Rabbi
dead at 77
FOUNDER
and leader of the House of Israel in Guyana,
Rabbi Edward Washington, also called David
Hill, died in the United States Monday, the
local organisation confirmed yesterday.
Stabroek
News
The
cause of the 77-year-old’s death has not yet
been ascertained, a House of Israel spokesman
told the Chronicle yesterday afternoon.
Washington,
known as an enforcer during the Forbes Burnham
regime had been living in the US for the last
eight years after spending almost 25 years in
Guyana.
Despite
its name, the House of Israel was neither
Israeli nor Jewish-oriented. It was, instead,
a black supremacist cult claiming that Afro-Guyanese
were the original Hebrews. Cult adherents
further believed that modern-day Jews were, in
fact, descendants of other non-Jewish biblical
peoples and were in Israel illegally. Serving
as a paramilitary force for the PNC, the House
of Israel – in the late 1970 and early 1980s
-had some 8,000 members, including a
300-member guard force known as the
"royal cadets."
“The
House of Israel is a “pseudo-religious cult
that has little to do with religions. It’s
merely a pseudo-military arm of the ruling
party,” Eusi Kwayana was quoted as saying in
The New York Times on October 21, 1979
When
Burnham died and Desmond Hoyte became
president, the House of Israel reportedly fell
out of government favour. In July 1986, Rabbi
Washington and other key House of Israel
leaders were arrested and charged with murder.
Following his release from prison here in
1992, FBI agents escorted Washington – who
was also an American fugitive wanted for,
among other things, blackmail, larceny and tax
evasion - back to the U.S. to face charges
there.
However,
he returned to Guyana later that same year and
he continued to work to re-establish the power
base of the House until he left Guyana
permanently in 1997.
DECEMBER
11, 2005
