Black Hebrew Israelites

[Phidippides]

They've been in the news a lot the past week.  How much, if any, are the related to actual Jews in terms of theology?  To whom do they appeal? 

[Donald Baker]

I'm not very knowledgeable on this subject.  I've read along the way that the real Ark of the Covenant was supposed to be in Ethiopia hidden somewhere.  I don't know how true that is, but it is a possible connection that the Ethiopians claim gives them legitimacy as one of the lost tribes of ancient Israel.  I do know that Israel takes in many black Jews as part of the Aliyah or the return from the Diaspora.  So there is that.