By Rivka Ronda Robinson
Shaarei Shamayim, a small shul with a big heart, welcomes all Jews from diverse backgrounds.
Hosaha Levy felt that he had a Jewish soul even before converting to Judaism many years ago. He also had a Jewish name.
“My name is not a name change. It’s always been my name,” declares the president of Atlanta’s Shaarei Shamayim synagogue where he is among the 50 percent of the congregants with African-American roots.
The rabbi, Mark Hillel Kunis, describes his congregation as a boutique shul that is welcoming and nonjudgmental. “We have people in our congregation who have heard about Judaism, who had a distant relative who was Jewish, or who have read about Judaism and want to know more,” he says.
The melting pot at Shaarei Shamayim dispels the myth that all members of the tribe are Ashkenazic Jews with roots from Central and Eastern Europe. “Every soul is a holy soul in the image of G-d,” Rabbi Kunis emphasizes.
In 2020 a Pew Research Center survey of demographic trends in the U.S. and the world found that 8% of Jews identify as Black, Hispanic, Asian, another race or multiracial. As Levy can attest, their stories of finding the path to Judaism are as individual as they are.
His father died when Levy was just 18 months old. His grandfather, Augustus, was a deacon at a Baptist church and suggested the name Hosaha. “He loved the book of Hosea, which teaches us about G-d’s unwavering faithfulness.”
Reared by his mother in a Pennsylvania steel mill town where Jews lived, prayed and ran businesses, Levy had interesting experiences due to his name. As an example, he recalls, “I went for a job at a soda factory. The lady thought, ‘We’re going to get a nice little Jewish boy.’ She looked up and saw me and said, ‘Whoa!’” The black gentile man was not what she was expecting.
Harlem Synagogue Opens the Door
Coming of age in the 1960s, Levy remembers being part of what he calls “an awakening of black folks wanting to find out about their roots.” A friend from high school who belonged to an African-American synagogue in Harlem introduced him to Judaism.
When Levy, age 25, walked into the New York synagogue in 1976, every fiber of his being felt at home. He has practiced Judaism ever since.
“I came to Atlanta in 1989. I was still observing Judaism but hadn’t gone through conversion. I’d still maintained association with black rabbis in New York. They said I owed my two children a Jewish education. At that point my wife, Darlene, and I went synagogue shopping.”
They walked into a traditional synagogue of 800 families, led at that time by Rabbi Kunis. A congregant named Toni Brown walked up to the Levys and said, “I’m going to take the kids to junior congregation. You go on in to services.”
