User:RebeccaHUNY/sandbox

Article Evaluation

1947-1949 Palestine War In the Aftermath section, under Demographic consequences, there is a lot of information on where Jews fled to after the war and in what quantities. But the section seems to only provide information on one party of the war. I’m curious as to what the numbers were for the Arab/Palestinian side. Where did they go to and in what numbers? I have no opinion on the conflict, there just seems to be an imbalance of information. Both sides should be represented by a [relatively] equal amount of facts to give new-comers to the topic a more unbiased teaching of the subject. I personally don't know the numbers and facts for each side but think this imbalance creates the image that there were many exiled on one side and not the other. My point here is to create a more wholesome view of the war, one Wikipedia aims to provide (I don't know if this is just my opinion)

Article Selection

African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem

I would like to work on this Wiki topic: African Israelites of Jerusalem. I found this topic through the WikiProject: African Diaspora; the article had "mid" importance but only a "start" quality. There were several parts to the article that requested citations.

Article Addition:

Origins (to be added to "Origins" section)

Ben Ammi was working in an airline factory when he was exposed to the Black Hebrew movement and thought. In 1966, at the age of 27, Ben Ammi experienced a revelation through a vision of the biblical archangel Gabriel, leading him to congregate community members to migrate to their promised land.

The inspiration to move to Israel was born from several components. One was the hardship black community members faced in America and within American culture, especially in Chicago in the 1960s, at the height of the Civil rights movement. Another component was the community’s will to form a confident and positive African identity, as oppose to the damaging identity the group felt they carried in America. The last component was this spout of religious and spiritual connection to a long-standing culture and history and promised land.

Migration to Liberia (new section to better organize chronology of page, will be integrated with current info)

The group members first went to Liberia, where they built a community adhering to “laws of righteousness.” Community leader at the time, Prince Rakhamim, expanded on what living in Liberia did for the community:

"We chose to stay there about three and a half years in order to get get rid of the foolishness of America before making way to the land of Israel. To make a person born again. To die from the hell we came out of, to get rid of it—to learn to get rid of the hate… to get rid of our bitterness… Liberia was always conceived as the place where we would earn o be righteous. Those of us who wanted to do right shredded of the hate and came home to Israel.”

Status in Israel (to be added to and integrated with "Status in Israel")

It is unclear if Israel was always the end-goal for the community, or if Ben Ammi received another vision in 1969, when the community was in Libera, telling him to take the community to their real promised land: Israel. The African Hebrew Israelite community holds that this ambiguity doesn’t lessen their motivations for a home in Israel in any manner. Despite public opinion holding Israel as part of the middle east and technically Asia, the group holds that Israel is part of Africa. The group aimed to immigrate to Israel under the Israeli Law of Return, which states all Jews who come to live in Israel will be granted citizenship. However, this Israeli law considers someone to be "Jewish" if they have at least one Jewish parent or grandparent. As Ben Ammi and his followers did not fit this requirement, they did not qualify for citizenship. Nevertheless, this deterrence did not stop them from settling in Israel. Most Black Hebrews have entered Israel as tourists and have ignored their tourist visas’ time allowance.

Early on, the African Hebrew Israelites were vocal about them being the single inheritor to the land of Israel. By the late 1980’s, the group tempered this notion; they understand Israel to be a nation of many cultures, races, and religions. There has been a long standing tension between the Black Hebrews and the State of Israel. As the group illegally resided in Dimona, Israel, a group of about fifty were arrested in 1986. Later, about 80% were deported form Israel. Six years later, in 1992, The Black Congressional Caucus of the United Stated Congress intervened. Their intervention led to an agreement that the Black Hebrews would get temporary residence if they held off on receiving new members.

Topics to potentially expand on?

BEGINNINGS - went from America to Liberia, 350 people in 1967, then Liberia to Israel in 1969, 1970, started the Kingdom of Yah (Article doesn't mention this)

TRADITION AND CULTURE - They cook everything from "solar" heat, vegan tradition based on Torah passages/interpretations - once source mentioned polygamy was practiced by some until the 1990s? (need to find better sources)

TENSIONS BETWEEN GROUP AND ISRAELI GOV https://www.nytimes.com/1981/01/30/world/israelis-urged-to-act-over-black-hebrew-cult.html - only recently have African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem been drafted into the army

Sources:

The Hebrew Israelite Community (A. Paul Hare) (book) https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/black-hebrews https://www.nytimes.com/1981/01/30/world/israelis-urged-to-act-over-black-hebrew-cult.html

Jewish Virtual Library https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/law-of-return

African American Religious Cultures (Anthony B. Pinn) https://books.google.com/books?id=xEEIY4Q1ZAIC&pg=PA112#v=onepage&q&f=false

Israel as Africa, Africa as Israel: "Divine Geography" in the Personal Narratives and Community Identity of the Black Hebrew Israelites (Fran Markowitz) Anthropological Quarterly Vol. 69, No. 4 (Oct., 1996), pp. 193-205 (13 pages) https://www.jstor.org/stable/3317528?seq=3#metadata_info_tab_contents