Racism

What really motivated the editors of Select Parts of the Holy Bible: For the Use of the Negro Slaves in the British West-India Islands (1807), better known as “The Slave Bible”?

In 1861, Rabbi Morris Raphall of New York attempted to save the Union by declaring from his pulpit that slavery was the will of God, as per the Torah’s story of the curse of Ham. Some rabbis and Jewish scholars approved of the message, but others, such as Michael Heilprin and David Einhorn, pushed back with biting criticism.

Were they racists?

Using biblical quotes, imagery, and rhetorical devices, Martin Luther King Jr. envisions the hopeful future of African American people in the United States in the voice of a biblical prophet.

Miriam and Aaron speak negatively about Moses for marrying a Kushite woman. Does their issue have to do with her skin color? Miriam’s punishment may hold the key.

Like many traditions with a long historical pedigree, Judaism has inherited its share of texts with racial bias. Failure to acknowledge this is one reason for prevalent conscious and subconscious racist views that can be found in the American Orthodox Jewish community—the community of which I am a part—which sometimes reveal themselves in overt statements and actions.