‘I’VE ALWAYS BEEN A JEW’: RELIGION, RACE, AND SAMMY DAVIS JR. (HYBRID)

In 1960, the versatile entertainer Sammy Davis Jr. converted to Judaism, shortly before marrying May Britt, also a convert to Judaism, under a chuppah in their Hollywood home. Davis had been describing himself as a Jew for several years already. In fact, he told many people that he had “always been a Jew.”  To Davis, African American and Jewish histories  were mirrors of one another; nothing was more logical, he said, than to be a Black Jew. By the late 1960s, that belief faced unprecedented strain, as political unrest  in the United States and in Israel fractured liberal alliances. Toward the end of his life, in the 1980s,  Davis no longer described Judaism and Black identity as analogues. Through his fascinating story, we can explore one person’s quest for spiritual belonging amid a transnational debate over race, religion, and identity.