Arnold Josiah Ford facts for kids
Arnold Josiah Ford (born April 23, 1877 – died September 16, 1935) was an important spiritual leader from Barbados and America. He is known as a key person in starting the Black Hebrew movement. This movement involves people of African descent who identify as Jewish.
A Life of Music and Faith
Arnold Ford was born in Barbados to Edward Thomas Ford and Elizabeth Augustine Ford. He grew up to become a musician in the Royal Navy before moving to the United States.
Ford was very talented. He was a linguist (someone who knows many languages), a poet, a musician, and a composer. He wrote many songs for the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA-ACL). He even helped write The Universal Ethiopian Anthem. Ford was the director of the UNIA Band, Orchestra, and the Liberty Hall Choir. In 1920, he published a book of songs called the Universal Ethiopian Hymnal.
After some changes happened with the UNIA's leader, Marcus Garvey, Ford started his own religious group. He founded the Beth B’Nai Israel Synagogue in a storefront in Harlem, New York. He said he was a rabbi, which is a Jewish religious teacher. However, other Jewish communities did not recognize him as a rabbi.
In 1930, Arnold Ford and a small group of Black Jews traveled to Ethiopia. They took part in the crowning ceremony of Emperor Haile Selassie. While in Ethiopia, they started a school. They also bought about 800 acres (324 hectares) of land. Their goal was to bring Black Jews from around the world together with those already living in Ethiopia. Arnold Ford passed away in Ethiopia in 1935.
A Black Orthodox Jewish writer named Shais Rishon has stated that "Ford never belonged nor converted to any branch of Judaism."
