Английская Википедия:Billy Simmons
Billy Simmons (also known as Billy Simons) was an African-American Jew from Charleston, South Carolina, one of the few documented Black Jews living in the Antebellum South. Simmons was a scholar in both Hebrew and Arabic.[1]
Life
Simmons was born in Madagascar. Simmons claimed to be a descendant of a Rechabite tribe, a claim that two cantors and other Jewish authorities supported. Purchased by white Jewish enslavers, Simmons was taken into captivity and brought to South Carolina. A newspaper editor in Charleston enslaved him and forced him to deliver newspapers.[2]
Despite anti-Black restrictions in the constitution of Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim that banned Black converts from membership, Simmons was among the few African-American Jews known to have attended the synagogue during the antebellum period.[3][4] Simmons attended the synagogue during the 1850s and was known to members as Uncle Billy. Simmons was known to attend Shabbat services wearing a black top hat, black suit, and frilly shirt.[5]
Legacy
A drawing of Billy Simmons is held by the Special Collections Library of the College of Charleston.[6]
See also
- History of the Jews in Charleston, South Carolina
- Isaac Lopez Brandon
- Sarah Brandon Moses
- Lucy Marks
References
External links
- Английская Википедия
- 1780 births
- 1860 deaths
- 18th-century American Sephardic Jews
- 18th-century American slaves
- 19th-century American Sephardic Jews
- 19th-century American slaves
- Malagasy emigrants to the United States
- African-American Jews
- American people of Malagasy descent
- American slaves literate in Arabic
- Arabic-speaking people
- Hebrew-language writers
- Jewish scholars
- People from Charleston, South Carolina
- Jews from South Carolina
- Страницы, где используется шаблон "Навигационная таблица/Телепорт"
- Страницы с телепортом
- Википедия
- Статья из Википедии
- Статья из Английской Википедии
