Idealizing Africans as ancient Jews erased living Jews from sacred history

Evidence

This trope, while elevating certain native peoples, usually for some specific and self-serving reason, had the incidental effect of removing actual Jews from the frame of sacred history. The Masai, remember, were linked with the “oldest Hebrews,” the Shona with “the good old Jews.” — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 339 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Zionist scholarship reduced oriental Jews to objects then erased them; Orientalist biblical scholarship treated living Palestinians as archives of the biblical past; A biblical template of Jews explained unknown peoples and served colonial rule (+12 more)

Broader Connections

• Elevating native peoples as noble Hebrews displaced living Jews from sacred history #corroborates (0.98) — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 339