Black and Jewish: Language and Multiple Strategies for Self-Presentation 1

Smaller numbers of black Jews immigrated to the united States from Jewish communities in ethiopia, uganda, nigeria, and elsewhere in sub-Saharan africa.3 Finally, some black Jews are descendants of black people who converted to Judaism or who had children with white Jews several generations ago. in some families, Judaism goes back to the days of slavery, when black slaves sometimes adopted the religion of their white owners, a very small percentage of whom were Jewish. 4 Some discussions of black Jews also include people who adhere to Messianic Judaism (a movement in which adherents identify as Jews and accept Jesus as the Messiah), as well as communities known as hebrew israelites (african americans who believe they are descendants of the ancient israelites), which adopted Jewish religious beliefs and practices over the last several decades.5 although these groups are beyond the scope of this paper, their language deserves in-depth analysis, as it incorporates distinctive black and Jewish features, including hebrew words with pronunciation distinct from that of other hebrew users in america.