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Reviewed by:
  • In the Shadow of Moses: New Jewish Movements in Africa and the Diaspora ed. by Daniel Lis, William F. S. Miles, and Tudor Parfitt
  • Yaakov Ariel
In the Shadow of Moses: New Jewish Movements in Africa and the Diaspora. Edited by Daniel Lis, William F. S. Miles, and Tudor Parfitt. African Academic Press, 2016. 280 pages. $39.95 cloth; $29.95 paper.

In the Shadow of Moses: New Jewish Movements in Africa and the Diaspora is a groundbreaking book that offers new insights about Judaism in Africa and new African migrant religious communities. The articles in the volume combat and correct deep-rooted stereotypes about Jewish communities in Africa and elsewhere, unearthing histories of groups that combine, in different degrees, African cultures and traditions with Jewish beliefs and rites. Essays in the collection also point to dynamic communities, with new groups coming about, both on the African continent and in other parts of the globe, including in America, Europe, and Israel.

The book is divided into three parts, the first of which looks at African Jewish communities from the perspective of new religions. A number of essays make use of the rich literature that scholars have created since the 1960s to identify and characterize new religious movements. African Jews are often marked by cultural and spiritual hybridity, face opposition or skepticism in their early years, and struggle to find their space alongside veteran Jewish and African religious communities.

African forms of Judaism are not completely new. For example, Tudor Parfitt points to the long history of Jewish presence in Loango (in southwestern Congo) that started in the fifteenth century. Parfitt also noticed that there had been Europeans—from the time of the Enlightenment until about the First World War—that had taken notice of such communities, demonstrating at times anxiety about the idea of Black Jewish communities and what they might mean for European understanding of Judaism. Daniel Lis studied Swiss missionaries and their involvement with African Jews. Along with other European missionaries, they had worked to reinforce Israelite identities among groups they encountered in Africa.

Aurelien Mokoko Gampiot and Cecile Coquet-Mokoko examined Black Jews in France today, noting the presence of both recent converts to African Judaism, and to immigrants from veteran African communities. Such groups operate mostly outside the realm of organized French Jewry, which is perhaps even unaware of the existence of African Jews in its midst. The authors believe that the African groups can potentially provide a much needed mediating role in the racial tensions of contemporary France.

In part two, a number of scholars discuss renewed and new communities of African Jews. Janice Levy examines the unknown history of Jews in Sefwi Wiawso, Ghana. There, too, the history of the community seems to go back to the Early Modern Era. The dhimmi status of Jews (non-Muslims living under Muslim oversight), compulsory conversions, and persecutions forced the local Jewish community into clandestine [End Page 120] invisibility. Reconstructing Judaism in that place had to go beyond written traditions, as the community relied on memory, and not on texts. Nathan Devir studied the rise of the Jewish community in rural Cameroon at the turn of the twenty-first century, whose journey towards Judaism started online. Unlike Devir, Isabella Soi chose to examine one of the veteran Jewish communities of East Africa, the Abyudaya. This community came on the scene in the early 1900s, partly as a reaction to British colonialism. Soi looks at the relationship between the Abyudaya and the expatriate Israeli community of Kampala. Marla Brettschneider looks at the new Jewish communities of Cote d'Ivoire and Gabon, paying special attention to gender roles. She also takes notice of the groups' relationship with Israel and the presence of Israeli embassies in the region.

Part three of the book deals with the African Jewish diaspora, including in Israel. Sheldon Geller's article discusses the Sudanese and Eritrean asylum seekers in Israel. Israelis have debated extensively in recent years the appropriate manner of relating to African refugees, compelling the Israeli government to modify its policies. Len Lyons looks at the reconstruction of identities and symbols among Ethiopian immigrants, the largest community of African Israelis. Ethiopian...

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