890s-1960s)

Several roots grew up independently in the decades after emancipation, when Black Americans were reading the Exodus story as their own story of bondage and deliverance.

William Saunders Crowdy, a formerly enslaved man and Union army veteran, founded the Church of God and Saints of Christ in Lawrence, Kansas, in 1896. He taught that Black people descend from the lost tribes, and the church blends Old Testament practices (Passover, Sabbath, the Hebrew calendar) with New Testament rites such as baptism and foot-washing. It still exists today; its main branch now identifies with Judaism and regards Jesus as a prophet rather than God, though some smaller branches confess him as the Son of God.

F. S. Cherry founded the Church of the Living God, the Pillar Ground of Truth for All Nations (often simply called the Church of God, or the 'Black Jews' of Philadelphia). It is usually dated to 1886 in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and moved to Philadelphia around 1915. He taught that the original Israelites were Black and that Jesus was Black, and he used the Talmud and Hebrew alongside the Bible.

Ben Ammi Ben-Israel (born Ben Carter, Chicago) led a group, formed in Chicago in the mid-1960s, that left the United States in 1967, first for Liberia and then (from 1969) for Israel, settling in Dimona. The African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem are known for vegan diet, communal life and music, and their members eventually received permanent residency in Israel (2003). They do not regard themselves as Christians.

Explain in your own words the setting in which the earliest Hebrew Israelite streams grew up.Show answer

Several roots grew up independently in the decades after emancipation. Black Americans were reading the Exodus story as their own story of bondage and deliverance. Leaders such as Crowdy, Cherry and later Ben Ammi built on that identification with Israel in different ways.

after emancipation
Exodus read as their own story
several independent roots

What is the difference between Crowdy's Church of God and Saints of Christ and Ben Ammi's African Hebrew Israelites in how they relate to Christianity?Show answer

Crowdy's church blends Old Testament practices like Passover and Sabbath with New Testament rites like baptism and foot-washing; its main branch now identifies with Judaism and sees Jesus as a prophet, though smaller branches confess him as Son of God. Ben Ammi's community left the United States for Liberia and then Israel, settling in Dimona, and does not regard itself as Christian at all. So even the early streams relate to Jesus in quite different ways.

Crowdy blends OT and NT practices
main branch sees Jesus as prophet
Ben Ammi's group not Christian
settled in Dimona, Israel

The 'camps' of the street movement

The groups most Christians meet on street corners and on YouTube come mostly from the 'One West' tradition, named after the Harlem address (1 West 125th Street) of the school led by Abba Bivens (Eber Ben Yomin) from about 1969 until his death in 1973. After his death the school split into rival camps. One line became the Israelite Church of Universal Practical Knowledge (later the Israelite Church of God in Jesus Christ); in the 1990s another faction revived the name Israelite School of Universal Practical Knowledge (ISUPK), now based in the Philadelphia area. Many further offshoots followed, such as Great Millstone (GMS) and Israel United in Christ (IUIC), founded in 2003. These groups often wear distinctive dress (fringes or 'tzitzit', robes, the colour purple), hold 'classes' in public, and call their teachers 'officers', 'captains' or 'bishops'.

Some of these camps teach that white people are 'Edomites' (descendants of Esau) and that in the coming kingdom the nations, especially Edom, will serve or be destroyed. Researchers who track extremism classify several of the most militant camps as hate groups. That is a description of some leaders' rhetoric, not of every member, and many adherents and whole groups reject violence entirely. Still, you need to be honest with a seeker about what some camps teach, and you must refuse to answer racism with racism.

Where do the street camps most Christians meet come from, and how do groups like ISUPK and IUIC relate to that origin?Show answer

They come mostly from the 'One West' tradition, named after the Harlem address of Abba Bivens' school. After his death in 1973 the school split into rival camps, and in the 1990s a faction revived the name ISUPK, now based near Philadelphia. Further offshoots followed, such as Great Millstone and Israel United in Christ (founded 2003).

One West school in Harlem
split after Bivens' death
ISUPK, GMS, IUIC as offshoots

How can you be honest about what some camps teach without being unfair to every member?Show answer

Some camps teach that white people are 'Edomites' who will serve or be destroyed in the coming kingdom, and researchers classify several of the most militant camps as hate groups. But that describes some leaders' rhetoric, not every member, and many adherents and whole groups reject violence. You should tell a seeker the truth about these teachings while refusing to answer racism with racism.

Edomite teaching in some camps
hate-group label fits some leaders' rhetoric
many reject violence
never answer racism with racism

Core claims you will hear

Most camps share a set of arguments, even if they differ on details.

The twelve tribes chart: a widely circulated chart assigns tribes to modern peoples, for example Judah to African Americans, Benjamin to West Indians, Levi to Haitians, Ephraim to Puerto Ricans, Gad to Native Americans and so on across Latin America.
Deuteronomy 28: the covenant curses (sickness, oppression, being sold as slaves, being carried 'into Egypt again with ships', 28:68) are read as a prophecy of the transatlantic slave trade, proving who the true Israel is.
The KJV and the Apocrypha: the King James Version (often with the Apocrypha, especially 2 Esdras and the Wisdom of Solomon) is the standard text. The Apocrypha is a set of Jewish writings from roughly the last centuries before Christ and the first century or so after, such as 1 and 2 Maccabees, Tobit and 2 Esdras; Protestants read them as useful history but do not count them as Scripture (you met the canon question in The Reliable Word, Lesson 2); some camps also use the Book of Enoch or Jubilees.
Torah observance: keeping the seventh-day Sabbath, the feasts (Passover, Tabernacles), the food laws and fringes, often in an 'Israelite' rather than rabbinic way.
The 'impostor' claim: many camps say today's Jewish people are not the real Israel. This claim is often expressed in antisemitic language, and you should name that respectfully but clearly.

How do the camps use Deuteronomy 28 to argue that they are the true Israel?Show answer

They read the covenant curses in Deuteronomy 28, such as sickness, oppression and being sold as slaves, as a prophecy of the transatlantic slave trade. Verse 68, about being carried 'into Egypt again with ships', is treated as especially decisive. Because they believe the curses fit their history, they claim this proves who the true Israel is.

curses read as slave trade prophecy
28:68 'into Egypt again with ships'
used to prove identity

What is the 'impostor' claim, and how should you respond when it comes up?Show answer

Many camps say that today's Jewish people are not the real Israel. This claim is often expressed in antisemitic language. You should name that respectfully but clearly rather than letting it pass.

Jewish people called not the real Israel
often antisemitic language
name it respectfully but clearly

Why the message attracts people

It helps to understand the appeal before you answer it. Hebrew Israelite teaching offers a story that explains suffering ('it was prophesied'), restores lost dignity ('you are the chosen people'), gives a clear moral code (the commandments), and provides a tight-knit community with strong male leadership. Many young men in particular find discipline, purpose and brotherhood in a camp.

It also speaks to genuine questions that some churches have avoided: Why did so many professing Christians support slavery and segregation? Why are images of Jesus so often European? Where is God in the history of Black suffering? If you dismiss those questions, you confirm the teacher's claim that Christians are hiding something. If you take them seriously and answer from Scripture, you show that the Bible has better answers than the camp does.

Why is Hebrew Israelite teaching attractive, and why is it a mistake to dismiss the questions it raises?Show answer

It offers an explanation for suffering, restored dignity, a clear moral code and a tight-knit community with strong male leadership, which draws many young men. It also speaks to real questions some churches have avoided, such as Christian support for slavery, European images of Jesus and where God is in Black suffering. Dismissing those questions confirms the teacher's claim that Christians are hiding something, while answering them from Scripture shows the Bible has better answers.

explains suffering, gives dignity and community
raises real questions churches avoided
dismissal confirms the teacher's claim
answer from Scripture

How they differ from Messianic Jews and Beta Israel

Messianic Jews are Jewish people (and those who join their congregations) who believe Jesus (Yeshua) is the Messiah. Most are Trinitarian, hold to salvation by grace through faith, and keep some Jewish customs as a matter of heritage and freedom, not as a condition of salvation. Hebrew Israelite camps usually reject both rabbinic Judaism and mainstream Messianic congregations.

Beta Israel (Ethiopian Jews) are a long-established Jewish community in Ethiopia with their own ancient practices. Israel's chief rabbinate recognised them as Jews in the 1970s, and many were airlifted to Israel in Operation Moses (1984) and Operation Solomon (1991). They are part of the wider Jewish people, with a documented continuous community, and are distinct from the American-born Hebrew Israelite movement. Some Hebrew Israelites point to them, but Beta Israel do not generally claim that African Americans are Israelites.

The takeaway: when someone says 'Black Israelite', ask what they mean. Getting the categories right shows respect and stops you from arguing against the wrong thing.

What is the difference between Messianic Jews and the Hebrew Israelite camps?Show answer

Messianic Jews are Jewish people (and those who join their congregations) who believe Jesus is the Messiah. Most are Trinitarian, hold to salvation by grace through faith, and keep Jewish customs as heritage and freedom, not as a condition of salvation. Hebrew Israelite camps usually reject both rabbinic Judaism and mainstream Messianic congregations.

Messianic Jews believe Yeshua is Messiah
mostly Trinitarian, saved by grace
customs are heritage, not salvation
camps reject them

How would you answer someone who says the Ethiopian Jews prove that African Americans are Israelites?Show answer

Beta Israel are a long-established Jewish community in Ethiopia with their own ancient practices, recognised as Jews by Israel's chief rabbinate in the 1970s and airlifted to Israel in 1984 and 1991. They are part of the wider Jewish people with a documented continuous community, and are distinct from the American-born Hebrew Israelite movement. Beta Israel do not generally claim that African Americans are Israelites.

long-established Ethiopian Jewish community
recognised and airlifted to Israel
distinct from American movement
do not claim African Americans are Israel

In their own words

“The so-called Negroes, together with other peoples scattered by the slave trade, are the true physical descendants of the twelve tribes of Israel.” (Common camp teaching, e.g. ISUPK and IUIC 'twelve tribes' charts)

“Deuteronomy 28 describes our history: sold as slaves, carried on ships, scattered among all nations, and made a byword. No other people fits all the curses.” (Deuteronomy 28:37, 48, 64, 68 (KJV), as read in camp classes)

“The Most High commands his people to keep the Sabbath, the feasts and the laws forever, so a true Israelite keeps the commandments.” (Exodus 31:16-17; Leviticus 23; Deuteronomy 22:12)

“The Apocrypha belongs in the Bible because it was in the 1611 King James Version, and it confirms Israel's scattering and return.” (2 Esdras 13:39-47; the 1611 KJV, which printed the Apocrypha between the Testaments)

“Christianity as taught in America is the white man's religion, used to keep our people asleep and enslaved.” (Frequent street-teaching line; compare the 'slave Bible' argument)

Key texts

Deuteronomy 28:1-68: The central proof text. Read the whole chapter with the person, including the blessings, before discussing verse 68.
Deuteronomy 30:1-10: The curses are followed by a promise of return when Israel turns back to the LORD. This shows Deuteronomy 28 is about covenant faithfulness, not a racial marker.
Exodus 21:16: Kidnapping and selling a person is a capital crime in the Law. Scripture itself condemns the man-stealing at the heart of the Atlantic slave trade.
1 Timothy 1:9-10: Paul lists 'enslavers' (ESV; KJV 'menstealers') among the lawless. Useful to show the New Testament does not bless chattel slavery.
Acts 17:26: God made 'of one blood all nations' (KJV). A shared starting point against racism from every side.
Revelation 7:9: The redeemed come from every nation, tribe and tongue. God's people are multi-ethnic by design.

Objections and answers

Try answering each one yourself before you open the response.

“You are just defending the white man's religion. Christianity was forced on our ancestors with a whip.”Show a response

It is true that many slaveholders used a distorted Christianity, even editing Bibles to remove passages about freedom. That was wicked, and we should say so without excuses. But the faith did not begin in Europe. It began in Jerusalem among Middle Eastern Jews, and spread early into Africa: the Ethiopian official in Acts 8, the church in Alexandria, and North African leaders like Augustine. Enslaved Africans also read the Bible for themselves and found in it a God who judges oppressors (Exodus 3:7-9) and a Christ who sets captives free. The abuse of a thing does not prove it false; it proves the abusers disobeyed it. Exodus 21:16 makes man-stealing a capital crime. The question is not who misused the Bible, but whether Jesus is who he said he is.

“No other people fits Deuteronomy 28 like us. That proves we are Israel.”Show a response

I agree the suffering of enslaved Africans was real and terrible. But Deuteronomy 28 is a covenant chapter addressed to the nation that stood at Sinai, and it was fulfilled in Israel's recorded history: famines, sieges, the Assyrian and Babylonian exiles, and the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, after which Josephus says many captives were sent to labour in Egypt. Many peoples have been enslaved and scattered, including Africans enslaved across the Sahara and Indian Ocean and Slavs in Europe, so 'fitting' the curses does not identify a people. And Deuteronomy 30 says the cure for the curses is turning to the LORD, which the New Testament says happens through the Messiah.

“Why should I trust a Bible without the Apocrypha? The 1611 KJV had it.”Show a response

The 1611 KJV did print the Apocrypha, but between the Testaments and under a separate heading, and the Church of England's Thirty-Nine Articles said these books are read for example of life but not used to establish doctrine. Jesus refers to the Hebrew Scriptures as 'the law of Moses, and the prophets, and the psalms' (Luke 24:44), the three-part Jewish canon that did not include these books. The Apocrypha is valuable history (1 Maccabees, for example), but even inside it, 1 Maccabees 9:27 admits there were no prophets at that time. So reading it is fine; building doctrine on it is not what the KJV translators did either.

“Jewish people today are impostors. The real Jews are Black.”Show a response

I need to be honest with you: this claim has been used to stir up hatred and even violence against Jewish people, and I can't go along with it. Jewish communities have a continuous, documented history in the Land, in Babylon, across the Mediterranean, in Europe, in Yemen, in Ethiopia and elsewhere, and Jewish people come in many ethnic appearances. More importantly, Paul says Israel's calling is 'without repentance' (Romans 11:28-29, KJV) and calls the Jewish people of his day 'my kinsmen according to the flesh' (Romans 9:3). Your dignity does not depend on taking someone else's. Christ offers you a sure place in God's family that no one can take away.

“You Christians call us a hate group. We just teach the truth about who we are, and you're trying to smear us.”Show a response

I don't want to smear you, and I won't assume you hold every view of every camp. That's why I'd like to ask which group you follow and what you personally believe. The hate-group label that researchers use describes the rhetoric of some leaders in some camps, not every member, and many Israelites reject violence entirely. But if any teacher says whole peoples are Edomites destined to serve or be destroyed, I have to say plainly that Scripture contradicts it. God 'hath made of one blood all nations' (Acts 17:26), every person bears his image (Genesis 1:27), and the end of the story is a people from every nation worshipping the Lamb together (Revelation 7:9). I won't answer that kind of teaching with racism of my own. I'd rather we open the Bible together.

“The Ethiopian Jews are Black and Israel itself recognised them. That proves the Israelites were always a Black people.”Show a response

Beta Israel are a real and remarkable community. They have their own ancient practices, Israel's chief rabbinate recognised them as Jews in the 1970s, and many were airlifted to Israel in Operation Moses and Operation Solomon. But notice what that shows: that there are Jewish people of African descent with a documented, continuous community, not that all Black people, or African Americans in particular, are Israel. Beta Israel themselves do not generally make that claim. And even if a bloodline could be proved, Paul says 'they are not all Israel, which are of Israel' (Romans 9:6); salvation never rested on descent. Scripture's own Ethiopian story is the official in Acts 8, who heard about Jesus from Isaiah 53 and was baptised. His joy came from Christ, not a genealogy.

Written task

A colleague's nephew has started following a Hebrew Israelite channel and asks you, 'Isn't it true that Black people are the real Jews?' Write a 250-350 word reply that (a) shows you understand what he has been hearing and why it is attractive, (b) briefly explains the diversity of Hebrew Israelite groups, (c) gently but clearly rejects racist and antisemitic claims, and (d) points him toward Jesus as the source of identity and dignity.

Hand this in to Mr Scott. He will look for:

Accurately represents at least two core Hebrew Israelite claims in terms an adherent would recognise
Acknowledges the real evil of slavery and racism without minimising it
Explicitly rejects racism toward any group and antisemitism, with a scriptural basis (e.g. Acts 17:26, Romans 11:28-29)
Distinguishes between different camps rather than treating all Hebrew Israelites as identical
Ends with a warm invitation to consider Christ, not merely a refutation