Featured Stories

Cantor Jenni Asher
First Black American Woman Ordained as Cantor Vows to ‘Inspire Others to Sing’
Lilaq Logan poses in front of an Iron Dome unit. (Courtesy IDF Spokesperson's Office)
The Israeli army once excluded African Hebrew Israelites. Now one is an IDF social media star.
Clockwise from top left: The Beastie Boys, Doja Cat and Rick Rubin, shown with Russell Simmons, are a few of the prominent Jewish figures from the first 50 years of hip-hop. (Getty Images; Design by Mollie Suss)
From Rick Rubin to Doja Cat, Jews have helped shape the first 50 years of hip-hop
Attendees participate in a High Holidays tashlich ceremony organized by Jews on Ohlone Land in Berkeley. (Photo/Brooke Anderson)
Local Jewish activists are standing with Bay Area Indigenous people

About Me

AE-headshot-2024
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. I’ve also written extensively about Jews of color in the United States.

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 writing a book about the community.

In a different phase of my life, I worked at Be’chol Lashon, a nonprofit that supports ethnically and racially diverse Jewish communities. In 2010, I helped launch Camp Be’chol Lashon, a groundbreaking summer camp for Jewish kids of color that is still going strong.

I live in the San Francisco Bay Area with my wife and daughter.

Education: Harvard College, BA in African and African American Studies; Tel Aviv University, MA in Middle East and North African History

Honors and Awards: First Place, Simon Rockower Award for excellence in writing about social justice and humanitarian work, 2023; Eagle Scout Award

Marathons completed: Boston, Tel Aviv, Los Angeles

Contact

Please use the form below to get in touch.

“Truth has the inherent power to produce the promised effects.”

Ben Ammi Ben Israel