Although black-Jewish relations are reported to have fallen on hard times, a segment of the black church is moving toward closer support of Israel, reports Moment magazine (April).
The numbers are small but there are signs that African-Americans are becoming more favorable to the “Christian Zionism” strong among white evangelicals, writes Evan Goldstein. A rising star in the new black Christian interest in Israel is Glenn Plummer, a pastor in Detroit who co-chairs the new Fellowship of Israel and Black America. The new group is an arm of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, whose leader Yechiel Eckstein has been in the forefront of encouraging evangelical support of Israel.
Other examples of nascent black Zionism include the 600-member African-American Gideon Christian Fellowship in New Orleans successfully lobbying the Louisiana state government to purchase $5 million in Israeli bonds Good News Ministries in Fort Worth, Texas, spearheads the Christian Aliyah Project, which provides funding for the immigration of Jews from Argentina, Uruguay, Ethiopia, France and Eastern Europe to Israel. According to a recent Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life survey, 51 percent of African Americans believe that the state of Israel is the fulfillment of biblical prophecy.
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