Earlier this month, I was invited to attend the 54th annual Middle East Institute at Congregation Beth El in Voorhees. The program began with honoring a friend of mine, Rabbi Aaron Krupnick, rabbi emeritus of Congregation Beth El, with the 2023 Jewish Community Relations Council Advocacy Award.
The Middle East Institute is an annual event designed to educate the community and foster understanding about current topics relevant to Israel and the Middle East through experts with varying perspectives and backgrounds. This year’s event was focused on the relationship between the Black Church and Israel and Africa’s connection to the Jewish people.
Pastor Dumisani Washington, the founder and CEO of the Institute for Black Solidarity with Israel, was the keynote speaker. Author of “Zionism and The Black Church: Why Standing with Israel Will be a Defining Issue for Christians of Color in the 21st Century,” he has dedicated his ministry to strengthening the relationship between Israel and people of African descent through education and advocacy.
Black Solidarity with Israel condemns the “Zionism is racism” ideology; defends Israel’s right to live in peace with its Arab neighbors, and seeks to help cultivate a mutually beneficial Israel-Africa alliance.
Born in 1967 in segregated Little Rock, Arkansas, and raised in San Francisco and Stockton, California, in a Christian spirituality steeped in Zionism, Pastor Washington heard sermons growing up based on Hebrew Scriptures and listened to Gospel songs about Jerusalem at his church.
“This was always part of what was a stereotypical Black church,” he said in an interview last month with the Jerusalem Post. “There are lots of songs of Zion, songs of Jerusalem, spiritual stories that go back for centuries that talk about Moses and the children of Israel and Egypt. That’s very standard for most Black Church attendees.”
He recalled that when he was in high school, he read about Operation Moses, the rescue mission that saved thousands of Ethiopian Jews who had escaped civil war and famine and were languishing in refugee camps in Sudan. From November 1984 to January 1985, some 8,000 Ethiopian Jews were transported to Israel.
“It captured me,” Pastor Washington said of learning about Operation Moses. “I wanted to know more later on about the Jewish roots of my faith. These things were all part of my journey … it made me more curious about Israel and wanting to know about Jewish people.”
Fostering closer ties between the African-American and Jewish communities is very important to Pastor Washington, especially with the rise of antisemitism, and with Black celebrities such as Kanye West (Ye) and Kyrie Irving making anti-Jewish statements.
“Their false teachings are exploiting the lack of understanding of Scripture. A lot of young men get pulled in looking for some sort of stability, looking for connectedness,” he said. “It’s filling a void that’s there in terms of family and community. … They get pulled into what’s essentially a cult. One of the most dangerous aspects of this Jew hatred is how Black anti-Semites like Ye are joining forces with white supremacist neo-Nazis who claim to leave their racism behind in order to create a united front and fight those they both falsely perceive to be their common enemy – the Jewish people.”
He summed up his remarks by explaining that “as a Christian pastor, I stand with Israel because the Bible tells us to bless Abraham’s seed and pray for the peace of Jerusalem. I stand with Israel because Israel is, in the words of Dr. [Martin Luther] King [Jr.], ‘an oasis of brotherhood and democracy’ and that, ‘we must stand with all our might to protect its [Israel’s] right to exist.”
Father Joseph D. Wallace is diocesan director of Ecumenical and Inter-religious Affairs and pastor of Christ the Redeemer Parish, Atco.
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