c. 1997 Religion News Service

ARLINGTON, Va. _ Rodney Sampson does not think of himself as a bridge, but he knows others invariably will.

Sampson, 34, is an African-American Jew, a relatively rare identity given the European heritage of the overwhelming majority of U.S. Jews. As the new president of Arlington-Fairfax Jewish Congregation, he is also something of a pioneer.

Sampson is apparently the first African-American to lead a synagogue connected to Judaism’s Conservative movement, the faith’s centrist branch. He apparently is also one of just two blacks to serve as board president of a mainstream U.S. synagogue of any affiliation, according to officials at all the major synagogue umbrella organizations.

The other black synagogue president is West Indian-born author Jamaica Kincaid, who for the past year has presided over the board of Congregation Beth El, a Bennington, Vt., synagogue affiliated with the small, liberal Reconstructionist movement.”I don’t think of myself as any sort of a link between the African-American and Jewish communities,”said Sampson.”But others will view me that way, and that’s fine. If I can help bring people together, I’ll be happy to help.” For the approximately 800 synagogues affiliated with United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism _ the New York-based organization for Conservative synagogues _ the lay leadership, led by the board president, sets policy and hires and fires the congregation’s rabbi and other religious leaders.

As president of the 200-family Arlington-Fairfax Jewish Congregation _ a position he will formally assume Saturday (June 21) for a two-year term _ Sampson said he will focus on strengthening the synagogue’s religious, social and cultural programs, hoping to spur membership growth.

The often tense state of black-Jewish relations will not be a priority for Sampson, a U.S. Air Force Academy graduate who works as a manager for MCI Communications in Tyson’s Corner, Va., a Washington suburb.”I’m not an idiot and I know situations will arise when I’m called upon or I want to make a statement about misunderstandings or other issues involving the two communities,”Sampson said.”I won’t shy from that.”But my emphasis as a synagogue leader is on what I can do for the congregation. My success in that will be related to my Jewishness, not my race. There was no intent to make a statement with my election.” Rabbi Marvin Bash, the religious leader of Arlington-Fairfax Jewish Congregation, said it only recently”dawned on us that (Sampson) being president is unique. Rodney’s a committed Jew. That’s why he was voted in.” Jewish groups do not maintain statistics on the number of African-American Jews. But author and college professor Julius Lester, a black convert to Judaism, said he has heard an estimate that there may be as many as 56,000 U.S. Jews with black ancestry. If that figure is correct _ and Lester cautioned that he cannot substantiate its origin _ that would account for 1 percent of the Jewish community’s total of about 5.6 million.

That number, said Lester _ who has served as vice president of his own Conservative congregation in Northampton, Mass. _ would include African-American converts to Judaism, children of mixed black-Jewish parentage, and Ethiopian Jewish immigrants. It does not include members of black sects that consider themselves Jews but are not accepted as such by mainstream U.S. Jewish religious leaders for a variety of theological reasons.

Sampson _ like Lester and Kincaid _ is a”Jew by choice,”the preferred term within the Jewish community for converts to the faith. Born in Turkey, where his father was stationed in the Air Force, Sampson grew up in the Cherry Hill, N.J.-Philadelphia area, where he attended a Quaker high school.

His parents were Christians, but Sampson said he was”by no means active, except when my mother said `You will go to church.'” In 1990, Sampson _ married to a Jewish woman _ said he began to gravitate toward Judaism”because it appealed to me from a logical standpoint.” A Jewish neighbor fed his growing appetite for Jewish books and introduced him to Rabbi Bash, with whom Sampson studied for about nine months.”I had two or three meetings with Rabbi Bash before I realized I was in a conversion process,”Sampson said.

In October 1991, Sampson formally underwent a Conservative conversion to Judaism and began to maintain a kosher home and follow the Jewish Sabbath. The following year he was voted onto the board at Arlington-Fairfax Jewish Congregation. For the past two years, Sampson has served as first vice president.

As the only black member of his congregation, Sampson said he has never felt anything but full acceptance. His selection as president _ he ran as part of a slate that was elected by congregational acclamation _ is”a reaffirmation of the nature of Judaism,”he said.”Judaism doesn’t look first at a person’s race, but at the ethical nature of how they act,”Sampson said.

MJP END RIFKIN