An Early Jewish-Black Marriage
In America, at the present time, a Jewish-black intermarriage is not uncommon. One of the oldest such marriages in recorded history was that of Moses to an Ethiopian woman named Zipporah. Moses’ sister Miriam and his brother Aaron were quite annoyed by the marriage and did not hesitate to express their disapproval.
When a male child was born, Zipporah wanted to have the child circumcised. Moses told her that he felt no need for such a procedure. Moses himself had never been circumcised. His parents had put him in a makeshift waterproof basket and set him afloat on a stream that was adjacent to the Pharaoh’s estate. They did this to save the infant’s life. The Pharaoh had decreed that firstborn male Jewish children had to be exterminated.
Luckily for Moses, a daughter of the Pharaoh found the child adrift in its basket. She fell in love with the infant, and the child was raised in the palace of the Pharaoh.
When Moses had his first child he saw no need to circumcise the newly born infant. But Zipporah was insistent. She performed the circumcision by herself. It was a bloody mess. With hands soaked in blood she smeared the foreskin on Moses’ feet to symbolize his part in the ceremony.
Thus, incredibly, did a black Ethiopian woman set Moses straight on the need for an infant Jewish boy to be circumcised.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
