Thread by @Adderabbi

Another point to clarify, concerning the belief that Black Americans are Semitic:
I have no problem with the belief itself, regardless of whether or not it is true. @Amareisreal believes this, and it led him to become a righteous Jew with real ahavat Yisrael.
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https://twitter.com/Adderabbi/status/1588428303580352512

The problem is the belief that ONLY Black people are the true Jews or Israelites or Hebrews or Semites. That non-Black/White/European/Caucasian/Ashkenazi Jews are at best medieval converts and at worst usurpers conspiring to oppress the "real" children of Israel
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And there's also the obvious etymological fallacy concerning the term 'antisemitism.' It was never about Semites. It was never about speakers of Arabic, Aramaic, Amharic, Tigrinya, etc. It was a racial term applied by Germans to Jews in the 19th century. 3/

That is, the term was coined to describe the animosity that Germans felt toward specifically European, Ashkenazic Jews - coined by those who harbor this animosity - to racialize what had been a religious or xenophobic hatred. 4/

The term "antisemitism" stuck, for whatever reasons. Some think we should jettison the word altogether. But make no mistake: the term refers to animosity toward Jews specifically. If you hate Ashkenazim but don't think they're of Semitic origin, you're still an antisemite. 5/

The problem is not with thinking that Black people (and Original Americans) are descendants of Israelite tribes.
The problem is with thinking that I'm not.
Ashkenazim have suffered for being "Semites" and have suffered for being descendants of the people who killed Jesus. 6/

If Jesus was Black, then the folks who allegedly killed him were Black too. To suggest that Ashkenazim could have avoided persecution and murder by simply saying, "Hey, I'm Khazar, not Semite. Jesus was Black, I'm white, etc." trivializes 1000+ years of mass Jewish suffering 7/

Jesus and the Jews of his time looked Middle Eastern. The color of sandalwood, according to the Mishnah (c. 200 CE, not long after Jesus, in historical terms). But that is irrelevant, because Jews of every color have been victimized by Jew-hatred. 8/

And another thing: there's no such thing as a "racially pure" Jew/Israelite. Not one in the world. Every last one of us has foreign blood coursing through our veins. Conversion, rape, consensual sex, adoption, babies switched at birth, etc. all contribute to this mixing. 9/

And it means that minorities take on the characteristics of majority culture over time. So yeah, European Jews have the blood of European converts, rapists, lovers, and adopted children mixed in. Same is true everywhere, to a greater or lesser degree. Over time, it adds up. 10/

What determines who is a Jew is a hard, fraught question, but it's not about blood purity. Never was. Yeah, there are Jewish bigots and racists, but bottom line, there is no prescribed, correct Jewish "color." Jews can be and are of any and every color. 11/

So where does that leave us? As I wrote in the earlier thread (linked again for convenience), it's necessary to study the phenomenon, understand its scope and spread, etc. Then we need education. But what kind of education? 12/

https://twitter.com/Adderabbi/status/1588428303580352512

The education cannot consist of telling Black people, "You're not really Semites. You're not really Israelites." Part of it has to be exposing crackpot theories - like those of Koestler, Wexler, Sand, Elhaik - who Jew-haters LOVE to quote - are marginal, crackpot, unserious 13/

And also showing why. Showing the continuity of Jewish life today with Jewish life of 2000 years ago. The continuity of language, culture, religion, etc., that there's no gap, that we never got off this boat.
And then - here's the crucial part - use that to extend a hand 14/

Ye and Kyrie believe that they are Israelites whose identities were forgotten during 400 years of slavery. The first response has got to be empathy. Enslavement erases identity. Slaves were forced to speak the master's language, adopt his religion, carry his seed and name. 15/

And the second response has to be an invitation: We Jews have suffered terribly, but we were fortunate enough to be able to retain our identity, our texts, our memory, our heritage. Come learn about it with us. We retained knowledge of it, and we'd love to share it with you. 16/

This, of course, is the @Amareisreal story. He tells it here: tmz.com/watch/071620-a…
And pay attention to the last minute, where he talks about learning to make 100 blessings a day, live a life of loving kindness, learn Hebrew, keep Shabbos - in yeshiva. 17/

Nobody told him to give up his beliefs about being a descendant of Israelites. They said: Come, let's learn. Let us show you the beauty of the tradition that your people forgot during those 400 years of enslavement.
Let's learn together. Let the Torah unite us. 18/

And on that note, I will sign off shortly to experience and celebrate the joys and delights of Shabbos (or Shabbat, Sabato, Shabbetha, the Sabbath) with my family and friends. Shabbat shalom. 19/fin