Militant Wing of Hebrew Israelite Movement Growing and Radicalizing
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On this week’s podcast, Mark Potok and I talk about our new Intelligence Report cover story, “Ready for War,” which is about the black supremacist wing of the Hebrew Israelite movement. With an increasingly militant leadership, this movement has been spreading across the country, preaching a frightening, racist theology that says Jesus Christ is returning soon to kill or enslave white people, Jews, homosexuals, and others.
on September 6th, 2008 at 2:49 am
The hebrew isrealites have been in OKC for several years, since at least the late 1990s. They are pretty low key; I haven’t encountered any of the confrontational tactics discussed in the article.
I think it’s important that SPLC makes note of the root causes of black racism, although I think that all racism can be traced to social and economic factors, either in the desire to preserve unearned wealth and status, or the feeling that wealth and status is being unfairly withheld.
“The cause of KuKluxism, as with most social diseases, lies in rivalry, which, under pressure, breaks out into open warfare. There is always someone ready to serve as the leader of such outbreaks, but they are not the cause but the effect of an underlying cause, which is usually economic. When a herd of cattle stampedes, it is the whole herd that is stampeding, not just this or that bull which the herd has pushed forward. Moreover, give a herd of cattle all the green grass and fresh water they need, and not even Mussolini or Adolf Hitler can make them stampede…If Adolf Hitler had come to my Munich in the 1890s, all his eloquence would not have pried a bakers dozen of Bavarians loose from their beloved stiens. Coming after the defeat of 1918 and the trial by hunger that followed on its heels, he was able to walk away with the whole of germany.”
Oscar Ameringer, the archetect of the Socialist Party in Oklahoma, and one of the key crusaders against the Oklahoma Klan.
http://digital.library.okstate.....AM014.html
on September 11th, 2008 at 12:41 pm
Comparing the Hebrew Israelites to the KKK is like comparing apples and oranges.
The Hebrew Israelites are a religious cult with no real ties to the power structure, let alone the black community. In fact, other militant black organizations view them as clowns and charlatans.
The Klan has people inside the Bush administration, in both houses of Congress, in State and local governments, and in a wide array of frateral organizations such as the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) and the Scottish Rite Freemasons.
In addition, the comparison is based upon a flawed definition of racism; one that does not address the actual power relationship between the oppressed and the oppressor.
So, in short, the Hebrew Israelites have the political and economic power to be bigoted, but not racist.
on September 11th, 2008 at 1:55 pm
I disagree that ALL racism can be traced back to social-economic factors, however the above illustration is well worth addressing in context. Bigotry may also be past down through a nurture-family system dynamic causality (in that it may be learned).
It is a very complex issue. While I am NOT a socialist; a level playing field is a great first step. The element of ANY misappropriation of funds and opportunity may generate this feeling and that was why the past use of favoring anyone on the basis of their skin color or ethnicity created discord. Also called “Affirmative Action”; many men & women felt it was an affront to their ability level.
The man or woman of color had asked themselves in their private moments “did I get this position based on my achievements or simply because I was a minority?”. This did NOTHING to bolster self reliance, self esteem, or cohesive interaction between the races.
Issues like Christian Identity or Hebrew Israelite movements are attempts to bolster self esteem in those who see their past religiosity or world view not yielding up the fruits of their labors. They see themselves as deserving of “the good things” in life as much as the next man or woman but sadly they don’t achieve. not everyone can win in certain things. So they choose to create a myth & live by it.
If such statistics are available I would bet that the level of poverty and drug addiction within the Jewish population is on par with other groups when contextual statistic elements are resolved.
Sadly or otherwise, life does not always deliver what one would like it to.
When finally, one does makes peace with the demons that call us to hate our fellows; we begin see that we all bleed red, our tears are all salty, and our laughter is the same in any language.
on September 11th, 2008 at 11:05 pm
Here’s a good story describing one gay white man’s experience working with the Nation of Yahweh (hebrew israelites). I wish I could listen to this podcast, but my computer doesn’t have speakers. Is there anyway that the SPLC could provide a copy of the transcript from the podcast for those of us w/crappy computers?
* * *
How Learning to Trust the Lord Jesus Christ Saved My Life From a Dangerous Cult!
He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me out of deep waters. He rescued me from my powerful enemy, from my foes, who were too strong for me. They confronted me in the day of my disaster, but the LORD was my support. He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me. Psalm 18: 16-19; NIV
I tried to reason with the officer as he became angry and seemed about ready to arrest me. “You’re starting to make me mad. You need to leave right now,” said the police officer.
“That’s right, we’re taking over,” jeered Bahti’ Yah Yisrael, member of the notorious Nation of Yahweh cult, “we’ll work with anyone to get what we want!”
“Oh my God! She’s having you arrested,” said the lady from across the street who wandered in to get a couple loaves of free bread. I told her not to worry about me and I quietly left the warehouse. My portrait on the 36 ft. mural on the building’s front shed a tear as I said good-bye to my fellow volunteers for the last time and fled Rochester, New York.
* * *
I was 21 when I moved to Rochester in 1998 after my car broke down while I was visiting my brother. I stayed for almost 10 years; I started a nonprofit free meal program that went on to provide a variety of services to the urban poor. I motivated other young adults to volunteer to cook free meals for the homeless in city parks. I quickly became a weekend warrior fighting against hunger for over four years until I got laid off from my day job at an emergency shelter for teenagers. In 2003, I leased a warehouse and allocated all of my personal resources, dedicated every waking moment to launching my food distribution program. Through sacrifice, repeated media exposure and hard work, I began to make progress: my small trucking operation provided over 10,000 lbs. of groceries to over 500 people per week and bought a warehouse to launch a bike recycling program for kids. I even secured federal funding for “Friends Helping Friends” through the “faith-based” initiative for excellent grassroots nonprofits.
I was an ex-Catholic that was anything but “saved” when I began my ministry. I was an out-of-control atheist that flaunted my lack of faith and dissolute lifestyle; I gravitated towards humanitarian work to fill a void in my life. As I worked exhausting hours for no pay, I wondered why was I doing this? I often fell asleep feeling confused and lost. After talking with a neighborhood pastor, she told me that even though I didn’t believe in him, God controls me like a marionette puppet; this was the most reasonable explanation I had ever heard and it made total sense to me! One day the pastor took me to bring a small shipment of groceries to a single mother whose daughter had been shot
several times and couldn’t afford to buy the groceries they needed for her to heal. As I watched the pastor talk with the mother, I saw God working through her and I’ve been a believer ever since. Even though I became “saved,” I still didn’t understand much about God or how to listen for his instruction. Little did I know, my life would soon depend on my ability to discern and follow God’s will.
In 2006, I couldn’t secure the needed funding for the organization. I had purchased two warehouses; one warehouse was for receiving and redistributing food products, as well as coordinating a thrift store, other warehouse was for receiving, repairing and redistributing hundreds of old bicycles. The organization relied on my fundraising efforts; overwhelmed with work, a series of controversies and personality conflicts had prevented me from securing funding to pay for the organizational expenses. Our board members resigned as the mortgages for our warehouses became delinquent and the lenders began to threaten foreclosure. As I recruited and assembled a new board of directors, a cult member, saw her chance to seize the company’s assets.
* * *
We worked in Rochester’s infamous “crescent,” the highest crime and poverty area in the City. We would regularly clean up drug paraphernalia and bullets, while watching the sales of crack-cocaine. When I met Ms. Bahtiyah Israel, who presented as a hard working, clean living, community-oriented black lady who lived in the neighborhood, I thought I’d found a great person to work with.
Bahtiyah would always talk about the Nation of Yahweh, an intentional community that she used to live at in Miami, FL. I found a number of disturbing stories about the Nation of Yahweh on the internet; websites told the story of a bizarre black supremacist cult that amassed a business empire of hundreds of millions of dollars before the leaders were abruptly convicted on charges of orchestrating many grisly counts of murder. When I confronted her, Bahtiyah responded that people in the government wanted to seize their assets, so prosecutors framed the leaders of the Nation of Yahweh and threw them in jail on false charges based on circumstantial evidence and gave me propaganda describing a virtuous religious sect that had been wrongly persecuted. Since Bahtiyah seemed kind-hearted and appeared to like the company of white people, I figured Bahtiyah was telling the truth; after all, the negative accounts seemed so outlandish and macabre. Bahtiyah and I seemed to run the large volume food distribution program together at times and I’d grown to rely on her presence. After two and half years of working together, Ms. Israel changed the spelling of her name, became mean-spirited and seemed to seethe with anger; the cheerful and polite lady whom I once knew had disappeared. One day, Bahti’ Yah came into the food cupboard and called some of the other volunteers to witness her performance: she accused me of trying to kill her by cutting her brake line (in a van I gave her), and began to pray for me, a demonic force in her eyes, to leave.
Her anger seemed to pass after we discussed the matter, until we began having board meetings where Bahti’ Yah began lashing out in an irrational rage against me. I couldn’t understand what was going on Bahti’ Yah’s head until one night I found on the internet an “intelligence report” on the Nation of Yahweh from a legal advocacy group. As I read the report on a NOY conference that Bahti’ Yah had just attended, I saw a video clip of a speaker who the NOY members thought was the Son of God. Bahti’ Yah’s God preached about how white people were the root source of injustice and evil. The speaker reminded me of a Nazi agitator denouncing Jewish people; I had a sinking feeling after I realized that I had been duped all along. I saw a profile for one of the Nation’s leaders, a fanatical murderer named “Job Israel” that developed his own hair care products. A few months ago, Bahti’ Yah briefly put me on the phone with one of her friends who had a business tip for me. “His name’s Job, he’s a brother from the Nation AND he owns his own line of hair care products,” she told me. Even though a $20,000 grant I had secured was ready to disperse, I now knew that Bahti’ Yah was deeply involved with a ruthless cult; I turned down the funding and began to make plans to leave town.
Before I could wrap up my affairs, the police responded to a call from Bahti’ Yah. She had made up a board resolution to remove me from the property. I was inclined to go to the police department and dispute what I knew to be a false board resolution (Ms. “Yisrael” had stopped using her legal name for her new, assumed “cult” name), but something inside of me told me to leave town immediately. I knew God was giving me direction and I packed up everything I could fit into my van that night and left Rochester for good. As I left everything behind, I could feel God looking down on me with joy; I knew he was happy that I had made it out alive. I traded all of my worldly possessions to really know God’s awesome love and I can say without a doubt that I made the best business transaction of my life.
However, after I finished relocating, I couldn’t help but wonder if I had acted rashly. I got ahold of Khalil Amani; formerly known as “Yehudah Israel,” Mr. Amani had been a devout member of the Nation of Yahweh, but later defected from the cult and enrolled in a federal witness protection program as the “#1 disgruntled ex-member” who had recently published his memoir, detailing the horrors he witnessed in the Nation of Yahweh. I called Mr. Amani, and I told him my story and how I left Rochester on an intuition. A soft-spoken, avuncular voice on the phone replied, “someone was looking out for you, because I know Job Israel and I know the Nation of Yahweh. She introduced you to Job to set you up to be murdered, in case she wanted to take your life. If you didn’t leave Rochester when you did, you’d be dead.”
on September 12th, 2008 at 10:06 am
the klan has people in the white house? lmfao
on September 15th, 2008 at 7:10 pm
These so-called militant dum-dums that are preaching hate and nonsense are not a true representation of what a true Hebrew Yisraelite is. We are peaceful, loving people grounded in the Torah. Whenever man tries to indoctrinate and deviate from the Most High’s plan for his own selfish desires, it will become corrupt and void. These fools are in their own mad world.
on October 4th, 2008 at 6:23 am
Any Hebrew Israelite who condones violence isn’t really serious about what he stands for.
Romans 6:23 (KJV) says, For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
on October 28th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
The individuals that are standing on street corners in major cities all across the U.S. and Europe, that preach hate. DO NOT REPRESENT THE HEBREW ISRAELITE COMMUNITY. First and foremost they teach from the New (Greek Writings) Testament. The Hebrew Israelite Community is firmly grounded in the TORAH/TANAKH and do not recognize the new testament as scripture. We only use the new testament to show the distortions of a pagan religion, that has done nothing but cause havoc and division in the so called African-American community. YHWH is one alone THERE IS NO TRINITY!!! Isaiah 43 10-13. The New (Greek writings) Testament states this also in Mk 12 28-34. What you should be fearful of is the fact that these individuals are Christians!!! not Hebrew- Israelites they represent one of the thousands of militant movements within the christian religion. WE HEBREW ISRAELITES DO NOT CONDONE HATE OR VIOLENCE IN ANY WAY.