About Me
I’m an American freelance journalist focusing on religion, race, and their intersection. Previously I was a staff writer at Haaretz and editor of the blog Jewish&.
Over the last two decades, I’ve covered a Samaritan Passover sacrifice on Mount Gerizim in the West Bank, an African migrant church service in Tel Aviv, a Hebrew Israelite festival in Dimona, a Karaite Torah dedication ceremony in Northern California, and the 100th anniversary celebration of the Abayudaya Jews of Uganda.
Since 2009 I’ve been reporting on the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem, a spiritual community of African American expatriates in Israel. I’m currently working on a book about the community.
I have a BA from Harvard in African and African American Studies and a MA from Tel Aviv University in Middle East and North African History. I live in Northern California with my wife and daughter.
Peace be upon you. שלום עליכם
Featured Stories
Jewish and Black studies scholars converge at unique Harvard conference
At a first-of-its-kind academic conference this month at Harvard University, Shaul Magid and Terrence L. Johnson sought to broaden the Black-Jewish conversation.
How Jessica Cohen became the go-to English translator of Israeli literature
Over the past 25 years, Cohen has translated more than 30 books and dozens of shorter works by some of the most renowned Israeli writers, including Amos Oz, Etgar Keret, Dorit Rabinyan, Ronit Matalon and Nir Baram.
From Rick Rubin to Doja Cat, Jews have helped shape the first 50 years of hip-hop
Over the last five decades, many Jewish rappers from different backgrounds and nationalities have left their mark on hip-hop culture. But the biggest contributions that Jews have made collectively to hip-hop may have been on the business side, as managers and record label executives.
Leila Steinberg, Tupac’s first manager, sees new docuseries as a chance to heal
“Tupac was a kid, and he needed a lot more guidance,” Steinberg said. “I was too young to understand what I know now. I wish that I could have had more influence, because I always stayed connected to him.”
A bestselling novel, a Holocaust-themed game, and accusations of ‘uncredited work’
Romero’s complaint raises questions about the nature of creative inspiration and the politics of acknowledgments in works of fiction. It also brings a real and potentially offensive game about the Holocaust — and one that was created by a non-Jew — into the spotlight.
Local Jewish activists are standing with Bay Area Indigenous people
A growing number of Bay Area Jews are engaging in activism around Indigenous rights, raising uncomfortable questions about their privilege in benefiting from colonialism and the genocide of Native Americans, as well as complicity in the erasure of Indigenous history.
‘Black people are actually Jew[s]’: The historical origins of Kanye West’s inflammatory comments
In 1892, an Oklahoma preacher born into slavery received a series of divine revelations that compelled him to launch a new church and, with it, a new religious movement in the United States: Black Israelism, better known as the Black Hebrew Israelite movement.
Contact
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My purpose was to see essentials, only essentials, nothing but essentials, and to guard against hallucinations. Things are not what they seem anyway.
– Saul Bellow, Henderson the Rain King