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[Ethiopian Hebrews in Harlem.]

Paris: Europress, 3, Rue Gabriel Laumain, [ca. 1960.]. 23 silver prints (most approx. 10.5” x 8”, or the reverse). With Europress agency stamp and pencil notations verso.

An engaging collection of twenty-three press photos documenting the lives and practices of African Hebrew communities in Harlem around 1960.

These photos show services and congregation members, both young and old, male and female, and a number of images capture Commander Keepers founder Wentworth A. Matthew who led the congregation at Beth B’Nai Abraham in Harlem, established by Rabbi Arnold J. Ford (1877–1935) in 1924. Images show an Ethiopian man greeting two black women during a service; white Jewish children and Ethiopian children at a service wearing Yamakas; elder Ethiopian men who were evidently religious and community leaders; lighting the Menorah; Ethiopian youth seated for worship; a woman playing piano during services; reading the Torah; prayer before a meal; stained glass windows; outdoor scenes of the congregation before or after worship; shots of groups of worshipers singing at service; a trip to a kosher meat market, and so forth.

Born in Ethiopia, Rabbi Wentworth A. Matthew (1892–1973) was the founder and principal Rabbi of the Beth Ha Tphila Ethiopian Congregation in Harlem. In 1919, he established the Commandment Keepers of the Living God, a Black Hebrew congregation, and after graduating from Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati in 1923 became the first ordained black rabbi in America. In 1925, he founded the Ethiopian Hebrew Rabbinical College. Influenced by pan-Africanism and the black nationalism of Marcus Garvey, Rabbi Matthew developed his religious community along Jewish lines of observance and the notion that they were returning to Judaism as the ‘true’ Hebrews—a perception of black Hebrews that was generally not accepted by Euro-American Jews of the Orthodox and Conservative communities. In 1930, the congregation was incorporated and moved to Brooklyn, where Matthew founded the Israelite Rabbinical Academy to teach and ordain African-American rabbis. At the time of his death in 1973, his congregation embraced over 250 members.

An unusual photographic survey of an African American Jewish community.

REFERENCES: Rabbi Sholomo Ben Levy. Biography of Rabbi Arnold Josiah Ford at blackjews.org; “Rabbi Wentworth Matthew, Led Ethiopian Temple Here,” New York Times (Dec. 5, 1973), p. 43.

CONDITION: Very good, minor wear to images, photos curled.

Item #6511

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