Harlem in the 1920s and 1930s was a ferment of religious innovation, esoteric experimentation, and Black intellectual renaissance. Within this climate, spiritual teachers, mystics, rabbis, Freemasons, Theosophists, and metaphysical lecturers shared halls, disciples, and occasionally doctrines. This section includes all major figures and movements active in Harlem’s spiritual/esoteric scene, their affiliations, beliefs, and potential relevance to Abdullah.

Why the Freemasonic Line of Inquiry?

Joseph Murphy, a key student of Abdullah, was known to have Masonic connections. Arnold Josiah Ford, active in Harlem’s Black Jewish community, was a 33° Scottish Rite Mason. Also in a future article will reference an Abdallah present at the Obelisk mason ceremony in Central Park in the 1880’s. Abdullah’s symbolic speech parallels Masonic degrees, and his possible early life in Egypt or London (Joseph Murphy, Cambridge mention) would have intersected with major Masonic centers. Investigating Harlem’s Masonic, Jewish, and esoteric circles is not just speculation, so it needs to be considered.

2. Timeline of Abdullah’s Life (Assembled from All Sources)

Image	Name	Primary Religious/Esoteric Affiliations	Key Beliefs/Practices related to Affiliation
	Arnold Josiah Ford	Ethiopian Hebrew, 33° Mason	Claimed Ethiopian Hebrew identity, associated with Freemasonry.
	Wentworth Arthur Matthew	Black Judaism, Hebrew literacy	Believed ancient Hebrews were Black, emphasized Hebrew literacy and observance within a Black context.
	E.W. Roberson	Esoteric Christianity-Hebrew	Taught mystical immortality, incorporated Hebrew rituals within a Christian framework. Possible Swindler
	Mordecai Herman	Zionism, Kabbalah, Pan-Africanism	Blended Jewish identity with Pan-Africanist ideals, incorporated Kabbalistic elements, supported Zionism.
	Abdul Hamid Suleiman	Mohammedan Masonry, occult sciences	Combined Islamic teachings with Freemasonic symbolism and occult practices, emphasized Egyptian connections.
	Noble Drew Ali	Sufi-Islamic-Freemasonic syncretism	Syncretic faith blending Sufi Islam, Freemasonry, and other esoteric elements, emphasized Moorish identity for Black Americans.
	Marcus Garvey	African Orthodoxy, ceremonial Masonry	Promoted a form of Black Christianity, incorporated ceremonial Masonry within his movement, focused on Black empowerment and pan-Africanism.

Harlem Spiritual and Esoteric Figures Active in the 1920s–30s (with Birth–Death Years)

Harlem Esoteric and Masonic Lodges

Comparison of Teachings: Abdullah and Harlem Spiritual Movements

Abdullah was described as both reclusive and authoritative and could thrive in this context. His identity as a Hebrew-Kabbalist made him unique but not out of place. His elder age, if born around 1845, meant he may have predated or mentored figures like Ford and Matthew. Documented descriptions of Abdullah given by Neville himself, could thrive in this context without drawing press coverage. His identity as a Hebrew-Kabbalist made him unique but not out of place.

Appendix IV: Harlem Spiritual and Esoteric Figures Lifespan Report

The 1920s and 1930s witnessed a remarkable period of cultural efflorescence in Harlem, New York City—an era known as the Harlem Renaissance. While celebrated for its music, art, and literature, this renaissance was also spiritual, mystical, and experimental. Harlem became a center for Black esotericism, religious syncretism, and fraternal experimentation, in which alternative teachings flourished and figures like Abdullah could have operated both invisibly and centrally. This appendix seeks to verify the lifespans of Harlem’s most prominent spiritual and esoteric figures active during this time. Each individual’s biography is reconstructed from primary and secondary sources, with dates and roles clarified for future historians. A particular emphasis is placed on the fraternal aspect of Harlem’s mysticism. Abdullah’s reported teaching style—the language of initiation, personal transformation, and the inner power of mind—parallels rites found in Scottish Rite Freemasonry. Arnold Josiah Ford was a 33° Mason; Joseph Murphy, Neville’s fellow student, also had Masonic ties. In this way, including Masonic connections is not speculative but part of an interpretive framework grounded in both the Harlem context and Abdullah’s own symbolic rhetoric.

Arnold Josiah Ford (1877–1935)

Arnold Josiah Ford (1877–1935): A Pioneer of Black Judaism

Multiple sources confirm that Arnold Josiah Ford was born on April 23, 1877, and passed away on either September 15 or 16, 1935, with the 16th being more widely reported. He served as the music director for Marcus Garvey’s UNIA and co-wrote the “Universal Ethiopian Anthem.” He later founded Beth B’nai Abraham, a Black Hebrew congregation, and is frequently credited with helping lay the foundations for Black Judaism in America. Ford was a 33° Scottish Rite Mason and Past Master of Memnon Lodge No.51.

Mitch Horowitz suggests that Ford is a likely candidate for Neville Goddard and Joseph Murphy’s teacher, Abdullah. Similarities include their shared Barbados origin, Ford’s “Ethiopian rabbi” status and turban, his presence in New York during their studies, his Hebrew knowledge, and “mind-power” philosophy akin to Abdullah’s teachings. There is a conflict with Neville’s timeline of a five-year mentorship starting in 1931, the year Ford left for Ethiopia.

The temptation to identify Arnold Josiah Ford as Neville Goddard’s teacher, Abdullah, is understandable. Ford was charismatic, erudite, fluent in Hebrew, the founder of multiple congregations in Harlem, and a 33° Mason deeply embedded in Black nationalist and esoteric circles. He lived in the right city at the right time. That claim has circulated online for years, especially in Reddit forums sympathetic to Neville’s teachings.

Yet, despite the surface fit, the deeper record resists. This section presents the reasons why Ford cannot be Abdullah, drawing on biographical analysis, internal timeline contradiction, differences in tone and metaphysics, and the evolving mythography of Harlem’s esoteric milieu.

I. The Age Problem

The most decisive issue is chronological. Neville Goddard repeatedly described Abdullah as being in his late 80s when he met him. In a talk, Neville recalls

“I met a friend of mine in New York City, his name was Abdullah. He said to me in 1933 (I met him in ‘29). . .and he did everything, he ate everything, he drank everything. He didn’t smoke only because he just didn’t enjoy it, but he did everything.

An old, old man, he was then in his late eighties when I met him. And he said to me, “So you’re going to Barbados? You want to go to Barbados?” I said yes.” – Lecture “One Greater Than John”

The last time, he saw Abdullah was in 1956 and his secretary said he went to Ethiopia to die in 1957. (Lecture in 1964)

If Ford was born in 1877—as confirmed by the American National Biography, the African American Registry, and multiple archival sources—then in 1931 he would have been only 54 years old. This is a hard ceiling. There is no serious evidence that Ford lied about his age or that public records misstate it. If Abdullah was nearing 80, he would have been born no later than 1851–1855. That is a 20+ year discrepancy that cannot be reconciled with Ford’s birthdate.

Table: Why Arnold Josiah Ford Cannot Be Abdullah

Tone, Doctrine, and Public Persona

Beyond the arithmetic, there are striking differences in tone and focus. Ford was public. He lectured frequently, helped organize parades, and wrote public songs of racial uplift. His work carried a strong note of ethnonationalism, rooted in Garvey’s back-to-Africa program and realized in his 1930 trip to Ethiopia, where he died in 1935.

Abdullah, by contrast, is remembered as private, acerbic, and mystical. Neville recalls that he refused to give his students the “comfort” of personality. He used symbolic riddles, metaphysical aphorisms, and direct experiential practice—language more aligned with Theosophy or Hermeticism than with Ford’s nationalist rituals.

There is also the matter of doctrinal language. Ford wrote publicly about Ethiopia, Black Jewish identity, and Zionism. Abdullah spoke in veiled terms about consciousness as the operant power, often invoking abstract metaphysics rather than racial or religious identity. The tones are not just different; they are completely different genres of spiritual speech.

The Death Date

Ford died in 1935. Neville continued to reference Abdullah throughout the 1940s and 50s, always in the present perfect or recent past. In several lectures from the 1940s, Neville makes statements that only make sense if Abdullah had lived well past 1935—implying he was alive. No known Neville lecture ever says Abdullah died in 1935. No mourning. No final tribute. If Ford had been Abdullah, his death would surely have warranted acknowledgment. Instead, it never appears.

Confusion?

The theory that Ford was Abdullah persists because it is clean and straightforward. He fits the Harlem scene. He was in proximity to metaphysical circles, knew Hebrew, was a Mason, and interacted with Garvey. For writers like Mitch Horowitz, who has incredible literary coherence, this convergence is enough to collapse two biographies into one.

But this is a too easy historiography. Plausibility is not identity. A scholarly standard needs a little more consistency across timelines, statements, death records, and doctrinal voice. Ford kinda fails that test.

Conclusion: Ford is Adjacent but Not Identical

Arnold Josiah Ford deserves his own biography. He was a visionary, a teacher, a nationalist, and a mystic, but he was not Neville’s Abdullah. At most, he may have shaped the context. He may have shared lodges, rituals, or even students. But the record, examined carefully, refuses to collapse the two into one.

This report rules out Ford definitively not because he wasn’t luminous, but because the details, timelines, and tone refuse to fit. If Abdullah was in his late 80s in 1931, Ford cannot have been him. And if Neville continued referencing Abdullah died somewhere after 1954, Ford’s death disqualifies him.

Wentworth Arthur Matthew (1892–1973)

Wentworth Arthur Matthew (1892–1973): Commandment Keepers Founder

Matthew was born on June 23, 1892, and died in December 1973, with some discrepancy over whether the exact date was the 3rd. He founded the Commandment Keepers in Harlem in 1919, a congregation that uniquely combined Hebrew traditions with Black identity. Strongly influenced by Garveyism, Matthew carried forward a racialized Judaism and may have studied under Ford (if not Abdullah), given that Ford’s congregational work began several years earlier.

E.W. Roberson (Dates Unknown): The “Live Ever, Die Never” Society

Roberson’s lifespan remains undocumented, but newspaper records place his society in Harlem in 1921. His group, described as a Black Jewish offshoot of the Relief Association of Hebrew Settlement Workers, was known for emphasizing mystical immortality and esoteric ritual. Though little is known, Roberson’s symbolic language and focus on Hebrew overlap with the interests and methods of Ford and potentially Abdullah.

Rabbi Mordecai Herman, center, at the Moorish Zionist Temple in Harlem. Image by James Van Der Zee

Mordecai Herman (c. 1880s–1930s): The Moorish Zionist Visionary

Born in the 1880s and active into the 1930s. In 1921, he founded the Moorish Zionist Temple in Harlem. He blended Jewish, Christian, and Pan-African symbolism. He supported Garvey. Also known to speak both Hebrew and some Yiddish, Herman worked alongside Henry Ford until theological and financial disagreements caused them to part ways, with Ford founding Beth B’nai Abraham shortly after.

Abdul Hamid Suleiman (fl. Abdul Hamid Suleiman (active 1910s–1930s): Canaanite Mystic and Masonic Claimant

Suleiman founded the Mecca Medina Temple, also known as the Canaanite Temple, and claimed a 1°–96° degree system rooted in “Mohammedan Masonry.” He taught in New Jersey and reportedly aimed to expand into Harlem. Convicted of a crime in 1924, he disappears from records after 1930. His rhetoric – full of symbolic degrees, initiation, mystic Islam, and a “science of identity” – parallels much of Abdullah’s reported language, especially if Abdullah’s education included Cairo or Masonic channels from London. The Abdul Hamid Suleiman profile (and his alter ego Dr. Prince de Solomon) doesn’t match the “Ethiopian rabbi” narrative around Abdullah.

What Lines Up Between Suleiman and Abdullah

No Match

Attendees of the 1928 Moorish Science Temple Of America Convention in Chicago. Noble Drew Ali is in white in the front row center.

Noble Drew Ali (1886–1929): Moorish Science Prophet

Born Timothy Drew in 1886. He founded the Moorish Science Temple in 1913 in Newark before relocating to Chicago. He claimed that African Americans were Moors and descendants of ancient Islamic peoples. His theology drew from Freemasonry, Theosophy, and Qur’anic ethics. Suleiman likely influenced him; thus, the echo in language between Drew Ali and Abdullah may be indirect, filtered through shared initiatory and symbolic vocabularies.

Marcus Garvey, Mason?

Marcus Garvey (1887–1940): Contextual Force

Garvey was born on August 17, 1887, and died on June 10, 1940. As the founder of the UNIA, he shaped the spiritual, racial, and ceremonial life of Harlem. Garvey’s titles, robes, and organizational language drew from Freemasonry, and he frequently borrowed rituals and ranks. Ford was his music director; Herman, Matthew, and others were supporters. While not a mystic, Garvey built the civic-religious framework within which figures like Abdullah could thrive.

Summary Table

This table offers only the skeletal frame. The truth lies in the web: overlapping timelines, competing doctrines, mutual initiations, and reoccurring words—“Ethiopia,” “Zion,” “Mind,” “Science,” “Brotherhood.” We do not know yet if Abdullah was any one of these men, or walked among them.

I. Harlem as Spiritual Ecosystem

The Harlem Renaissance brought not just art and music but a blossoming of Black religious, esoteric, and fraternal life. As Harlem’s middle class grew, so did its appetite for Afrocentric forms of mysticism, Freemasonry, Black Judaism, Christian metaphysics, and race-based identity religion. This flourishing created a dense web of connections. Abdullah, reclusive yet central, must be viewed in this matrix. We pursue Freemasonic connections in particular because:

• Joseph Murphy, Neville’s fellow student, had known Masonic ties;
• Arnold Josiah Ford was a 33° Mason;
• Harlem had multiple independent Masonic lodges outside Prince Hall, with mystic and Ethiopian language.

If Abdullah came from Egypt, London, or even Mecca—as some traditions suggest—he may have arrived through an esoteric or Masonic pipeline.

II. Verified Biographies of Harlem Spiritual Figures

Arnold Josiah Ford (1877–1935)

• Born April 23, 1877; died September 16, 1935 (sometimes noted as the 15th).
• Co-founder of Beth B’nai Abraham and author of “Ethiopian Anthem” with Marcus Garvey.
• UNIA music director and religious leader.
• Widely known 33° Scottish Rite Mason and Worshipful Master of Memnon Lodge No. 51.

Wentworth Arthur Matthew (1892–1973)

• Born June 23, 1892; died December 3, 1973 (some sources give 1972).
• Founded the Commandment Keepers in 1919.
• Strong Garvey influence. Known Hebrew reader, Zionist.
• May have learned under Ford (Abdullah) due to timeline overlap.

E.W. Roberson (fl. 1920s)

• Lifespan unknown. Known leader of the “Live Ever, Die Never Society.”
• Harlem-based spiritual movement active by 1921.
• Emphasized Hebrew roots and immortality.
• Possibly an offshoot of Relief Association of Hebrew Settlement Workers.

Mordecai Herman (c. 1880s–1930s)

• Lifespan imprecise. Founded the Moorish Zionist Temple in 1921.
• Blended Judaism, Christianity, Afro-Zionism, and Pan-Africanism.
• Worked briefly with Ford before splitting off.

Abdul Hamid Suleiman (fl. 1910s–1930s)

• Founder of the Mecca Medina Temple and Canaanite Temple.
• Used degrees from 1°–96°, claimed Masonic authority from Mecca.
• Disappeared after 1930 following a criminal conviction.
• Taught a proto-Islamic, esoteric Black nationalist ideology that influenced Drew Ali.

Noble Drew Ali (1886–1929)

• Born Timothy Drew, January 8, 1886; died July 20, 1929.
• Founded the Moorish Science Temple in 1913.
• Blended Sufism, Freemasonry, esoteric Christianity, and civic nationalism.
• Strong language parallels with both Suleiman and Ford.

Marcus Garvey (1887–1940)

• Born August 17, 1887; died June 10, 1940.
• UNIA founder, publisher, orator, movement-builder.
• Not mystical in teaching, but his movement was deeply ceremonial.
• Ford was his music director; Herman and Matthew were supporters.

III. Verified Lifespan Table

Resources

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Arnold Josiah Ford – Wikipedia, accessed April 19, 2025.

Biography of Rabbi Arnold Josiah Ford – blackjews.org, accessed April 19, 2025.

Rabbi Arnold Josiah Ford: A Moses to His People – blackjews.org, accessed April 19, 2025.

Harlem’s Rabbi Arnold Josiah Ford Prominent Member Of Jewish Community 1887–1935, accessed April 19, 2025.

Arnold Josiah Ford, Rabbi, and Poet born – African American Registry, accessed April 19, 2025.

Arnold Josiah Ford (1877–1935) – BlackPast.org, accessed April 19, 2025.

February 11, 1921 — NY 1920s, accessed April 19, 2025.

Biography of Rabbi Yirmeyahu Yisrael – blackjews.org, accessed April 19, 2025.

A Brief History of the Hebrew Israelites – ANCIENT JEW REVIEW, accessed April 19, 2025.

Wentworth Arthur Matthew – Wikipedia, accessed April 19, 2025.

Biography of Rabbi Wentworth Arthur Matthew – blackjews.org, accessed April 19, 2025.

“I Saw You Disappear with My Own Eyes” – KU ScholarWorks, accessed April 19, 2025.

Patrick D. Bowen. Abdul Hamid Suleiman and the Origins of the Moorish Science Temple. Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Religion, Vol. 2, Issue 13, September 2011. Published by Sopher Press. Read the full article (PDF).

Photo: Photo by James Van Der Zee. Birmingham Museum of Art.