Capers Funnye

Rabbi Capers C. Funnye Jr. died on Monday, November 2, 2026, at the age of 74. The Chicago Sun-Times reported that he died from cancer; the exact place of death was not stated in published reports. His death was announced by Beth Shalom B'nai Zaken Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation, which wrote that he had "touched countless lives with his spiritual leadership, wisdom, and unwavering commitment to our congregation and the broader Hebrew Israelite community."

He was survived by his wife, Mary Funnye, four children and several grandchildren. A celebration of life is scheduled for Friday, November 6, 2026, at 10 a.m. at Beth Shalom B'nai Zaken Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation, 6601 S. Kedzie Ave., Chicago.

Tributes came from across the Jewish world, including Rabbi Tamar Manasseh, Rabbi Asher Lopatin, Rabbi Joseph Potasnik, Rabbi Baruch Yehudah, Jane Ramsey and Robin Washington.

Capers C. Funnye Jr. was born on April 14, 1952, in Georgetown, South Carolina, in the Low Country. His paternal ancestry lay among the Gullah Geechee people of the Sea Islands, a community known for preserving strong African traditions, and he later noted that variations of his surname are common in Nigeria and West Africa.

His family joined the Great Migration and moved to Chicago, where he grew up on the South Side. There he spent time with his mother's extended family. His mother, Verdelle (Robinson) Funnye, was a sister of Fraser Robinson Jr., the paternal grandfather of Michelle Obama; the Robinsons also came from Georgetown and shared Gullah roots. That made Funnye the future First Lady's first cousin once removed, and friends later recalled that he enjoyed telling funny stories from when she was little.

He was raised in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the first independent Black denomination in the United States. At 17 his minister encouraged him to enter the Christian clergy, a path he ultimately did not take.

Funnye attended Howard University in Washington, D.C. During his college years, influenced by the civil rights and Black nationalist movements, he became dissatisfied with Christianity, which he and many of his generation came to see as an imposed faith, and he explored other religions, including Islam. His friend Rabbi Baruch Yehudah dated the start of his journey to Judaism to the early 1970s.

In Chicago he met Rabbi Robert Devine of the House of Israel Congregation and joined it, before being drawn to the more conventional teaching of Rabbi Levi Ben Levy of Brooklyn, chief rabbi of the International Israelite Board of Rabbis. That board traces its roots to the Commandment Keepers Congregation founded in Harlem in 1919 by Wentworth Arthur Matthew. Funnye studied with Levy long distance for five years, and Levy ordained him in 1985 through the Israelite Rabbinical Academy. Obituaries also record a degree in Hebrew literature from the Israelite board.

In 1985 he also underwent a second formal conversion to Judaism, certified by a Conservative rabbinical court, a step rarely taken by an Israelite leader. He studied at the Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies in Chicago, earning a bachelor's degree in Jewish studies and a master's degree in human services administration. Spertus opened doors in mainstream circles, and he recalled meeting figures including Louis Jacobs and Elie Wiesel. He said Judaism's habit of constant examination gave him a sense of intellectual and spiritual liberation.

In 1985 Funnye began serving Beth Shalom B'nai Zaken Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation in Chicago, first as assistant rabbi, and he went on to lead it for four decades. The congregation was founded in 1918 by Rabbi Horace Hasan of Bombay as the Ethiopian Hebrew Settlement Workers Association and now worships in a synagogue built by an earlier Ashkenazi congregation at 6601 S. Kedzie Avenue in Marquette Park. With about 200 members it is counted among the largest Black synagogues in the United States. Most members are African American, with Hispanic and white members as well; most converted, after a year of study and a traditional conversion. Funnye described its practice as somewhere between Conservative and Modern Orthodox, with separate seating and spirituals sung to a drum.

In 1995 he co-founded the Alliance of Black Jews (also described as the National Conference of Black Jews) with Michelle Stein-Evers and Robin Washington. Washington later said it lasted only a few years but "got the word out that Black Jews exist." In 1996 he was described as the only Black rabbi in the Chicago area, and in 1997 he became the first African American member of the Chicago Board of Rabbis. He sat on the boards of the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs and the American Jewish Congress of the Midwest and consulted for cultural institutions across the country.

Through the Institute for Jewish and Community Research and Be'chol Lashon he reached out to Black Jewish communities abroad, including the Beta Israel of Ethiopia and the Igbo Jews of Nigeria, and the Forward reported that he served congregations in Nigeria, Uganda and other sub-Saharan African nations.

In October 2015 he was installed as Chief Rabbi of the International Israelite Board of Rabbis, the main rabbinical body of the Hebrew Israelite movement, and he was formally inaugurated in Brooklyn in August 2016. He created a Council of Elders, called for women to be admitted to the historically male board, and helped win full membership in the New York Board of Rabbis for graduates of the Israelite Rabbinical Academy.

Funnye married Mary White of Chicago, later Mary Funnye. Her brother, businessman Frank White Jr., served on Barack Obama's national finance committee during his first presidential campaign. The couple had four children and several grandchildren; the children's names have not been widely published.

He lived in Chicago for most of his life. His family connection to Michelle Obama brought him to Barack Obama's first inauguration in January 2009 and, friends said, to eight White House Hanukkah celebrations. "He never exploited that relationship," said Rabbi Baruch Yehudah. "He loved Michelle and liked to talk about funny stories from when she was little."

Colleagues described him as "the quintessential people person" with a contagious laugh. In January 2021 he was photographed receiving his first COVID-19 vaccine dose at Richard J. Daley College.

Funnye saw no conflict between his Israelite heritage and his Conservative conversion. "I am a Hebrew, I am an Israelite, I am a Jew," he said. He affirmed what he regarded as the African roots of Judaism ("Moses is born in Africa") while insisting that "no one community can say who is in and who is out" and that European Jews and all Jews were brothers.

He believed in building bridges rather than walls. "When my predecessors asked to be part of the Jewish community they were rejected, reviled, ridiculed," he said. "I made it my mission to tear down the walls that kept us out." At his 2016 inauguration he urged Israelites to reach out to other Jews, to include women in the rabbinate, to develop their own Halacha as guiding principles for daily life, and to be "staunch supporters of the State of Israel," speaking strongly against the BDS movement.

His congregation did not seek members through missionary activity and did not apply to join mainstream synagogue organizations, which Funnye said it did not feel the need to do. Jane Ramsey of the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs recalled that he connected his congregants with mosques and churches to work together against social, economic and political injustice.

Funnye is remembered as the person who moved Black Jews from the edge of American Jewish life toward its center. He was the first Israelite rabbi admitted to the Chicago Board of Rabbis, opened the New York Board of Rabbis to graduates of the Israelite Rabbinical Academy, and pushed the Israelite board itself toward including women.

"He forced the world to recognize that Black Jews existed whether they wanted to recognize that or not," said Rabbi Tamar Manasseh. Rabbi Asher Lopatin called him his "rebbe" for understanding how important it is to bring the Black Jewish community to the very center of the Jewish community. Rabbi Joseph Potasnik of the New York Board of Rabbis said his commitment to group relations helped mainstream rabbis understand the Black Jewish community. His congregation said his legacy of faith, service and dedication would continue to inspire generations.

Funnye's recognition came mainly through firsts and offices rather than formal awards. He was the first African American member of the Chicago Board of Rabbis (1997), was installed as Chief Rabbi of the International Israelite Board of Rabbis in 2015, and was welcomed with his board into the New York Board of Rabbis. Michelle Obama sent congratulations on White House stationery for his 2016 inauguration. No major formal awards were documented in the sources reviewed for this page.

Funnye drew national coverage after the Forward's September 2008 story "Michelle Obama Has a Rabbi in Her Family" and The New York Times' March 2008 report "Black Rabbi Reaches Out to Mainstream of His Faith." In April 2009 Zev Chafets profiled him in The New York Times Magazine under the title "Obama's Rabbi." The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum interviewed him for its Voices on Antisemitism podcast in September 2008. The Washington Post (2015) and the Forward (2016) covered his installation and inauguration as chief rabbi, and he spoke at venues including the ideacity conference in Toronto and the Jewish Museum of Florida.

Funnye's lifelong effort sat inside a long dispute. Many mainstream Jewish bodies had for decades rejected Hebrew Israelite claims of descent from ancient Israel and did not recognize Israelite ordination, and his Conservative conversion was in part a response to that. Within the Israelite world, some of his 2016 positions, especially strong support for the State of Israel, were expected to be received differently by members who did not feel recognized by Israel.

After the December 2019 Jersey City shooting by attackers linked to an extremist Black Hebrew Israelite ideology, the Chicago Tribune published a commentary arguing that Funnye and other Black Hebrew Israelites were being wrongly connected to the shooters.