Conversions to Judaism among African-Americans are growing in a way that could affect the presidential election.
Atlanta - Like many of the growing numbers of Protestant blacks in America and Africa converting to Judaism, Elisheva Chaim grew up believing she had a “Jewish soul.”
Lewis Gordon, director of the Center for Afro-Jewish Studies at Temple University in Philadelphia, estimates there are as many as 1 million blacks with Jewish blood in the US.
Another recent study by the Institute for Jewish and Community Research in San Francisco estimates that there are as many as 150,000 practicing black Jews in the US today, with synagogues across the country reporting increasing numbers of blacks either exploring or converting to Judaism.
Yet for many recent black converts, politics, culture, and history have little to do with their decision. For Sivan Ariel of Atlanta, who grew up in the US Virgin Islands, the spiritual search began with memories of a jewish grandmother