The Black Hebrews (or African Hebrew Israelite Nation of Jerusalem) is a small religious group that believe they are descended from the ten lost tribes of Israel. Most members lives in their own community in Dimona, Israel, and they now number over 2000, reportedly boosting their numbers through polygamy.

The group was founded in Chicago by a former steel worker named Ben Carter , who changed his name to Ben-Ami Ben Israel upon his arrival in Israel. Carter claims he had a "vision", in which the archangel Gabriel revealed to him that African-Americans were descended from the "lost tribe of Judah", Israelites who were expelled from Jerusalem in 70 A.D. and, after migrating for 1,000 years ended up in West Africa, later transported to America as slaves.

Carter and 30 of his followers first tried to settle in Liberia, and in 1969, after being expelled from that country, they moved to Israel. They were denied Israeli citizenship under the Law of Return, but settled in the desert community of Dimona anyway. They live in an isolated community, and maintain a vegetarian diet and abstinence from alcohol, other than wine that they make themselves, and both illegal and pharmaceutical drugs.

The group also owns and runs a chain of vegetarian restaurants throughout the country. Eventually they were granted permanent residence status, which allows them to stay in the country, without full citizenship rights. This offer is only good if no more followers are brought into the community from the United States.

The group rejects the Talmud and the idea that Judaism is passed down through a person's mother. They also believe that modern-day Jews are not the descendants of the Twelve Tribes of Israel, and that white Jews have stolen the religion, language and culture of the "true Jews," drawing comparison to both cults and the white power movement.

They are unrelated to Beta Israel, Jews from Ethiopia.

External links

• Official site
• Description from Jewish Virtual Library