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Biography · Biography & Culture

Ben Ammi Ben-Israel

1939–2014

United States

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Biography

Ben Ammi Ben-Israel (Hebrew: בן עמי בן-ישראל; October 12, 1939 – December 27, 2014) was an American-born Israeli spiritual leader. Inspired by the Black Hebrew Israelites in the United States, he founded the African Hebrew Israelite Nation of Jerusalem, which claims that African Americans originate from the Land of Israel. The community's initial members claimed Israelite descent and undertook a major initiative to immigrate to the State of Israel during and after the 1960s.

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Biography text · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source checked 2026-10-13

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