Rensselaer Republican, Volume 12, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 September 1880 — Black Jews. [ARTICLE]

Black Jews.

of Ko3>im, tKyreSem aLiderab£ dMttState toSdi» by King fotomon elephants lor his nee and to wort in the gold mines; and that their skinn, in the coarse of three thousand years, have entirely changed color, so as to make it impossible to distinguish them from the rest of the natives. They know little Hebrew, that language having almost died out among them. Their mother tongue is the so-called Hindi, which is used in their scriptures and prayerbooks. They also possess a bible, which h not printed, but written. Of the holidays they only keep the Sabbath and the Passover, the Day of Atonement being entirely unknown to them. In the preparation of their food they differ from other Jews, as, during their three thousand yeanf separation from the rest of their co-religionists, nearly all their original customs and manners have died out They live separately, to this day, from the white Jews, as the latter do not regard them as actual descendants of the Jewish race. As an .answer to this the colored Jews boast of their letters of freedom given by an ancient king of India, and another one of King Tschandrackupta, who lived in the time of Alexander the Great. They do not call themselves “Jews,” but “Soos of Israel/’ and they maintain that they are in possession of a number of autograph prayer-books written by the patriarchs. They live in great poverty and are very ignorant, earning their living by working in the field and by day labor.