The History Behind That Strange Animal Horn At Political Rallies

Ravi Ragbir, executive director of the New Sanctuary Coalition, blows a ram’s horn outside ICE headquarters in New York City in August 2019. Photo by Micah Danney.

Of the many religious flags, insignia and sacred objects seen outside the Capitol Building Jan. 6, there is one that deserves more attention— the shofar, an ancient Jewish instrument traditionally made from a ram’s horn.

The shofar has become a common protest tool in some circles, framing political battles as spiritual battles. While left-leaning interfaith groups have blown the horn outside ICE headquarters to protest child-family separations with a “Jericho Walk”, pro-Trump evangelical Christians made the shofar a central part of their “Jericho March” protest against perceived election fraud in December. (There is no evidence of widespread election fraud.) 

The story of Jericho is recorded in Joshua of the Old Testament: the Israelites obeyed God’s instructions to circle Jericho’s city walls without speaking, once each day for six days, then seven times on the seventh day. On the final day, Israelite priests blew their ram’s horns, Joshua’s people shouted, the city’s walls fell and their army conquered Jericho.  

The shofar always commands attention: in the Bible’s first mention of the shofar, in the book of Exodus, a thick cloud above Mount Sinai blasts the sound of shofar, making the Israelites tremble in awe. As the Jewish community became more settled in the Holy Lands, the shofar’s use among Biblical Hebrews continued. Local towns used the shofar to indicate significant events, like a call to battle or a king's arrival. 

After the fall of Jerusalem, the shofar has taken on a more sacred meaning in Jewish communities. Most Jewish practitioners use the instrument for specific religious festivals, including Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

In the last few decades, the instrument has become more common in non-Jewish communities. Christian organizers and leaders, particularly Pentecostal and charismatic churches, have often used the shofar in events from worship services to pro-Israel rallies. Still, many evangelicals have never heard of the shofar.

Read: Charismatics Are At War With Each Other Over Failed Prophecies Of Trump Victory

Ingrid Anderson, Associate Director of the Wiesel Center for Jewish Studies at Boston University, believes that many Americans' appropriation of Jewish artifacts draws from the Christian Zionism movement.

How Zionism fueled an interest in shofars

Christian Zionism is a movement where Christians offer significant support for returning the Jewish people to their biblical homeland in Israel and the establishment of the state. This support draws both from a sense of gratitude toward the Jewish people for acting as the foundation of Christianity and allowing Israel’s presence to serve as a tool for fulfilling select prophecies. While Zionism is a cross-denomination concept, the movement has developed strong roots in Pentecostalism.

Church historian Joseph Williams notes that many of these behaviors started in the early 20th century for Pentecostals. Many charismatic denominations were particularly interested in Israel as a state due to its potential relationship with the United States. For them, Israel’s existence was necessary to fulfill specific end-times prophecies. There was a sense of emotional investment in Israel’s past and future, despite whatever the members felt about the modern-day Jew. So select leaders began to incorporate Jewish ritual elements into their worship, including shofars and prayer shawls.

It wasn’t until the mid-20th century that it became popularized. Both the events of Israel’s formation as a nation-state and the 1967 Six-Day War captivated many Evangelicals’ imaginations. Figures like George H. Warnock helped found what was known as the “New Order of the Latter Rain,” a movement of charismatic leaders who stressed the restoration of modern-day prophets and apostles. And with this restoration came the notion of a physical heritage between the Israelites and the Pentecostal church.

That growing sense of connection would also inspire more appropriation of Jewish rituals. Figures like John Hagee and Pat Robertson would further appropriate these practices into their ministries, using these artifacts as a symbol to display unity with the Israeli people while advocating for pro-Israel policies.

Is your shofar kosher?

And that growth of interest in Israel has also had a massive effect on Israel’s economic bottom line. 

“Shofars have been created and sold for thousands of years” said Richard Liverance, a U.S.-based marketing director for the Israel Ministry of Tourism. “But it wasn’t until the formation of the modern State of Israel in 1948 that it became a growing industry when Jews were finally able to practice and celebrate their customs freely.” 

As interest in the Holy Lands grew, so did the tourist-driven flow of travel into Israel. By 2018, more than half of Israel’s annual visitors were Christian pilgrims interested in their religious heritage. And with that came the sale of shofars. 

“Shofars are available all over Israel in shops in the Jewish Quarter and the Arab markets in Jerusalem, in every major city, and nearly every tourist gift shop,” Liverance said.

That doesn’t necessarily make the horns kosher. A traditional kosher shofar must be made from the horn of a ram, ibex, oryx or kudu, and will take much more time to complete. But many of these tourist shops sell non-kosher shofars made in Chinese factories. The decision to rely on such products has created tension between the Israeli Defense Ministry and local shofar producers. The ministry decided to purchase their shofars directly from China at a lower price.

The item has also become, in some ways, a more secularized artifact for cultural and political purposes. In 2019, a group of Jews used shofars as a tool to try and disrupt one of ICE’s private prison contractors at the “Never Again” Rally. While younger Jews drove the event, it was condemned by the Coalition for Jewish Values for trivializing the faith. A community of New York Jews did something similar, as they blew the shofar in support of the ongoing Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, up until Tisha B’Av, a day of mourning.

As for how the Jewish community responds? There is not a huge pushback. Most American Jews find the use of such artifacts noncontroversial, Anderson said. 

“One reaction I found is, ‘How in the world can you, on the one hand, be anti-Semitic and anti-Jewish, and then take our rituals like this?’” Anderson said. “But on the other hand, I think some Jews find it amusing in a ‘It’s better than what we had’ way. But many Jews just don’t care.” 

Liverance, a Christian, said he’s noticed more positive reactions among the Israeli Jewish community. “Most Israelis are happy to see people taking an interest in their history and ancient customs,” he said.

Christopher Hutton is a freelance journalist in Indiana who has covered religion and politics for Religion News Service and Patheos, as well as VICE. He is also a sociology grad student at Ball State University, studying the influence of Youtube on politics.