Capers Funnye

Capers C. Funnye Jr. (/fəˈneɪ/; born April 14, 1952) is an African-American rabbi, who leads the 200-member Beth Shalom B'nai Zaken Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation of Chicago, Illinois, assisted by rabbis Avraham Ben Israel and Joshua V. Salter.

Capers Funnye Jr. was born in 1952 in Georgetown, South Carolina in the Low Country, with paternal ancestry among the GeeChee people of the Sea Islands. His family moved to Chicago as part of the continuing Great Migration of African Americans out of the South, and he grew up on the South Side.

Funnye is the first cousin once removed of Michelle Obama, the wife of 44th United States President Barack Obama. His mother Verdelle (Robinson) Funnye was a sister of Michelle's paternal grandfather Fraser Robinson Jr. He is 12 years older than Michelle. While their families frequently visited when they were young, the two of them got to know each other more as adults.

Funnye was raised in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and at 17, was encouraged by his minister to enter the clergy. Dissatisfied with Christianity during his time at Howard University and influenced by movements for civil rights and black nationalism, he investigated other religions, including Islam. After meeting with Rabbi Robert Devine, the spiritual leader of the House of Israel Congregation in Chicago, which practiced a kind of messianic Judaism, he joined his congregation. Related Black Jewish movements in the United States had started in the late 19th century in Kansas.

...
Wikipedia