From Jerusalem to Mars: A Black Ethiopian Jew’s Friendly Reply to Elon Musk

By Dr. Shmuel Legesse: Upcoming Author of Moral Diplomacy for a Broken World: Inspired by the Vision of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks

When Elon Musk wrote on X (formerly Twitter) that “Jews are white, if not peak white,” I didn’t know whether to laugh, cry, or invite him to a Shabbat dinner in Beersheba with my Ethiopian family just to show him what “peak white” looks like after a week under the Negev sun.

As an Ethiopian-Israeli Jew, a Black African descendant of the Ethiopian Jewish community, I’ve spent much of my life trying to explain that Jewish identity is not a skin-tone category. It is a covenant, a calling, a story that crosses continents and centuries. We are not one shade of people; we are one people of many shades. But when I first saw Musk’s post, I hesitated.

Since October 7, Israel has been in mourning. Our national heart is still sitting shiva for the murdered, the kidnapped, the shattered. This has not felt like a time for digital arguments.

Yet silence, too, can mislead. So let me answer not with outrage, but with warmth; not to accuse, but to educate; as my teacher Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks (z”l) taught me, “Tell the truth, but tell it with love.”

Let’s start with a confession: Elon Musk, a brilliant and, by most accounts, well-intentioned defender of innovation, democracy, and progress did not invent confusion about Jewish identity; he merely gave it Wi-Fi. When a man who builds rockets and brain chips still struggles to tell the difference between ethnicity and covenant, it says less about him and more about the picture we, the Jewish people, have painted for the world. If outsiders believe all Jews are white, perhaps we have framed our portrait too narrowly.

Ask yourself: How many Ethiopian-Israeli diplomats represent Israel abroad? How many Black or brown Jews appear on our government panels or at US and European delegation gatherings and foreign-policy conferences? How often do Israelis invite their Ethiopian-Israeli neighbors for a Shabbat meal not as charity, but as equals and family? I hold a doctorate in International Educational Leadership and Administration from a university in New York City, where I studied while Rabbi Jonathan Sacks (z”l) was teaching across campus. During that time, I had the privilege of meeting him and sharing my dream of building bridges between Israel and the world. He blessed that calling and told me, “The Jewish people need devoted voices like you, voices that will carry our light to the nations.” Those words became my compass.

So before blaming Elon Musk for misunderstanding Jewish diversity, perhaps we should ask ourselves: What diversity have we shown him? Israel’s miracle is not only military or technological; it is moral and human. We are the world’s first global family Jews from Yemen, Morocco, Ethiopia, Ukraine, Argentina, and India all praying in the same tongue to the same God. But if our institutions highlight only one accent and one complexion, then the mirror reflects what we choose to show. The problem isn’t the world’s ignorance; it’s our underexposure. Rabbi Sacks often said that “the dignity of difference is the only way to save the human race.” He was right. His words apply not only to Israel, but to all of humanity. We Jews are not a color category; we are a covenant category. We come from more than 120 countries descendants of tribes, refugees, scholars, and wanderers who somehow carried one moral flame across every climate. We are living proof that unity does not require uniformity. That is why Musk’s comment, though clumsy, offers us a gift: the opportunity to educate, not retaliate. He may have millions of followers, but so do we in history. The question is: What do those followers see?

If every Israeli ambassador looks like a Tel Aviv tech CEO, of course the world assumes “Jew = white.” But imagine an Israel that regularly sends its Ethiopian, Yemenite, and Indian Jewish professionals to speak at the UN and Washington. Imagine microphones hearing Hebrew in the accents of Gondar, Cochin, and Casablanca. Imagine a prime minister proudly introducing an ambassador to the UN and EU “Dr. Shmuel Legesse, from the Ethiopian Jewish community of Ethiopia a Zionist educator continuing the dream of Exodus 2.0.” That is not fantasy. It is the next moral step of Zionism: to show that the ingathering of exiles is not metaphor but living truth. And it is also a universal lesson for every nation, every faith, every community.

When we celebrate our inner variety, the world grows less afraid of its own.

Elon Musk’s comment touches on a larger modern confusion: the idea that identity is biological rather than ethical. To borrow his own language, he’s confusing hardware with software. Judaism is not about the device of the skin but the operating system, the covenant that runs beneath it. You can’t measure it with melanin; you measure it with moral responsibility. Yes, some Jews appear white. Others are brown or black. So what? The Torah never promised us matching complexions, only shared commandments. Our mission was never to be the whitest people but a light unto the nations. And light, by definition, includes every color. If Musk attended a wedding in Jerusalem, he’d discover that Jewish dancing is where Europeans and Africans achieve perfect rhythm. If he walked through Kiryat Moshe, he’d see Isaiah’s prophecy fulfilled: “From beyond the rivers of Cush, My worshipers will bring an offering.” So when someone tweets that Jews are “peak white,” I smile and think: perhaps we have not yet broadcast our diversity in HD.

Now, let’s assign Elon a friendly homework project. He may keep building rockets to Mars, but before he leaves Earth, he should visit Jerusalem’s Mahane Yehuda market. In a single aisle he’ll meet Jews who look like every climate zone on the planet, a Yemenite spice-seller beside a Bukharan jeweler beside a Beta Israel coffee vendor, all arguing about whose grandmother invented cholent. If that isn’t diversity, what is? And if he still insists we’re “peak white,” he’s welcome at the next Ethiopian-Israeli wedding in Rehovot. Five minutes of traditional eskista shoulder-dancing will prove our moves are anything but European.

Humor aside, this matters. Because when influential voices mislabel Jews as a racial elite, they unintentionally feed myths that have hurt all peoples. The right calls us outsiders; the left calls us colonizers; both erase African/Ethiopian, Yemenite, Indian, and Mizrahi Jews who defy those categories.

The cure is not anger but education and representation. The world doesn’t need more tweets about Jewish color; it needs to see Jewish color in classrooms, in diplomacy, in leadership, and in friendship.

Responsibility, Not Blame

I don’t blame Elon Musk for misunderstanding us. He’s an engineer; he measures what he can see. If the global image of Jews looks monochrome, perhaps our own public diplomacy needs an upgrade. The task belongs to all of us governments, educators, journalists, and ordinary citizens of every faith. Invite those who are different to your table . Listen longer than you speak. Celebrate the full palette of the human family. Because the next time someone of influence tries to define any people by color, we should be able to reply not with outrage, but with evidence of a living mosaic that speaks for itself.

Rabbi Sacks taught that the most persuasive answer to hatred is not protest but example.
“The best defense of the Jewish people,” he said, “is to be the Jewish people.” So, Elon Musk, if you’re reading this, come visit. Bring your curiosity, your camera, and your sense of wonder.

Meet the Ethiopian Jewish grandmother who crossed Sudan on foot; the Yemenite rabbi teaching Torah in Rishon LeZion; the Ukrainian and Moroccan teenagers serving together in the IDF. Then tell me again that Jews are “peak white.” You may be a genius of space, but we are experts in time and across time, the Jewish people have gathered every color of the human spirit. We are not the whitest nation, Mr. Musk; we are the most surviving one. And survival, as it turns out, looks beautiful in every shade.

May this small essay be read not as a rebuke but as a love letter to Jews, to Elon Musk, and to every citizen of our shared Earth. Because truth told kindly is light; and light, like love, belongs to everyone. Am Yisrael Chai — The People of Israel Live. And when we live as one family, the whole world shines a little brighter. Thank you, Elon Musk, for starting this conversation. Sometimes it takes a bold comment to open a door for real learning and for that, I’m grateful.