Summary(00:40) Sean He has lived on and off Brooklyn. He used to be a boxer, now is a chef -- (02:20) Sean describes his maternal grandfather as an "Ethiopian Hebrew man" named Dewitt Halevy "Batizazou", from the Levy tribe. He came from Ethiopia through Calabria (Italy) in the 1930s. He changed his name to Alvin Williams to blend with the African American community. He was not a practicing Jew when he came to America because he was afraid of anti Semitism and racism -- (07:00) Family of his father is African American and Christian but his maternal grandfather had kept some Jewish traditions and passed them on to Sean -- (10:30) Sean is still in touch with Ethiopian family who live in Israel. Sean lives between the Bronx, where his family lives, and Manhattan where he works, and also stays in Bushwick where he trains as a boxer.
NoteTitle supplied by cataloger. Audio interview conducted on 2019 November 26 by Ariane Loeb. Collected through the Brooklyn Collection Jewish History Project of Brooklyn Public Library. This project is funded by the David Berg Foundation
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TitleThe Sean Williams collection. Oral history interview with Sean William conducted on November 26, 2019
Biographical NoteSean was born on September 28,1967 in New York. A former boxer, he is now a chef. His family is Ethiopian on his father's side and African American on his mother's side. He speaks about his Judaic roots and practices.