What religion might these guys have been?

Factual Questions
1

Chinatown in Washington, DC on Saturday. A group of about a dozen men, mostly black, wearing red tunics with white sashes and white headscarves with Stars of David on the crown. There was a guy speaking with a microphone, and I saw a picture of the iconic “sacred heart of Jesus” on a placard, plus another placard with a line that ended with “the greatest LIE.” I couldn’t really grasp what the speaker was saying. It was very crowded and his mic was rather booming. But I started wondering what group they were likely a part of.

Any ideas?

2

This description is tickling a vague memory. I think someone else either on here or another of my message boards asked something like this about six months to a year ago. I need to research…

3

Was it mostly black men or all black men?

I’ve walked through Chinatown a couple times when a group has been there, and I seem to recall that it was some kind of racist anti-white group. I specifically remember them having a folding table set up and a guy speaking into a bullhorn or microphone and that jesus imagery looks kind of familiar.

4

At least two of the men were not what I guessed to be black, though it’s possible that I’m mistaken.

5

I’ve never seen them, but the Star of David made me think of Black Hebrew Israelites, especially since Black Muslims are so antisemitic.

6

The guys on the right in this picture are the right guys: http://www.splcenter.org/images/dynamic/intel/report/46/IR131_HEBREW_ISRAELITES021-.jpg

I found this after googling “Black Hebrew Israelites” pictures.

7

Huh. I actually attended a big to do of the Black Hebrews in Dimona, Israel once, in 1999, and I never saw anyone dressed like that. They were perfectly pleasant to me, and totally disinterested in converting me. My African-American friend, OTOH, got a lot of attention. (Since she was planning on going into the ministry, I doubt they had a great deal of success with her!)

8

Israelites, not Israelis.

They are fond of yelling into bullhorns in New York City, too. They like to accuse whitey of eating babies.

9

To be fair, any anti-white rhetoric is coming from a fringe; it is not integral to the group’s theology.

Some of them are Israelis, too, particularly in Dimona.

10

Bizzare and interesting. I’ve never heard of this group until now.

As a Jew myself, if only by ancestry, I am always sorta surprised to discover that there are groups out there of people who in effect want to be Jews.

11

Eh, I used to know a part black/part native American guy who went off the deep end with some bullshit about how the Cherokees and other east coast natives had originally been “Kingdoms” set up by the Africans before Columbus, but all of that “history” had been destroyed and suppressed by The White Man.

If you don’t have a history and Identity that you like, some people will be happy to invent new one.

12

I saw these guys on a street corner in Washington, DC, abut 3 years ago. They were using very anti-white rhetoric, so I was a little nervous about taking their picture, but they do seem to be a group of Black Hebrew Israelites, as referred to by thelurkinghorror.

13

I love their classifications. Argentinans are descended from Naphtali? I could’ve sworn that they were mostly Spanish (from Spain) and Italian descended, as well as the Uruguayans, who are in a different tribe. I wonder what happens if you get these guys together with Nation of Islam, does Muslim-Jewish antipathy come out or does hating whitey take precedence?