“It doesn’t make sense that the most prominent Black Jew in entertainment is going through this right now,” said Y-Love, the rapper and content creator who is also Black and Jewish.
Stories in J. The Jewish News of Northern California
Rapper Nissim Black blesses crowd in first Bay Area show
Nissim Black has a minhag before he performs: The Orthodox rapper recites a blessing on stage. The custom is a way to make amends for his past as a gang member and gangsta rapper in Seattle who “used to do the opposite of making blessings.”
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.
Feeling triggered: Local Jews join post-Oct. 7 event to practice shooting
Branden Johnson grew up in a gun-owning family in Oregon. His mother and stepfather had several rifles and pistols, and they would head to a range in Eugene for target practice. Yet Johnson never had the slightest interest in joining them.
L.A. musician Jenni Asher studying to be first ordained Black woman cantor
When she graduates next year, Asher will become the first Black American woman ordained as a cantor — and one of only two Black cantors in the country, according to the other one, Cantor David Fair.
Meet two Bay Area Jews whose paths to Judaism went through Rastafari
To mark the release this week of “Bob Marley: One Love,” a biopic about perhaps the most famous Rastafarian, J. spoke with two local Black Jews who found their way to Judaism through Rastafari.
Civil rights icon Bayard Rustin, subject of Netflix biopic, was ally to Jews and Israel
“He felt very loyal to Jews because they supported the Civil Rights Movement financially and emotionally and by directly participating in it,” said Nancy Kates, the Berkeley-based director of a 2002 documentary about Rustin.
Graphic novelist tells story of Jewish and Native American girl
“I wish people would just not see Native Americans as foreign. We are your neighbors. We’re in your synagogues. We’re there davening next to you.”
Mural calling to end ‘genocide’ in Gaza roils S.F. neighborhood
As Israel wages war against Hamas, another kind of battle is taking place more than 7,000 miles away — this one over a piece of provocative street art in a typically quiet San Francisco neighborhood.
With unique new Torah scroll, Karaite Jews hope to inspire next generation
The Karaites in Daly City have always done things a little differently from the rest of America’s Jews. Now the community has something else that sets them apart: A new Torah scroll that contains nekudot (vowels), te’amim (trope symbols) and colons indicating the ends of sentences.