The International Israelite Board of Rabbis is the oldest historically African American Rabbinical board in the United States, whose founders preserved synagogues in Black neighborhoods in New York City and Chicago, and whose teachings launched the spread of nonviolent Torah observance[1] among thousands of African-American Jewish and Black Hebrew Israelite adherents since 1919. The board originated from the 1925 incorporation of Ethiopian Hebrew Rabbinical College in New York City. As a non-denominational institution, it has focused on guiding Rabbis and scholars under its auspices to advance Torah observance among Black Jews in New York City, and build bridges with both mainstream American Jewish communities and non-Messianic Black Hebrew congregations. With time, the board has grown to represent Rabbis of congregations in the United States, the Caribbean, and Africa. The board tolerates leniency in Halakha provided that Rabbis adhere to a maximalist view of the Tanakh, and require observance of Biblical commandments by members of their congregations (see: De-'oraita and de-rabbanan, meaning "Torah commandments vs. Rabbinic enactments"). While the International Israelite Board of Rabbis has a century-long congregational history, the trend of broader recognition of the Board and its constituent Rabbis as equal to other American Jewish leaders has accelerated since the 2019 centennial celebration of its oldest congregation and the heightened focus on Black–Jewish relations during the ensuing racial unrest in the United States (2020-Present).
Originally, the need for an independent Board of Rabbis was necessitated by the reluctance of the American Jewish community to accept the legitimacy of Black leadership and institutions, especially before the Civil rights movement. The reasons for this estrangement stemmed from several factors, including long-standing tensions in the relationships between Jewish religious movements as well as social acceptance of racial segregation in certain Jewish enclaves during the early 20th-century African American Great Migration.[1][9]
Among Black Jews, there are some who deny the Jewishness of anyone, including those of African ancestry, who do not have a recognizably Jewish parent or who have not converted. Black Orthodox Jews typically only regard people as Jewish if they have converted or if they have a Jewish mother, in accordance with Orthodox halakha. One example of this stance is the Black Orthodox Jewish writer and activist Shais Rishon, who has written that the International Israelite Board of Rabbis is not a Jewish organization, rejecting their use of their word "rabbi". According to Rishon, Wentworth A. Matthew, Levi Ben Levy and others associated with the board never "belonged nor converted to any branch of Judaism", with the exceptions of Capers Funnye and Eli Aronoff. Funnye has undergone a Conservative conversion and is thus recognized as Jewish by Conservative and other non-Orthodox denominations.[10] Aronoff had an Orthodox conversion.[11]
Importantly, the Rabbinical Council of America has similarly disqualified Ashkenazi Jews in the United States who are recognized as Rabbis by the movements for Reform Judaism, Conservative Judaism and even Open Orthodoxy[12] from membership in their council, because those movements are not recognized as halakhic by the Orthodox Union. This context is necessary to understand that barriers regarding the Jewish identity and legitimacy of Black Jewish leaders[9] are sometimes rooted in broader disagreements over standards of observance (see also: Relationships between Jewish religious movements).[13]