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We welcome you and your interest in Beth Shalom B’nai Zaken Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation (House of Peace for the Children of the Ancient Ethiopian Hebrews). As stated in Psalm 133:1, “…how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!”
Rabbi Capers Funnye and Be’chol Lashon
Rabbi Capers is also the Associate Director of Be’chol Lashon (In Every Tongue) whose mission is to grow and strengthen the Jewish people through ethnic, cultural, and racial inclusiveness. They advocate for the diversity that has characterized the Jewish people throughout history, and through contemporary forces including intermarriage, conversion and adoption. They foster an expanding Jewish community that embraces its differences. For more information on Be’chol Lashon please click here.
Israel at the White House
Monday December 10, 2007
By: Rabbi Capers Shmuel Funnye
Beth Shalom B’nai Zaken E.H.C.
Chicago, Illinois
Monday December 10, 2007 was a water-shade day for the Israelite community in the Unites States. My wife Rabbinit Miriam and I attended a reception at the White House in honor of Chanukah. I was very surprised when I received a call from Jeremy Katz, the White House Deputy-Chief-of-Staff for Jewish affairs. We talked about my attending a private meeting with President Bush. In light of the fact that December was Human Rights Month, President Bush wanted to conduct a panel discussion on religious oppression. Read the rest of this entry »
In the New York Times
New York Times
Black Rabbi Reaches Out to Mainstream of His Faith
By: NIKO KOPPEL
Photo by: Sally Ryan for The New York Times
Published: March 16, 2008
CHICAGO — Having grown up in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, Capers C. Funnye Jr. was encouraged by his pastor to follow in his footsteps. Instead, he became a rabbi. Read More
New York Times
Obama’s Rabbi
By ZEV CHAFETS
Photo by: Alec Soth/Magnum, for The New York Times
Published: April 2, 2009
Rabbi Capers Funnye celebrated Martin Luther King Day this year in New York City at the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue, a mainstream Reform congregation, in the company of about 700 fellow Jews — many of them black. The organizers of the event had reached out to four of New York’s Black Jewish synagogues in the hope of promoting Jewish diversity, and they weren’t disappointed.
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