agenda, which serves no purpose at all except to engender antisemitism in Black communities in western countries". The historian Josephus, as well as theologians Emil Schürer and Friedrich Münter, wrote of Jewish slaves who were sold and served as labourers in Egypt and the Roman Empire, contradicting the Black Hebrew Israelite claim that Egypt is a metaphor for the Americas. Additionally, contrary to what is taught by Black Hebrew Israelites, no Kingdom of Judah existed in West Africa, and the Middle Eastern state has no connection with the Kingdom of Whydah. Black Hebrew Israelites have been criticized for making historical revisionist claims that do not acknowledge the poverty that Jews experienced as immigrants in the United States. Fran Markowitz, a Professor of Cultural Anthropology at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, writes that the Hebrew Israelite view of the transatlantic slave trade conflicts with historical accounts, as does the Hebrew Israelite belief that Socrates and William Shakespeare were black. Notable Black Hebrew Israelites See also African American–Jewish relations Afro-American religion Black Judaism Cultural appropriation Groups claiming affiliation with Israelites British Israelism Christian Identity French Israelism Nordic Israelism Hoteps Messianic Judaism Moorish Science Temple of America Pretendian Religion in Black America References Sources Further reading External links Two Hebrew Israelite Biblical Verses Examined, The Times of Israel 1886 establishments in the United States Religious organizations established in 1886 Groups claiming Israelite descent Black separatism Monotheistic religions Groups claiming Jewish descent African and Black nationalism in the United States