Degel Eidot CHeMDaT"A
Throughout history, communities have adopted flags as enduring symbols of their identity, heritage, and shared aspirations. Beyond serving as emblems of nations and governments, flags have long represented peoples, cultures, and movements, expressing a collective story through color, form, and symbolism. The Degel Eidot CHeMDaT"A was created in that spirit: as a cultural flag for African-American and Caribbean-American Jewry. It provides a visual expression of a community whose history is both distinct and inseparable from the broader story of the Jewish people. Rather than defining religious belief or political affiliation, the flag celebrates a shared heritage, honors the generations that have shaped the community, and offers a unifying symbol around which present and future generations can gather with pride. Like all meaningful flags, its significance lies not only in its appearance, but in the history, values, and identity it represents. Each color and symbol on the flag has a significant meaning that was developed to instill pride both in Jewish heritage and African ancestry.
Inspired by Untitled (African-American Flag) by David Hammons and Black American Heritage Flag by Melvin Charles and Gleason T. Jackson, the Degel Eidot CHeMDaT”A combines the colors of both, with ideas and symbolism unique to Eidot CHeMDaT”A Jewry.
The design is of 13 stripes of alternating black and red. Layered over the stripes at the left corner is a swallowtail burgee field of green bordered with gold. Superimposed onto the green field is a golden menorah, patterned after Maimonides’ sketch of the Temple menorah, surrounded by the golden words
עֵידוֹת חִילּוֹנִים וּמָסוֹרתִּים וְדָתִיִּים שֶׁל הַתְּפוּצוֹת הָאַפְרִיקָאִית
with the first word and each of the acronym initials appearing in black.
Color Scheme
CMYK
HEX
RGB
Red
0, 100, 100, 0
#FF0000
255, 0, 0
Black
0, 0, 0, 100
#000000
0, 0, 0
Green
100, 0, 100, 61
#006400
0, 100, 0
Gold
0, 16, 100, 0
#FFD700
255, 215, 0
Symbolism
Red: Representing the blood of the brit milah (circumcision) that binds all Jews together in holy covenant, and the blood that unites all people of African ancestry. It also evokes the innocent blood of Black lives spilled in oppression in our diasporic lands, as well as the innocent blood of Jewish lives spilled in oppression in our diasporic lands.
Black: Representing the letters of the Torah itself—“black fire engraved on white fire”—as well as pride in Black pigmentation. In Qabbalah, this color is often associated with the sefirah of Binah and the aspect of G’d’s hidden potential and the capacity to absorb and shape creation, the color from which every other hue and all of life emerge.
Green: Representing the Land of Israel, the ancestral Jewish homeland, and of African homelands.
Gold: Represents dignity, worth, and royalty—a rejection of narratives of disposability—and also the gold of the kohanic breastplate, to be re-established when the Messiah arrives.
13 Stripes: It was generally held that every Jew is bound to observe the mitzvot by following the customs appropriate to his or her family origin. Rabbi Isaac Luria, the AriZal, taught that twelve gates of prayer exist, one for each of the 12 tribes of Israel. Additionally there is a 13th gate, an all-inclusive gate for those who do not know from which tribe they come, which everyone can enter.
Menorah: Despite its widespread popularity, the magen David (Star of David) was not originally a uniquely Jewish symbol, its association as distinctive Jewish iconography, for the Jewish people and their religion dates only emerged in the 17th-century. Prague. Since ancient times, it has been the menorah—the seven-branched candelabrum used in the Tabernacle and the Temple in Jerusalem—which has served as the symbol representing the Jews and Judaism in both the Land of Israel and the Jewish diaspora.
The branches are often artistically depicted in a semicircular arc shape, but Maimonides held that the branches of the menorah were diagonally straight, extending from the stem to the full height of the menorah. The seven lamps allude to the branches of human knowledge, represented by the six lamps inclined inwards towards, and symbolically guided by, the light of G’d represented by the central lamp.