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]

Billy Simmons
Born1780
Madagascar
Died1860
Occupation(s)Scholar, newspaper deliverer

Life

Simmons was born in Madagascar. Simmons claimed to be a descendant of a Rechabite tribe, a claim that was supported by two cantors and other Jewish authorities. Purchased by white Jewish slave owners, Simmons was taken into captivity and brought to South Carolina. He was owned as a slave by a newspaper editor in Charleston and his job was 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]

See also

References
  1. "The Jews of Nineteenth Century Charleston: Ethnicity in a Port City". University of Göttingen. Retrieved 2022-05-06.
  2. "Black Jews You Should Know, Part 1". Tablet Magazine. 4 February 2016. Retrieved 2022-05-06.
  3. O'Brien, Michael (2004). Conjectures of order: intellectual life and the American South, 1810-1860. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 0-8078-6373-4. OCLC 57759012.
  4. Haynes, Bruce D., 1960- (August 14, 2018). The soul of Judaism : Jews of African descent in America. New York. ISBN 978-1-4798-1123-6. OCLC 1006531808.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  5. "Jews in Antebellum South Carolina" (PDF). Association of Jewish Libraries. Retrieved 2022-05-06.
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