Black Hebrew Israelites Get New Life From Kanye

It’s not the quantity or quality of Ye’s anti-Semitism that has made his unbridled bigotry so dangerous – even though it has been both prolific and horrific. Ye embodies a unique – and toxic – potential given his status as a worldwide influencer.

Ye has an enormous platform, making his reach ripe for anti-Semites, both on the Left and Right, to take advantage of him. These anti-Semites believe it is incumbent upon them – a “moral necessity” in Peterson’s words – to spread their hatred of Jews.

Media personalities on both sides of the aisle have also gleefully amplified Ye’s voice.

On the Far Right, White Supremacists like Nick Fuentes have attached themselves to Ye, accompanying him to a dinner at former President Trump’s house as well as appearing with him on Alex Jones’ Infowars (where Ye’s first profession of love for Hilter took place, a shocking statement even for Jones).

Ye’s words have also put into prominence another group with which his message resonated: the Black Hebrew Israelites (BHI).

Defending his “death con 3 on the Jewish people” tweet, Kanye declared that he couldn’t be called an anti-Semite because "black people are actually Jew [sic]."

With that comment, Kanye spotlighted the Black Hebrew Israelites, a growing movement among black Americans.

Others reject Christianity altogether and rely on their interpretation of the Old Testament, the Tanach and/or the Talmud.

Many Black Hebrew Israelites believe that because of their sins, black people were exiled from the Holy Land and sent to Africa. These groups tie the curses prophesized in the Bible (Deuteronomy 28:15-68) to the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. Other ills that are perceived to have befallen black people are also viewed as divine punishments for not keeping their covenant with God.

The many different groups of Black Hebrew Israelites range from peaceful to extremist and from conciliatory to Jews to hostile. Yet it is the extremist groups that have gained media attention in recent years due to their confrontational street preaching and the use of the internet to promote their anti-Semitic ideology.

Black Hebrew Israelites have also become a cause celebre among a number of high-profile Black entertainers and athletes.

When Kyrie Irving, the NY Nets superstar who tweeted out a link to the anti-Semitic film film “Hebrews to Negroes: Wake up Black America!”, it was the extremist Black Hebrew group Israel United in Christ (IUIC) that came out to support Irving.

Watch how Irving’s supporters from the Black Hebrew Israelite group  Sicarii affirm their support for Hitler while confronting a passerby in front of a NY Nets venue:

The film Irving promoted espouses extremist Black Hebrew ideology and spews large doses of virulent anti-Semitic tropes, including the claim that Jews have a plan for world domination, that Jews stole the identity of African-Americans and that Jews control the media.

When initially asked to apologize for peddling anti-Semitism, Irving replied, “I cannot be antisemitic if I know where I come from,” invoking a classic Black Hebrew belief.

The controversy continued until Irving eventually apologized for the film’s anti-Semitic content. One of those who urged him to do so was retired NBA star, Amar’e Stoudemire.

Stoudemire converted to Judaism and became an Orthodox Jew in 2020. In a now-deleted post on Instagram, he defended Irving for exploring his heritage, saying he personally “dedicated about 20-plus years of my life on researching and learning who we are as a people.”

Stoudemire urged Irving to apologize for “the little portion that’s inside the video that’s hurtful to the Jewish people,” adding, “As an Israelite, it’s our job to be a holy nation, so we understand that.”

Other famous media personalities have also espoused Black Hebrew ideology after becoming embroiled in their own anti-Semitic controversies.

Actor, rapper and comedian Nick Cannon, along with rapper Professor Griff, spewed classic anti-Semitic tropes in a 2020 podcast when they claimed that Jews control the media and the “Rothchilds” control the economy.

When pressed to apologize, Cannon declared, “It’s never hate speech; you can’t be antisemitic when we are the Semitic people, when we are the same people who they want to be. That’s our birthright. We are the true Hebrews.”

After being introduced to the Black Hebrew Israelite movement, rapper Kendrick Lamar sang in his 2017 hit song YAH, “I’m an Israelite, don’t call me black no mo’/ That word is only a color, it ain’t facts no mo’.”

Although the extremist groups within the movement aren’t the majority, they are the most high profile. They are also virulently anti-Semitic.

Scripturally, these groups base their ideology on a verse in Revelations (2:9), which states,

“I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich) and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan…”

The more extremist sects also believe “white” Jews are “Edomites,” the descendants of Esau, the biblical nemesis of Jacob.

These groups believe that Jews forced Blacks into other religions and usurped their identity. They further believe the Edomites, who they consider the “seed of the devil,” will become their slaves when the “real Jews wake up.”

The extremist groups are also anti-white Black supremacists. Members of these groups have been responsible for violence, most recently in December 2019, when two Black Hebrew Israelites killed a police officer and then opened fire on a Jewish supermarket, killing two more in Jersey City, New Jersey.

That same month, another Black Hebrew extremist attacked a group of Orthodox Jews with a machete while they were celebrating Chanukah in Monsey, New York. A 72-year-old rabbi died from his wounds three months after the attack.

Earlier, in October 2019, a Black Hebrew man assaulted two people at a Miami synagogue while calling them “fake Jews.”

Attacks by Black Hebrews occurred in the 1970s and 1980s as well. In 1974, a Black Hebrew opened fire in a church, killing Alberta King, the mother of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

In the 1980s, 14 people were killed by members of the Nation of Yahweh, a Black Hebrew group. Victims included people who were white and had left the sect.

Israel United in Christ (IUIC) is the largest of the extremist Black Hebrew Israelite groups. It was founded in 2003 by Nathaniel Ray, who now goes by the name of Bishop Nathanyel Ben Israel and leads the organization like a cult.

During the course of his former job as an NYPD detective, Ray allegedly framed two young Black men for a robbery they didn’t commit. The men, who couldn’t afford bail, spent 11 months in jail until the truth came out and the charges against them were dropped.

In a video uploaded to IUIC’s YouTube channel in 2019, Ray, while at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, wrote a prayer on a piece of paper which he put in the wall asking for “death to all Esau and all Edumi [Edomites],” i.e., death to all Jews.

The video also mocked the ancient Jewish custom of making a written supplication to God and inserting it into a crevice in the wall.

In November 2022, hundreds of IUIC members decked in matching purple shirts marched to the Barclays Center in Brooklyn in a show of force supporting point guard Irving.

The group chanted, “Hey, Jacob, it’s time to wake up,” referring to the group’s belief that Blacks are the biological descendant of the biblical Jacob. This was followed by, “We’ve got some good news. We are the real Jews.” 

The internet has been a boon to IUIC and other extremists Black Hebrew Israelite groups, who are active on many social media platforms. IUIC alone has 126,000 subscribers to its main YouTube channel, IUICintheClassRoom, which has a total of 29.4 million views.

IUIC has grown to 71 branches in the United States and 20 overseas. In a recorded sermon on January 21, 2020, Bishop Nathanyel called the Jews, “The devil that the Bible even speaks of” and “the house of demons.”

Another IUIC leader said, “They lie in their media, they lie in their synagogues, they lie all over the place, everything they do is about lying.”

In October 2020, IUIC posted, “Black people have been experiencing a Holocaust since the 1400s and the #Jewish man has perpetuated the situation.”

This vitriolic anti-Semitism is typical of IUIC and the other extremist groups within the Black Hebrew Israelite movement.