Wentworth Arthur Matthew

Wentworth Arthur Matthew (June 23, 1892[1][2] – December 1973),[3] a West Indian immigrant to New York City, was the founder in 1919 of the Commandment Keepers of the Living God, a Black Hebrew congregation.

[1] When he registered in 1942 with the US Selective Service during World War II, he listed his place of birth as St. Christopher, British West Indies.

When interviewed, many of the older members of this community recall memories of their parents observing Jewish dietary laws, such as abstaining from pork or salting their meat.

Matthew and his congregation were also strongly influenced by the pan-African philosophy of Marcus Garvey from Jamaica, and his black nationalist organization, the Universal Negro Improvement Association.

Men and women were seated separately, standard Orthodox Jewish prayer books were used, and the laws concerning Shabbat and kashrut were observed.

[10] Matthew applied and was rejected twice to become a member of the New York Board of Rabbis, as he did not satisfy their rules of Jewish descent or conversion by recognized Orthodox or Conservative courts.

[4] Rabbis ordained from the Israelite Rabbinical Academy in Brooklyn have become spiritual leaders of Black Hebrews in numerous cities.

In 1985 Funnye started as an assistant rabbi at the Beth Shalom B'nai Zaken Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation in Chicago,[6] which he now leads.

Shais Rishon, a Black Orthodox Jewish writer and activist, has claimed that Matthew was "a non-Jew who never belonged nor converted to any branch of Judaism.