by Webmaster | Oct 27, 2015 | Identity
Since I was a little kid growing up in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, I’ve always known that I was somehow different in the Jewish community. I didn’t look like the other kids in Hebrew school. I was the only one to have Black family members at their bar mitzvah ceremony....
by Webmaster | Oct 12, 2015 | Identity
I remember the exact moment when I realized I’d never be the Jewish James Bond. It was right after our son was born four years ago. We were still in my wife’s hospital room, and I thought to myself: “well, there goes the globe-trotting, the international intrigue, the...
by Webmaster | Oct 7, 2015 | Arts & Culture, Identity
When my then fiance and I were planning our wedding, I told him that I didn’t want to circle around him under the chuppah (wedding canopy). His reaction was not what I expected. Instead of him saying, “Okay” or “Why not?,” I got something along the lines of, “What are...
by Webmaster | Sep 9, 2015 | Holidays, Identity
With joy we share our family tradition of “Lavar la Cara” (washing our faces in the ocean). It seems that this tradition combines many elements of two ceremonies. The first is “Tashlich” from the Hebrew “to cast off,” referring to the custom of tossing bits of bread...
by Webmaster | Sep 1, 2015 | Holidays, Identity
If I’ve learned anything being a black, observant, Jewish hip-hop artist, it’s that it takes time and patience for something new to be accepted and to catch on. I was told years ago that rap music had no place in the Jewish world and I could never hope to really touch...
by Webmaster | Aug 25, 2015 | Identity
Rosh Hashanah is a magical time. Or at least, we seem to think so. According to the Mishnah (Rosh Hashanah 1.2), on this date “all of creation passes in front of God like sheep in a flock.” Our High Holidays liturgy takes this idea of “the Day of Judgement” and runs...
