Ben Ammi Ben-Israel

Ben Ammi Ben-Israel (בן עמי בן-ישראל; October 12, 1939 – December 27, 2014) was the American-born founder and spiritual leader of the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem. Ben Carter (later Ben Ammi Ben-Israel) was born in Chicago, Illinois, to a Baptist family. After dropping out of high school, Carter served three years in the United States Army, where he earned an equivalency degree. He married Patricia Price (later Ahdinah Carter) in 1959. After Carter was discharged from the Army, he worked as a metallurgist at Chicago's Howard Foundry. In 1961, a co-worker introduced him to the idea that African Americans are descendants of the Biblical Israelites. Carter began to attend meetings of black Israelite groups, and was given a Hebrew name, Ben Ammi Ben-Israel. In 1964 he and several others founded the Abeta Hebrew Israel Culture Center. According to the Hebrew Israelite community, in 1966, Ben Ammi received a vision from the angel Gabriel, who told him to lead African-Americans to Israel. In the vision, he claimed he was instructed to: "Lead the children of Israel among African Americans to the promised land, and establish the long-awaited Kingdom of God." In any case, Ben Ammi was one of four members of the Abeta Hebrew Israel Cultural Center to be chosen to travel to Liberia to explore the possibility of settlement there. In July 1967, a number of Abeta families began to arrive in Liberia, settling in spartan conditions on land purchased by an African American citizen of Liberia on behalf of the community. According to one account, Ben Ammi began his rise to leadership within the group around Passover in 1968. In accordance with their belief that they were the descendants of ancient Israelites, community members planned to sacrifice a lamb or kid (baby goat) as part of the observance of the holiday. When the goat acquired for the occasion was found accidentally strangled, and therefore ritually impure to be used as a sacrifice, Ben Ammi made a speech declaring that the faith and observance of the Black Hebrews was the true sacrifice that God desired.