Black Jews from Jerusalem

This 1898 newspaper article does more than simply report the presence of about three hundred Black Jews in New York. It quietly reveals a connection that much of later history tried to overlook or erase. According to the article, these Black Jews were not only Hebrew speakers but were also employed as scribes, carefully writing Hebrew scrolls for white Jews. That single detail challenges the common modern narrative. In Jewish law and practice, writing a Torah scroll is far from casual work. It demands real fluency in Hebrew, precise knowledge of ritual rules, and genuine acceptance by the community. No group would entrust sacred texts to complete outsiders or novices. The fact that these Black men were already recognized and hired for this sacred role shows they were practitioners deeply embedded in the tradition, not newcomers or converts standing on the margins.

This naturally leads to questions about their origins. By 1898, Palestine was under Ottoman rule with growing British influence, and movement in and out was documented through official channels. European Jews migrating from there usually left clear records in ships' logs, passports, and community networks. Yet there is no evidence of organized groups of Black Jews departing from that region and arriving in New York in such numbers. The historical record is silent because that kind of migration did not take place on any significant scale. Instead, much older sources, dating back centuries before the 19th century, describe established Black Israelite communities across regions like Judea Terra, the Ethiopian highlands, and parts of West Africa. These groups independently preserved Hebrew scriptures, observed the Sabbath, practiced circumcision, and maintained their own traditions of writing and using scrolls. European travelers, missionaries, and chroniclers repeatedly noted African Jews who spoke Hebrew, kept sacred texts, and followed rituals that aligned with ancient practices, often separate from European rabbinic systems. When the article quotes these men as saying they "came from Jerusalem," it likely captures a deeper identity rather than a literal recent journey from Ottoman Palestine.  

The language barrier in the article adds another layer. These Black Jews reportedly did not understand English and needed a Hebrew interpreter. In contrast, Ashkenazi Jews in New York at the time spoke Yiddish and handled English well enough for daily life and legal matters. A group fluent in Hebrew but not English aligns far more closely with African Israelite communities that had preserved the ancient language across generations, rather than recent arrivals from Eastern Europe. Travel routes support this picture too. For centuries, African Jews and communities moved along established paths like the Nile, Red Sea, and trans-Saharan networks, connecting Africa to the Mediterranean and Atlantic worlds long before modern immigration controls existed. Palestine under British oversight was not a plausible hidden origin point for undocumented Black Israelite groups arriving in New York. Routes from East Africa and beyond make much more sense.

Older historical accounts also refer to certain African regions as Judea or the Land of the Hebrews, describing local "Jerusalems" that were not treated as lesser copies. Colonial cartography later downgraded those names to "secondary" or mythical, but the original sources did not. One detail that sometimes confuses people is the surname Muskowitz (or similar spellings) that appears in connection with these individuals. The name only seems odd if we treat it as a strict marker of ethnic origin. In the 1800s, it was not. Eastern European Jewish surnames ending in -witz, -owitz, or -sky were often administrative labels imposed by governments for taxation, military conscription, court records, and employment. They worked like filing tags. A person could receive one without any deep ancestral link to Poland, Russia, or Germany. That context is key here. By the 19th century, any Jew interacting with European or American legal and bureaucratic systems usually needed a "recognized" surname to function. African Jews entering European Jewish networks, whether through synagogue work, employment, or legal proceedings, were often assigned or adopted Ashkenazi-style surnames because those fit the paperwork requirements. Clerks, communities, or employers handled it. Sometimes the individuals accepted it simply for survival in a system that demanded it. This was not about white Jews culturally "giving" a name; it was about institutions imposing a practical label.

Alexander Beider, in 

A Dictionary of Jewish Surnames from the Russian Empire

 (1993), demonstrates that many Ashkenazi surnames were standardized or even assigned by government officials during mandatory registration periods (primarily 1787–1835) to facilitate state administration. The suffix -owitz is a Slavic patronymic marker meaning "son of," which transformed traditional Jewish naming customs (like "ben" or "son of") into fixed, hereditary surnames for bureaucratic and legal purposes. While many individuals chose names reflecting their ancestry, location, or occupation, some were arbitrarily assigned by clerks when the family failed to provide one.

In the The Evolution of Jewish Surnames most Ashkenazic surnames—including those ending in -witz, -sky, -berg, and -man—were adopted relatively recently (primarily between 1787 and 1835) to comply with European legal and civic mandates for taxation and military service. These names often derive from artificial administrative systems rather than ancient lineage, they frequently incorporate traditional patronymics, occupations, or localities that still reflect the family's background

Several practical factors explain why a name like Muskowitz shows up in the article. Court records required standardized surnames; an African Israelite name in Ge'ez, Hebrew, or another language would not have been accepted or understood by clerks. Employment as Hebrew scribes placed these men inside European Jewish religious economies, which already used Ashkenazi naming conventions. Reporters typically recorded the name provided by an interpreter or official, reflecting the system's language rather than the person's original identity. Historical precedent shows African Jews in Europe and the Americas frequently appearing in records with European surnames that clearly do not reflect their origins, as seen in port registers, court transcripts, and missionary reports. The name signals interaction with European bureaucracy, not lineage.

The name does not indicate the man was originally Eastern European. It shows he passed through a European bureaucratic filter, much like Africans in other systems (enslaved people under Portuguese, Spanish, French, or British rule) received new names through plantation or civil ledgers, though here it happened via religious and civic registration. The article itself provides the clearest correction: a Black Jew, speaking Hebrew, serving as a trusted scribe, identifying with Jerusalem. The name Muskowitz tells you where the paperwork happened, not where the man truly came from.

The newspaper did not set out to debate theology or geography. It simply recorded what it observed: Black men speaking Hebrew, known for writing sacred scrolls, connected to Jerusalem. The reporter lacked a full framework to explain them, so the story moved on. Later histories often did the same, not because the evidence was unclear, but because it did not fit the dominant story. That small 1898 fragment preserves a glimpse of a much older, more diverse reality. African Jews were not peripheral figures or mere helpers. They were active custodians of the sacred text itself, part of a rich Israelite story that spans continents and centuries, one that modern retellings sometimes quietly sidelined. A story that also hints at a Jerusalem located in Africa, and not the Levant. It further shows that white Askenazi Jews did not know the Hebrew language, and had to hire Black Hebrew Israelties to translate the biblical scrolls for them. This story aligns with what we have learned about black Hebrew Israelites from Africa, a story they want suppressed.