Black Hebrew Israelites: New York’s Most Obnoxious Prophets

Friday, February 11, will be remembered as the historic day Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year regime came to an end in Egypt.

But that same day, New Yorkers were lined up for a different reason on 34th Street: The new Jordan 6IX Rings sneakers were going on sale at midnight. By 7 p.m., hundreds of black people were lined up outside a Midtown store despite the temperature hovering around 11 degrees. Corralled behind rope lines and shivering on folding chairs, they waited patiently for the chance to plop down $160 and be among the first to own the newest Air Jordans.

From across the street, another black man, swathed in bright colors and not wearing Air Jordans, watched the scene.

“Look at those slaves to the white man!” he screamed at the top of his lungs. When a charter bus deposited dozens more shoppers directly at the entrance of the store, he laughed, yelling, “They’re even bringing Negroes in by the busload!”

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Zodach was eager to preach about the news story of the day. “You saw what they did to your country in Cairo?” he shrieked at anyone with light-brown skin. “That was us, and we’re going to do that to you here, too!”

A group of Indian guys who looked like they could have been frat brothers walked by, alarmed when they realized the prophet was addressing them.

“Huh?” said one, eating a shish kebab.

“Just go on drinking your pork Slurpee, you Egyptian!” Zodach screamed.

“Uh, we’re Indian—and this is chicken,” the man responded.

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It’s a strange thing to witness one black person trying to convince another of this fact. Still, it’s not an atypical reaction the Ambassadors get when “so-called black people” see the group’s cardboard sign of Barack Obama. The phrases “AfricaCON Monkey Devil” and “Illuminati Puppet” accompany Obama’s smiling Senate portrait, along with horns they’ve drawn coming out of his head.

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Members of the Twelve Tribes believe homosexuality is a plot to destroy the human race. Black Hebrew Israelites verbally lash out at “fags” and “dykes.” Bisexuals drive them nuts, too. (A typical response shouted at a bi woman: “Why do you like pussy? Were you molested as a child?”)

But it’s cross-dressers who really get under their skin (which is odd, given the ankle-length purple robes and black skirts they don). They can spend an hour discussing that age-old Talmudic question: Who is the worse transgressor transvestite—Tyler Perry as Madea, or Martin Lawrence as Big Momma?

Perhaps their Big Momma’s House fears are bred in the big house, where some Black Hebrew Israelites find religion. The true offense to them is “showing little boys that it’s OK to dress like a woman, so they can grow up to be faggots!”

Black Hebrew Israelites (also called Black Hebrews, African Hebrew Israelites, and Hebrew Israelites) are groups of Black Americans who believe that they are descendants of the ancient Israelites. Black Hebrews adhere in varying degrees to the religious beliefs and practices of both Christianity and Judaism. With the exception of a small number of individuals who have formally converted to Judaism, they are not recognized as Jews by the Jewish community. Many choose to identify themselves as "Hebrew Israelites" or "Black Hebrews" rather than Jews in order to indicate their claimed historic connections.[1][2][3][4] They are not to be confused with African-American Jews who practice normative Judaism.