L’Shanah Tovah Tikatev V’taihatem!
May you be inscribed and sealed for a good year!

Pomegranates are traditionally eaten on the second night of Rosh Hashanah. They are a popular choice because Israel is often praised for its pomegranates and because, according to legend, pomegranates contain 613 seeds – one for each of the 613 mitzvot. Another reason for eating pomegranates on Rosh Hashanah has to do with the symbolic hope that our good deeds in the coming year will be as many as the seeds of the fruit. King Solomon is said to have designed his crown based on the “crown” of the pomegranate

Bene Israel Family, Bombay, early 20th Century

ROSH HASHANAH, CALCUTTA STYLE by Rahel Musleah

When I and my family emigrated from Calcutta to Philadelphia in 1964, no one seemed to have heard of a Jew from India.

I remember standing up in front of my second grade class at Solomon Schechter Day School, singing the Indian national anthem, “Jana Gana Mana”, as proof that I was really a little Indian girl…and not some Pocahontas kid.

Despite the surge of interest in Sephardic culture, many people still don’t know much about the Jews of India, a group of disparate communities from Cochin to Calcutta, isolated from each other by thousands of miles as well as possessing differing origins and customs.

Bombay’s B’nei Israel community claims its origin dates back to the Greek persecution that brought on the Maccabean revolt. The Jews of Cochin, in South India, trace their roots back 2,000 years, although the earliest documentary evidence of the settlement dates from the eleventh century CE. Many Portuguese Jews fled the Inquisition and made their home in Cochin.

The first Jew to settle in Calcutta was Shalome Cohen, a Syrian businessman who left his native Aleppo and made Calcutta his home in 1798. He prospered and eventually became the court jeweler to the Nawab (nobleman) of Lucknow. Iraqi Jews streamed into India in the 1800s, both to try and emulate Cohen’s success as well as to escape persecutions in Baghdad from 1825 to 1831. Eventually, the Calcutta Jewish community grew to a population of 5,000 at its peak in the 1940s, establishing five synagogues, two Jewish schools, a Jewish hospital and other Jewish institutions.

Magen David Synagogue, Calcutta India

Today, only 50 Jews remain in Calcutta. About half the community made aliyah to the newly independent state of Israel in 1948. The other half, afraid their economic circumstances would decline after India gained independence from Britain in 1947, spread out to other English-speaking countries: England, Australia, Canada and the United States.

My parents, too, decided India was not the best place to raise a family any more. My father was already familiar with America: he had been encouraged to enter the rabbinate by a Jewish chaplain stationed in Calcutta. He was ordained by the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, and went back to Calcutta to serve the community for 12 years.

We went to the U.S. by ship – and although Ellis Island had been closed by then, our first glimpse of America was…the Statue of Liberty.

My father became the rabbi of Mikveh Israel, the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue in Philadelphia. He spent hours with a reel-to-reel tape player, learning the Sephardic melodies that differed from the familiar Calcutta chants.

My mother, who had worked as a secretary in Calcutta then learned to cook. In Calcutta, we had relied on our Indian cook who had been trained in the rules of kashrut – as did most Indian Jewish families. Before we left, my mother followed the cook around and wrote down everything on two steno pads. At first she tried to cook, in America, mahmoosa, an egg and potato dish; beet khata, a sweet-and-sour curry with dumplings; and aloomakalas, a round, deep-fried potato that is crisp on the outside, white and fluffy within. Writing down recipes is easier than following them…We sampled a lot of burned food in those days!

When my mother turned to the women in the synagogue to guide her, they taught her how to make good Sephardi foods like…chopped liver, brisket, noodle kugel, matza balls, and sponge cake! Though Mikveh Israel is Sephardi, many of its members were Ashkenazi.

Inside of Magen David Synagogue, Calcutta India, taken from the Women’s Gallery

We arrived in the U.S. in July, with Rosh Hashanah not far off. Many Sephardi and Oriental Jews have a special Rosh Hashanah mini-seder, featuring foods that symbolize good wishes for the new year.

Our seder includes apple preserves spiced with whole cloves, dates stuffed with walnuts, pomegranate (“May we be as full of mitzvot as this pomegranate as full of seeds”), spinach, pumpkin, scallions and string beans. The blessings over the vegetables derive from puns on their Hebrew names that turn into wishes that our enemies should be destroyed. In Calcutta, we also used a sheep’s head to concretize the biblical hope that we should be “heads and not tails.” Understandably, we did away with this particular dish in America!

The seder also reflects the kabbalistic influence on our community. We recite five biblical verses – from 10 to 17 times each. The word and repetition counts, when added up, suggest numerically calculated hopes for a good year. The last verse is: “And you will have peace, and your house will have peace, and everything that is yours will have peace.”

Nothing acid or sour is eaten on Rosh Hashanah, such as the sweet-and-sour Arabic dish called “khatta.” Instead, the meal consists of tempting dishes like “mahmoora,” chicken cooked with tomatoes, spices, almonds and raisins, served on a bed of pilau (rice) and topped with none other than “roshinkes mit mandlen” -more raisins and almonds sauteed quickly until crisp and golden. We even dip the challah into sugar, not salt, after reciting the motzi.

In Calcutta, the distinctive home ritual carried into the synagogue. Instead of one special Selihot service the Saturday night before Rosh Hashanah, Sephardi and Oriental Jews conduct Selihot?the special set of penitential prayers-all through the month of Elul. On erev Rosh Hashanah, a pre-dawn Selihot service began at 4 a.m., followed by the morning service and a visit to the cemetery.

Mikveh Israel Congregation: The oldest Jewish congregation in Pennsylvania.

Though I was too young to remember the synagogue observance, my parents have described Rosh Hashanah in the Maghen David Synagogue in Calcutta. At 6 a.m. on Rosh Hashanah morning, the synagogue, draped in white, began to fill with people, men dressed in white sharkskin suits (a shiny, heavy, polyster-like material). Women also wore as much white as possible.

The entire service was chanted aloud, and did not end until 1 p.m. The centerpiece of the service is a poem by Judah Samuel Abbas that describes the binding of Isaac. The shofar blasts also differ from the traditional Ashkenazi blasts: “teruah” is one long blast instead of nine short ones.

After the Torah reading, the solemn mood of the service shifted to that of an auction, as the aliyot, ark openings and other honors for the second day of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur went up for grabs. Honors for the first day were auctioned off the previous Shabbat.

Though the auction prolonged the service by almost an hour, nobody seemed to mind. Only the people interested in the bidding-about half the congregation-remained in the sanctuary, laughing and joking among themselves, but still paying very close attention.

Much of the bidding was done in increments of 26 – the numerical value of God’s name – until the bidding reached 101, the numerical value of the guardian angel Michael’s name. The opening of the ark on Kol Nidre night and reading the haftarah traditionally drew the highest bids.

Parents bid on honors for their children as well. When the Torah was taken out, a special haftarah scroll accompanied it; this light scroll was usually carried by a child. It was also a child’s job to point to the beginning of the Torah portion with a yad, or pointer.

On Rosh Hashanah afternoon, many Calcutta families opened their homes to others for the traditional reading of the Book of Psalms, accompanied by a light meal of sweets and fruit.

While the distinctive Calcutta lifestyle has vanished with the dispersion of the community, my family follows many of the Calcutta customs, including the Rosh Hashanah seder. We continue to greet family and friends on Rosh Hashanah with the traditional blessing: “Tizku l’shanim rabot:” May you merit many years.

The response is: “Tizke ve’tihyeh:” May you merit, and may you also live.

Rahel Musleah was born in Calcutta, India, the seventh generation of a Calcutta Jewish family that traces its roots to 17th-century Baghdad. She is a journalist, author and singer who presents programs on the Jewish communities of India. She is the editor/singer of “Songs of the Jews of Calcutta.” Website:  A Passage to India: Exciting…Exotic…and Jewish with Rahel Musleah
This article was originally printed here.

Additional information: Jews of India

Indian Jewish Coconut Rice Pudding

2 cans light coconut milk

1/3 cup rice

2 cardamoms

½ teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cinnamon stick broken

½ cup raisins

½ cup sliced almonds (options)

¾ cup light brown sugar

½ teaspoon grated nutmeg

2 teaspoons rosewater

In a saucepan add the coconut milk and rice and bring to a simmer.

Add in the cardamoms, vanilla and cinnamon and cook on medium-low for 35 minutes stirring occasionally.

When the rice is very soft and the mixture has thickened add in the raisins and almonds if using.

Stir in the sugar and cook for another 10 minutes.

Sprinkle the nutmeg and rosewater and serve hot or cold.

Photograph: Chester Higgins, Jr. Ancient Hebrews

May all of us be listened to and embraced and welcomed and supported – in the coming year.

“Tizku l’shanim rabot” ~ May you merit many years.

Live and Become (Va, Vis et Deviens) , directed by Radu Mihaileanu (2005, France/Belgium/Italy/Israel, 140 min., in Hebrew/French/Amharic with English subtitles, 35mm)

Radu Mihaileanu directs this magnificent, epic story of an Ethiopian boy who is airlifted from a Sudanese refugee camp to Israel in 1984 during Operation Moses. Although Shlomo grows up and thrives as an adoptive son of a loving family, he is plagued by two big secrets: He is neither a Jew nor an orphan, just an African boy who survived. Three different actors, including, as the adult Shlomo, Sirak M. Sabahat, who made his own trek across Ethiopia to an airlift to Israel, portray Shlomo at various stages of his life. Israeli actress Yaël Abaccasis and French actor Roschdy Zem movingly portray his adoptive parents.

Said New York Times film critic Stephen Holden: “… Live and Become exerts a tidal pull. It makes you feel the weight of history, of populations on the move in a restless multicultural world. It makes you reconsider cultural assimilation, a process that may seem to be complete but whose underlying conflicts may never be fully resolved.”

Live and Become won the Audience Award for Best Feature Fiction at the 2005 Boston Jewish Film Festival, where actor Sirak M. Sabahat was present. It also won the Prize of the Ecumenical July at the 2005 Berlin Film Festival and a César (French Academy Award) for Best Screenplay.

The first show of its kind, Jews of Color explores the cultural and ethnic diversity of the Jewish community, sharing the unique perspectives of Jews from African-American, Asian, Hispanic and other non-”white” backgrounds. Defying our collective assumptions about what it means to be a Jew, and shedding light on perspectives that are too often ignored by the broader Jewish community, Jews of Color is not to be missed.

Featuring: host Joel Sanchez (Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services), Aliza Hausman (Blogger, “Memoirs of a Jewminicana”), Akira Ohiso (Author, “Survivor”), Yitz Jordan a.k.a. Y-Love (Rapper, Writer, Activist), and Yavilah McCoy (Jewish educator, Diversity Practitioner, and Founder of Ayecha Jewish Diversity Resources).

“The most powerful thing I want to happen in the Jewish community is that we gain more space of love for one another…”~Yavilah McCoy

This year’s annual Jewish Multiracial Network (JMN) retreat at the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center in Falls Village, CT. was fantastic!! There was a palpable joy in the air. New participants and habitual attendees combined to make the Jewish Multiracial Network’s Bar Mitzvah year one to remember. See Photos!

We are here for YOU!

Remember: “You are not alone. Just pull up a mental vision of a Jews of Color (JOC) version of the Verizon [network] commercial where all those people are standing behind the technician – You in front and all of the rest of us standing behind you ready to assist – the days of any of us fighting alone are over – keep the image present in your mind as you encounter people’s ignorance…” ~Yavilah McCoy

The Mission of the Jewish Multiracial Network (JMN) is to build a community of Jews of color and multiracial Jewish families for mutual support, learning, and empowerment. Through education and advocacy, JMN seeks to enrich Jewish communal life by incorporating our diverse racial and ethnic heritages.

The Jewish Multiracial Network brings Jewish multiracial families and individuals together to learn about and celebrate their Judaism. JMN is committed to diversity and inclusive community-building, and seeks to help it’s members strengthen their identities as Jews and members of other ethnic groups. JMN creates opportunities for learning, nurturing and support for a large and growing part of the Jewish community that often feels marginalized by mainstream Jewish organizations. You are invited to become a part of this developing national Jewish multiracial network. Click HERE!

The Jewish Multiracial Network…Because Jews Come in All Colors Poster

POSTER TEXT BOXES:
DID YOU KNOW?
The Jews of China built their famous “Purity and Truth” synagogue in the third year of the Da Ding period (1163) of the Jin (Golden Tartar) Dynasty, in the ancient Chinese capitol city of Kaifeng.

DID YOU KNOW?
15,000 Black African Jews, who trace their 3,000 year history to the time of Israel’s King Solomon, were flown from Ethiopia to Israel in 36 hours in May 1991.

DID YOU KNOW?
Spanish & Portuguese “Crypto” (secret) Jews arrived in New Mexico some 500 years ago, fleeing the Spanish Inquisition. Their descendants still recite Shabbat blessings in Ladino (archaic Spanish).

DID YOU KNOW?
In India, the Bene Israel community—their ancestors arrived there 2,000 years ago—are called “Shanwar Telis” (Saturday Oil Pressers) as they refrain from work on the Shabbat.

DID YOU KNOW?
The Jews of Morocco make pilgrimage each year to the tombs of 13 Holy Sages, and celebrate a unique Jewish holiday called Mimunah.

The Idan Raichel Project, Center City Philadelphia. Photograph courtesy of PhillyIsrael May 21-22, 2010

See the documentary Black Over White!

Synopsis: The concert in Addis Ababa is not just another performance by the Idan Raichel Project, but a journey back to the homeland of two of the Project’s lead singers, Kabra Kasai and Avi Vograss Vesa.

This music DVD was co-created by Be’chol Lashon, the Institute for Jewish & Community Research, and the Israel Center of San Francisco with the Idan Raichel Project. It celebrates the racial and ethnic diversity of the Jewish people, focusing on the multiculturalism of Israel. It features the Idan Raichel Project, one of the most popular performing groups in Israel today, blending modern and traditional music in Hebrew and Amharic, to tell about the journey of Ethiopians to the Jewish homeland.

Shavuot, the Feast of the Weeks, is the Jewish holiday celebrating the harvest season in Israel. Shavuot, which means “weeks”, refers to the timing of the festival which is held exactly 7 weeks after Passover. Shavuot also commemorates the anniversary of the giving of the Ten Commandments to Moses and the Israelites at Mount Sinai. The Book of Ruth is read during Shavuot. Ruth, a convert, was the model of Torah acceptance and the great-great-grandmother of King David.

King David, Ethiopian Jewish Embroidery, NACOEJ

Judaism has welcomed those who voluntarily become Jews and considers them full-fledged members of the Jewish community. The Hebrew Bible, as well as later Jewish texts, includes examples of such individuals. The most famous and honored example appears in the biblical book of Ruth, where Ruth joins the Jewish people and eventually becomes the great-great grandmother of King David, from whose descendants, according to Jewish tradition, the Messiah will come.

In our day, most Jews welcome wholeheartedly those who have chosen to become Jews. Nonetheless, some Jews-by-choice report occasional offensive comments directed toward them. Although the reasons for such attitudes are complicated, they are based on ignorance and prejudice and are by no means sanctioned by Judaism. As more and more Jews-by-choice enter the Jewish community, as we promote education about Jewish views of conversion and sensitivity to Jews-by-choice, and as public discussion of such a choice grows more commonplace, these negative views continue to fade.

THERE ARE NO “CONVERTS’ IN JUDAISM – ONLY JEWS (PDF) by Rabbi Moshe Ben Asher & Magidah Khulda bat Sarah

On Shavuot, it is customary to eat dairy dairy food. Some say it harks back to King Solomon’s portrayal of the Torah as “honey and milk are under your tongue”

Lindy’s New York Cheese Cake (my favorite recipe!)

Jews of Color Roundtable Airing On The Jewish Channel

The first show of its kind, Jews of Color explores the cultural and ethnic diversity of the Jewish community, sharing the unique perspectives of Jews from African-American, Asian, Hispanic and other non-”white” backgrounds. Defying our collective assumptions about what it means to be a Jew, and shedding light on perspectives that are too often ignored by the broader Jewish community, Jews of Color is not to be missed.

Featuring: host Joel Sanchez (Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services), Aliza Hausman (Blogger, “Memoirs of a Jewminicana”), Akira Ohiso (Author, “Survivor”), Yitz Jordan a.k.a. Y-Love (Rapper, Writer, Activist), and Yavilah McCoy (founder Ayecha).
Originally posted here:  Zinc Plate Press Blog

Jewish Multiracial Network Thirteenth Annual Retreat: June 11 – 13, 2010

Join dozens of other Jewish multiracial families and Jews of Color of all ages for an inclusive Shabbat experience that will celebrate the diversity of our community. The weekend includes exciting adult discussions and workshops, youth and teen programming, childcare, multi-generational family programming and time to relax and enjoy all that the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center and JMN have to offer.

Ashkenazi and/or White Jewish Privilege Checklist

I can walk into my temple and feel that others do not see me as outsider.

I can walk into my temple and feel that others do not see me as exotic.

I can walk into my temple and feel that my children are seen as Jewish.

I can walk into my temple with my family and not worry that they will be treated unkindly because of the color of their skin.

I can enjoy music at my temple that reflects the tunes, prayers, and cultural roots of my specific Jewish heritage.

No one at my synagogue will attempt to assign me to a ethnicity to which I do not belong (e.g., assuming all Jews of African descent are Igbo or Ethiopian).

I can easily find greeting cards and books with images of Jews who look like me.

I can easily find Jewish books and toys for my children with images of Jews that look like them.

I am not singled out to speak about and as a representative of an “exotic” Jewish subgroup.

When I go to Jewish bookstores or restaurants, I am not seen as an outsider.

I find my experiences and images like mine in Jewish newspapers and magazines.

I do not worry about access to housing or apartments in predominately Jewish neighborhoods.

My rabbi never questions that I am Jewish.

When I tell other members of my synagogue that I feel marginalized, they are immediately and appropriately responsive.

There are other children at the religious school who look like my child.

My child’s authenticity as a Jew is never questioned by adults or children based on his/her skin color.

People never look at me and say “But you don’t look Jewish” either seriously or as though it was funny.

I do not worry about being seen or treated as a member of the janitorial or administrative staff at a synagogue or when attending a Jewish event.

I am never asked “how” I am Jewish at Jewish dating events or on Jewish dating websites.

I can arrange to be in the company of Jews of my heritage most of the time.

When attempting to join a synagogue or Jewish organization, I am sure that my ethnic background will not be held against me.

I can ask synagogues and Jewish organizations to include images and cultural traditions from my background without being seen as a nuisance.

I can enroll in a Jewish day school, Yeshiva, and/or historically Jewish college and find Jewish students and professors with my racial or ethnic background.

People of color do not question why I am Jewish.

I know my racial or ethnic background will not be held against me if I attempt to join a minyan in prayer.

I know my ethnic background will not be held against me in being called to read the Torah.

I am not discriminated against in the aliyah process as a Jew of my particular ethnicity.

Text not copyrighted. Developed for educational purposes by the Jewish Multiracial Network, 2006–2009. Please distribute and add to the checklist.

“Jewish life will be fine with all sorts of communities and groupings with all sorts of people -Jews and non-Jews- being Jewish, using Jewish wisdom and practice, in many ways that we can not even imagine.” ~ Irwin Kula, Renowned Thinker, Teacher, Author & Rabbi

Recognized in Israel as the 5th of Iyar on the Hebrew calendar, Israel Independence Day (Yom Ha’atzmaut) marks the date on which Israel was declared a nation by the Israeli Knesset in 1948. For many North Americans, Yom Ha’atzmaut is a time for showing solidarity with Israel’s right to exist and its importance as a Jewish state. Celebrations are common in North American cities with large Jewish communities like New York, Los Angeles, and Vancouver Canada where the day takes on a festive air and is often marked by parades musical events and fairs.

Faces of Israel

Yerushalayim Shel Zahav
Jerusalem of Gold

Avir harim zalul kayayin
Ve-rei’ah oranim
Nissa be-ru’ah ha’arbayim
Im kol pa’amonim
The mountain air is clear as wine
And the scent of pines
Is carried on the breeze of twilight
With the sound of bells

U-ve-tardemat ilan va-even
Shvuyah ba-halomah
Ha-ir asher badad yoshevet
U-ve-libbah homah
And in the slumber of tree and stone
Captured in her dream
The city that sits solitary
And in its midst is a wall

Yerushalayim shel zahav
Ve-shel nehoshet ve-shel or
Ha-lo le-khol shirayich ani kinnor
Jerusalem of gold, and of bronze, and of light
Behold I am a violin for all your songs

Eicha yavshu borot ha-mayim
Kikkar ha-shuk reikah
Ve-ein poked et Har ha-Bayit
Ba-ir ha-attikah
How the cisterns have dried
The market-place is empty
And no one frequents the Temple Mount
In the Old City

U-va-me’arot asher ba-selah
Meyallelot ruhot
Ve-ein yored el Yam ha-Melah
Be-derech Yericho
And in the caves in the mountain
Winds are howling
And no one descends to the Dead Sea
By way of Jericho

Yerushalayim shel zahav
Ve-shel nehoshet ve-shel or
Ha-lo le-khol shirayich ani kinnor
Jerusalem of gold, and of bronze, and of light
Behold I am a violin for all your songs

Ach be-vo’i ha-yom la-shir lach
Ve-lach likshor ketarim
Katonti mi-ze’ir bana’ich
U-me-aharon ha-meshorerim
But as I come to sing to you today
And to adorn crowns to you (i.e. to tell your praise)
I am the smallest of the youngest of your children (i.e. the least worthy of doing so)
And of the last poet (i.e. of all the poets born)

Ki shemech zorev et ha-sefatayim
Ke-neshikat saraf
Im eshkachech Yerushalayim
Asher kullah zahav
For your name scorches the lips
Like the kiss of a seraf
If I forget thee, Jerusalem
Which is all gold…

Yerushalayim shel zahav
Ve-shel nehoshet ve-shel or
Ha-lo le-chol shirayich ani kinnor
Jerusalem of gold, and of bronze, and of light
Behold I am a violin for all your songs

Hazarnu el borot ha-mayim
La-shuk ve-la-kikkar
Shofar kore be-Har ha-Bayit
Ba-ir ha-attikah
We have returned to the cisterns
To the market and to the market-place
A ram’s horn (shofar) calls out (i.e. is being heard) on the Temple Mount
In the Old City

U-va-me’arot asher ba-selah
Alfey shemashot zorhot
Nashuv nered el Yam ha-Melah
Be-derech Yericho
And in the caves in the mountain
Thousands of suns shine -
We will once again descend to the Dead Sea
By way of Jericho!

Yerushalayim shel zahav
Ve-shel nehoshet ve-shel or
Ha-lo le-chol shirayich ani kinnor
Jerusalem of gold, and of bronze and of light
Behold I am a violin for all your songs

“Who Am I To Speak Of A Time?”

Who am I to speak of a time,
of families crushed, of crimes of mankind,
of children in hiding and living in fear,
of mothers trying to hide all their tears,
of fathers praying to an empty heaven,
of people dying again and again?

Who am I to know what it was like
to be persecuted by day and trapped by the night,
to be surrounded by a world turned upside down,
to be starved and tortured and beaten to the ground,
to witness a nation of hate marching past,
to see all their dreams broken and shattered like glass?

Who am I to mention their suffering and pain,
the ghettos, the camps, life and death inhumane?
I wasn’t even born, I wasn’t even there,
it happened long ago, it could never happen here.

Who am I to know what God had in mind
when the virtues of man were buried alive,
when good lost to evil and hope turned to despair,
when hell upon earth seemed everywhere?

Who am I to let their memories be forgotten,
to say and do nothing as if it never happened,
to forsake the loss of our Jewish family,
to live in a world of complacency?
____________________________________

The Blessing of the Yellow Candle

We light the yellow candle to rekindle God’s flame,
to shine His light upon the world once again,
to sanctify the memories of millions of souls,
to honor their prayers and all their lost goals,
we bless their existence by being alive,
to light this yellow candle as proof we survived.
~By Ron Adler

A Million Butterflies by Sam Glaser. Dedicated to children victims of Holocaust.

The United States Congress established the Days of Remembrance as the nation’s annual commemoration of the Holocaust and created the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum as a permanent living memorial to the victims. This year the Museum designated Stories of Freedom: What You Do Matters as the theme for the 2010 observance.

Educator Leon Bass (former Principal of Benjamin Franklin High School, Philadelphia, Pa) witnessed Buchenwald concentration camp shortly after its liberation.

American troops, including African American soldiers from the Headquarters and Service Company of the 183rd Engineer Combat Battalion, 8th Corps, U.S. 3rd Army, view corpses stacked behind the crematorium during an inspection tour of the Buchenwald concentration camp. Among those pictured is Leon Bass (the soldier third from left). Buchenwald, Germany, April 17, 1945.

Educator Leon Bass, who witnessed Buchenwald concentration camp shortly after its liberation, years later entered a classroom where a Holocaust survivor was trying to tell the class of her experiences. The students were being rude and inattentive. Bass reprimanded the students and informed them that what this woman was telling them was the truth–he had seen it for himself. The students were moved by these words from their principal, and they began to listen to the survivor’s story. Bass realized how important it was for him to share his story, especially with young people.

Blacks During the Holocaust

The fate of black people from 1933 to 1945 in Nazi Germany and in German-occupied territories ranged from isolation to persecution, sterilization, medical experimentation, incarceration, brutality, and murder.

Two survivors prepare food outside the barracks. On the right is presumably Jean (Johnny) Voste, born in Belgian Congo, was the only black prisoner in Dachau.

There but for the grace of God, go I…
Remember the Afro-German Rhineland Children

Underscoring Hitler’s obsession with racial purity, by 1937, every identified mixed-race child in the Rhineland had been forcibly sterilized, in order to prevent further “race polluting”, as Hitler termed it.

Blacks During the Holocaust

The fate of black people from 1933 to 1945 in Nazi Germany and in German-occupied territories ranged from isolation to persecution, sterilization, medical experimentation, incarceration, brutality, and murder. However, there was no systematic program for their elimination as there was for Jews and other groups.

If you are like most people, you simply have never heard the unbelievable story of Black victims of the Holocaust. You are invited to read about the human spirit’s triump over events that occurred during this horrible piece of hidden history.

After World War I, the Allies stripped Germany of its African colonies. The German military stationed in Africa (Schutztruppen), as well as missionaries, colonial bureaucrats, and settlers, returned to Germany and took with them their racist attitudes. Separation of whites and blacks was mandated by the Reichstag (German parliament), which enacted a law against mixed marriages in the African colonies.

Following World War I and the Treaty of Versailles (1919), the victorious Allies occupied the Rhineland in western Germany. The use of French colonial troops, some of whom were black, in these occupation forces exacerbated anti-black racism in Germany. Racist propaganda against black soldiers depicted them as rapists of German women and carriers of venereal and other diseases. The children of black soldiers and German women were called “Rhineland Bastards.” The Nazis, at the time a small political movement, viewed them as a threat to the purity of the Germanic race. In Mein Kampf (My Struggle), Hitler charged that “the Jews had brought the Negroes into the Rhineland with the clear aim of ruining the hated white race by the necessarily-resulting bastardization.”

African German mulatto children were marginalized in German society, isolated socially and economically, and not allowed to attend university. Racial discrimination prohibited them from seeking most jobs, including service in the military. With the Nazi rise to power they became a target of racial and population policy. By 1937, the Gestapo (German secret state police) had secretly rounded up and forcibly sterilized many of them. Some were subjected to medical experiments; others mysteriously “disappeared.”

The racist nature of Adolf Hitler’s regime was disguised briefly during the Olympic Games in Berlin in August 1936, when Hitler allowed 18 African American athletes to compete for the U.S. team. However, permission to compete was granted by the International Olympic Committee and not by the host country.

Adult African Germans were also victims. Both before and after World War I, many Africans came to Germany as students, artisans, entertainers, former soldiers, or low-level colonial officials, such as tax collectors, who had worked for the imperial colonial government. Hilarius (Lari) Gilges, a dancer by profession, was murdered by the SS in 1933, probably because he was black. Gilges’ German wife later received restitution from a postwar German government for his murder by the Nazis.

Some African Americans, caught in German-occupied Europe during World War II, also became victims of the Nazi regime. Many, like female jazz artist Valaida Snow, were imprisoned in Axis internment camps for alien nationals. The artist Josef Nassy, living in Belgium, was arrested as an enemy alien and held for seven months in the Beverloo transit camp in German-occupied Belgium. He was later transferred to Germany, where he spent the rest of the war in the Laufen internment camp and its subcamp, Tittmoning, both in Upper Bavaria.

European and American blacks were also interned in the Nazi concentration camp system. Lionel Romney, a sailor in the U.S. Merchant Marine, was imprisoned in the Mauthausen concentration camp. Jean Marcel Nicolas, a Haitian national, was incarcerated in the Buchenwald and Dora-Mittelbau concentration camps in Germany. Jean Voste, an African Belgian, was incarcerated in the Dachau concentration camp. Bayume Mohamed Hussein from Tanganyika (today Tanzania) died in the Sachsenhausen camp, near Berlin.

Black prisoners of war faced illegal incarceration and mistreatment at the hands of the Nazis, who did not uphold the regulations imposed by the Geneva Convention (international agreement on the conduct of war and the treatment of wounded and captured soldiers). Lieutenant Darwin Nichols, an African American pilot, was incarcerated in a Gestapo prison in Butzbach. Black soldiers of the American, French, and British armies were worked to death on construction projects or died as a result of mistreatment in concentration or prisoner-of-war camps. Others were never even incarcerated, but were instead immediately killed by the SS or Gestapo.

Some African American members of the U.S. Armed forces were liberators and witnesses to Nazi atrocities. The 761st Tank Battalion (an all-African American tank unit), attached to the 71st Infantry Division, U.S. Third Army, under the command of General George Patton, participated in the liberation of Gunskirchen, a subcamp of the Mauthausen concentration camp, in May 1945.

At the rising of the sun and at its going down
We remember them.
At the blowing of the wind and in the chill of winter
We remember them.
At the opening of the buds and in the rebirth of spring
We remember them.
At the blueness of the skies and in the warmth of summer
We remember them.
At the rustling of the leaves and in the beauty of autumn
We remember them.
At the beginning of the year and when it ends
We remember them.
As long as we live, they too will live;
for they are now a part of us
as we remember them.

NEVER AGAIN must remain more than a mere slogan

Ani Ma’amin by Lynette, Ben Sidran: Life’s a Lesson