Capers Funnye

Capers C. Funnye Jr. (; born April 14, 1952 ) is an African-American Conservative rabbi, Chief Rabbi of the International Israelite Board of Rabbis, who leads the 200-member Beth Shalom B'nai Zaken Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation of Chicago, Illinois, assisted by rabbis Avraham Ben Israel and Joshua V. Salter.

Born in Georgetown, South Carolina, he moved with his family to Chicago. He became interested in Judaism while in college at Howard University and has gone through two conversion rituals. He has led efforts to coordinate with both Black Hebrew Israelite groups and mainline Judaism.

Early life and education Capers Funnye Jr. was born in 1952 in Georgetown, South Carolina in the Low Country, with paternal ancestry among the Geechee people (or Gullah) of the Sea Islands. They are an ethnic group that kept strong African traditions. Variations of his surname are common in Nigeria and West Africa.

Funnye was raised in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the first independent black denomination. At 17, he was encouraged by his minister to enter the clergy. Dissatisfied with Christianity during his college years at Howard University and influenced by movements for civil rights and black nationalism, he investigated other religions, including Islam. After meeting with Rabbi Robert Devine, the spiritual leader of the House of Israel Congregation in Chicago, which practiced a kind of Messianic Judaism, Funnye joined his congregation. Related Black Hebrew Israelite movements in the United States had started in the late 19th century in Kansas. This group has its roots in the Commandment Keepers Congregation of the Living God, founded in 1919 by Wentworth Arthur Matthew in Harlem. It incorporated in 1930 and later moved to Brooklyn, where Matthew established a seminary. After Matthew's death in 1973, there had been little dialog with white Jewish congregations, who disagreed with Black Hebrew Israelite claims of historic descent from ancient Israel. The academy does not have ties to any mainstream Jewish denomination.

With the goal of building bridges to United States Judaism, in 1985 Funnye undertook a second formal conversion to Judaism that was certified by a Conservative rabbinical court. Funnye has said that he felt a sense of intellectual and spiritual liberation in the constant examination that Judaism encouraged. Funnye is the first African-American member of the Chicago Board of Rabbis, and serves on the boards of the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs and the American Jewish Congress of the Midwest. In 1996, Funnye was the only black rabbi in the Chicago area.

Funnye has been active in the Institute for Jewish and Community Research, reaching out to historically black Jewish communities outside the United States. These include the Beta Israel in Ethiopia, which are formally recognized by Israeli authorities as Jewish, and the Igbo Jews in Nigeria, which are not.

Funnye's current congregation was founded by Rabbi Horace Hasan from Bombay (now Mumbai), India, in 1918 as the Ethiopian Hebrew Settlement Workers Association. Along with African Americans, members include Hispanics and whites who were born Jews; the majority of the congregation has converted to Judaism. They have worked to broaden the conversation among black Jews and Black Hebrews across the country, as well as to build bridges to conventional Judaism, made up predominately of whites. Funnye said, "I am a Jew, and that breaks through all color and ethnic barriers." The board is made up of "people who identify themselves as Black Jews or Israelites."