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Michelle Obama Has a Rabbi in Her
Family
Capers Funnye, leading black
Israelite, is aspiring First Lady’s cousin
by
Anthony Weiss
Tue. Sep 02, 2008
While Barack Obama has struggled to capture the Jewish vote, it
turns out that one of his wife’s cousins is the country’s most
prominent black rabbi — a fact that has gone largely unnoticed.
Michelle Obama, wife of the Democratic presidential nominee, and
Rabbi Capers Funnye, spiritual leader of a mostly black synagogue
on Chicago’s South Side, are first cousins once removed. Funnye’s
mother, Verdelle Robinson Funnye (born Verdelle Robinson) and
Michelle Obama’s paternal grandfather, Frasier Robinson Jr., were
brother and sister.
Funnye (pronounced fuh-NAY) is chief rabbi at the Beth Shalom
B’nai Zaken Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation in southwest Chicago. He
is well-known in Jewish circles for acting as a bridge between
mainstream Jewry and the much smaller, and largely separate, world
of black Jewish congregations, sometimes known as black Hebrews or
Israelites. He has often urged the larger Jewish community to be
more accepting of Jews who are not white.
Funnye’s famous relative gives an unexpected twist to the
much-analyzed relationship between Barack Obama and Jews in this
presidential campaign. On the one hand, Jewish political
organizers, voters and donors played an essential role in Obama’s
rise to power in Chicago, including some of the city’s wealthiest
and most prominent families. But the Illinois senator has
struggled to overcome suspicions in some parts of the Jewish
community, including skepticism about his stance on Israel and
discredited but persistent rumors that he is secretly a Muslim.
Funnye, who described himself as an independent, said he has not
been involved with the Obama campaign but that he has donated
money and was cheering it on.
“I know that her grandfather and her father and my mom and all of
our relatives that are now deceased would be so very, very proud
of both of them,” Funnye told the Forward.
Michelle Obama and the Obama campaign did not respond to requests
for comment.
Funnye told the Forward that he has known Michelle Obama (born
Michelle Robinson) all her life. His mother and her father,
Frasier Robinson III, enjoyed a close relationship, and Funnye
said he saw Michelle several times a year when they were growing
up, mostly at family functions and on occasional visits to her
house.
“Her father was like the glue of our family,” Funnye said. “He
always wanted to keep the family very connected and to stay in
touch with each other.”
Funnye, 56, said he and Michelle, 44, were not especially close
growing up, but he remembers her as “energetic and smart and very
caring.”
The two fell out of touch when they grew older and went their
separate ways but then reconnected years later when Michelle Obama
was working for the University of Chicago and Funnye was leading a
local social service organization called Blue Gargoyle. Funnye
also worked with Barack Obama, then a state senator, who came and
spoke at events for the organization. When Barack and Michelle
Obama married, Funnye and his family attended the wedding.
Although Funnye’s congregation describes itself as Ethiopian
Hebrew, it is not connected to the Ethiopian Jews, commonly called
Beta Israel, who have immigrated to Israel en masse in recent
decades. It is also separate from the Black Hebrews in Dimona,
Israel, and the Hebrew Israelite black supremacist group whose
incendiary street harangues have become familiar spectacles in a
number of American cities.
Funnye converted to Judaism and was ordained as a rabbi under the
supervision of black Israelite rabbis, then went through another
conversion supervised by Orthodox and Conservative rabbis. He
serves on the Chicago Board of Rabbis.
Funnye’s relationship with the Obama family was reported in the
Chicago Jewish News in an article dated August 22. A Wall Street
Journal article in April reported that the aspiring first lady had
a cousin (whom the paper mistakenly referred to as a second
cousin) who is a prominent black rabbi but did not mention Funnye
by name.
The rabbi’s familial connection with the Democratic presidential
nominee is also a matter of common knowledge in Funnye’s
synagogue.
“He really jumped on everyone’s radar after the 2004 convention,”
Funnye said. “That’s when some people said, ‘Isn’t he related to
you or something?’ I said, ‘Yeah, he’s married to my cousin, and
she’s making him everything that he is.’”
Link to :
http://www.forward.com/articles/14121/# |
