projectfiba.org

Project FIBA - An Overview

Unprecedented Parallels

Both Jews and African Americans share a unique and painful history of oppression and discrimination, and slavery in particular by nations who are still thriving and in existence today - Egypt and America. No other people groups currently on the planet, who lived through the oppression of slavery, still exist in a world with their former oppressors. Although the Jewish Holocaust is unlike anything any other people have ever experienced (where the stated and almost realized aim was to eradicate every Jew from the face of the earth) the deep scars of slavery in America on Black slave descendants, make identification with the scars of the Holocaust on modern day Jews a given. These scars have psychologically affected and molded the actual worldview and mindset of both Jews and African Americans.

A History of Slavery

The Jews were enslaved by Egyptians for four hundred years. African Americans were enslaved in America for nearly four hundred years. Both groups came through that fire, forged as distinct peoples, different from any other on earth by their respective slavery experiences, even though separated by thousands of years. Many of the songs known as "Negro Spirituals" came from the Hebrew Scriptures and were likened to the Jewish Exodus. "Crossing over Jordan" and "Heading toward the Promised Land" were common phrases among American blacks following slavery in America.

Honor and Remembrance

During the 1960's Civil Rights Movement, Jewish Americans stood with African Americans in their time of greatest need. They organized, marched, fought, and died together in the pursuit of justice. This crucial point of history must be brought to the consciousness of African Americans, and passed on to future generations. The Jewish people have earned the right to call upon African Americans to stand with Israel as friends and allies during challenging times. Many Jews began to feel betrayed by Blacks because, while Jews were also beaten and lynched in America during the 1950's and 1960's, the 1970's saw a change in Black posturing and mentality. Many Black leaders such as Jesse Jackson seemingly began to move away (socially and politically) from their Jewish counterparts, giving credence and voice to Israel's Arab enemies, and became publicly critical of Israel. Now is the time to remind African Americans of our unique common history and common victories together, and to remind Blacks that Jews were also lynched, jailed, and killed alongside African Americans during the Civil Rights Era of the 50's and 60's. The Civil Rights Movement was one of peaceable resistance on the part of Blacks and Jews, which nevertheless changed the face of America, resulting in the enactment of Civil Rights Legislation, and the formation of the NAACP and the National Urban League, both established by unified efforts of Jews and African Americans together.

Reverence of the Scriptures

Like the Jewish people's commitment to the Torah, there is no other people group in America more committed to the Judeo/Christian Scriptures than African Americans. Statistics show that more than 80% of African Americans consider themselves Christian, and more than 65% attend church regularly, which contrasts with the 35% of Caucasian Americans that attend church regularly. According to a Barna research study, 62% of African Americans pray and read their Bible within every seven (7) days. This contrasts against 31% of white Americans that do the same. This statistic is amazing because it says twice as many Blacks in America read the Bible and pray than do their white counterparts. Because the Black community has been taught more frequently from the Old Testament, we find that Black churches all across America are named after Israeli biblical sites such as Mt. Zion Baptist Church, Mt. Sinai C.O.G.I.C., Bethel Apostolic Church, Kadesh Full Gospel Church, Mt. Hermon, Mt. Carmel, Mt. Moriah, Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Judea, Galilee etc., etc. These names are all very common throughout the Black church community nationwide.

Reverence of the Holy Land

There is one great disparity in the contemporary culture of African Americans and Jews. Where Jewish people have fought to maintain, preserve and revere their history, culture, traditions and the land of their forefathers; African Americans were stripped of their history, culture and traditions, and are often unfamiliar and even ashamed of their ancestral roots in Africa. A great number of African Americans distance themselves from their African origins. However, the study of Scripture navigates the Black Christian to the Holy Land as adopted people of God, grafted into the heritage of God's people, the sons of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Thus, the Holy Land of Israel is revered greatly in the Black community. African American Christians are far more familiar with the cities and sites of Israel, than they are with the continent of Africa. Weekly, via the church pulpit, radio as well as television, they are exposed to the history and landscape of the Jewish people. The God of African Americans is the God of the Jews. The Apostles were Jewish. The Messiah that African Americans believe in was Jewish.

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