Nadene Goldfoot
JBS's Teisha Bader on their segment of "In the News" interviewed someone who is very special today; Nissim Black. Nissim happens to mean miracle, and he does seems to be a miracle in our Israeli population. He's a Black American Hassidic rapper who converted to Judaism. He's even written a song for Chanukah, "Shine The Light."
He's not the first Black American who has gone to Israel to live, however. There've been quite a few, but none converted to Judaism like Nissim did, though the earlier Hebrew Blacks were asked to convert. Judaism is his 3rd religion that he is experiencing now, being brought up in Islam, converting to Christianity, and now Judaism.
African Americans in Israel number at least 25,000, comprise several separate groups, including the groups of African American Jews who have immigrated from the United States to Israel making aliyah, non-Jewish African Americans who have immigrated to Israel for personal or business reasons, pro-athletes who formerly played in the major leagues in the United States before playing in Israel on local basketball and other sports teams, as well as foreign students studying in Israeli universities, businessmen, merchants, and guest workers, along with Israeli citizens of African American ancestry. African Americans have served in the Israel Defence Force, and have largely been accepted and into Israeli society, and have represented Israel in numerous international forums such as the Olympic Games, and the Eurovision Song Contest. African American-Israelis have had a major cultural impact in Israel, particular in the arts and culture, music and sports.
In addition, there is a large community of Black Hebrew Israelites numbering at least 5,000 people, who originally immigrated to Israel from Chicago in the 1960s, and live mostly in the southern Israeli town of Dimona. African Hebrew Israelites in Israel, officially known as The African Hebrew Israelite Nation of Jerusalem (also known as the Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem, the Hebrew Israelites, the Black Hebrew Israelites, or simply the Black Hebrews or the Black Israelites) is a spiritual community which is now mainly based in Dimona, Israel, whose members believe that they are descended from the Twelve Tribes of Israel. The community now numbers around 5,000. They came from a group of African Americans, many from Chicago, Illinois, who migrated to Israel in the late 1960s.
They believe that they are Jewish but when they began to emigrate to Israel, the religious officials and the state did not consider them Jewish and as a result, they were asked to convert. In 2003, the remainder of the existing community (those who had not received residency permits earlier) were granted official Israeli permanent residency and later were entitled to acquire Israeli citizenship by naturalization, which does not imply any Jewish status. Since 2004, some members of the community (both men and women) have enlisted to the Israel Defense Forces.
Nissim Black has been critical of the Black Lives Matter movement, accusing them of promoting division and denouncing their characterization of police officers as racists, their calls for abolishing the police, and what he called their "support [of] Palestinians over the Jews". Despite this, he has said he prefers not to be involved in political or religious disputes and has encouraged unity in the Jewish community.
His childhood was hard. Black was born Damian Jamohl Black in Seattle on December 9, 1986, the son of rappers Mia Black and James "Captain Crunch" Croone, members of the pioneering Seattle hip hop groups the Emerald Street Boys and Emerald Street Girls. His grandparents had also been musicians, playing alongside Ray Charles and Quincy Jones. He grew up in Seattle's Seward Park neighborhood and was raised in his grandfather's Sunni Islam faith, but was non-practicing and converted to Christianity at age 14 after attending an evangelical summer camp. Prior to this conversion, he had been a member of the Gangster Disciples gang, which he would later reference on the song "Mothaland Bounce". His parents divorced when he was two years old, and his mother took him with her and remarried shortly thereafter. Both his biological parents and stepfather used and sold drugs from home, prompting the FBI to raid the house in 1995 when he was 9 years old, leading to his mother's arrest; she later died from an overdose at the age of 37.
Black and his wife Adina, with whom he has seven children, were initially married in 2008; Black, now a husband and father, began questioning his Christian beliefs, turning to Messianic Judaism and convincing his wife to follow suit.
In 2009, Black released his second album, Ali'yah. “I had a ton of questions and no answers,” Black recalls. There were questions about “religion, about God, about Christianity, about why aren’t Christians Jewish if Jesus was Jewish.”
Black began researching religion, reading about the Torah and begging his wife, Jamie, to study with him.
“We almost got a divorce,” she says. “We didn’t see eye to eye.”
But the more she read, the more she, too, found herself attracted to Judaism, ultimately taking the Hebrew name Adina.
Six months after the album's release, Black renounced his belief in Jesus and Christianity. No longer supporting the album's message but unable to quit his contract, he agreed to promote it, but refused to accept money outside of touring expenses or perform on Shabbat. He officially retired in 2011 after releasing The Blackest Brown EP with friend and fellow rapper Bradley "B." Brown. He subsequently moved to Seward Park's Jewish community and began studying for conversion with Rabbi Simon Benzaquen at the Sephardic Bikur Holim Congregation.
They participated in an Orthodox Jewish marriage ceremony in 2013 at the Sephardic Bikur Holim Congregation after both had converted. The marriage was a double ceremony shared with his childhood friend Yosef Brown and Yosef's wife Chana, both fellow converts. Black and his family continued to live in Seward Park, the Seattle neighborhood where he grew up, until making aliyah to Israel in 2016 and settling in Jerusalem. He self-identifies as a follower of Breslov Hasidism and makes pilgrimage to Uman every Rosh Hashanah. Many Hasiddic Jews do this. The Ukrainian city has been a site for Hasidic pilgrimage for more than 200 years since the death of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov. I would think that the war in Ukraine has put a stop to this visit. After a year break in 2018 from releasing new songs, Nissim has comeback with ... of the World” was produced by Nissim's brother in law Yosef Brown, of who it is known to have produced/Co-wrote “Fly Away” and “Million Years”, Black’s biggest solo songs to date. Nissim has been working hard to complete his next full length project titled “Gibor”. Release date is yet to be announced....
By 2018, his own children were suffering from discrimination by Jewish children. In an August 2018 interview with Menachem Toker of Radio Kol Chai, Black revealed that his children had been subjected to racial discrimination when they were denied admission to several local Haredi yeshivas explicitly because they were black.
He also said that he had sought advice on the matter from Rav Chaim Kanievsky during a meeting and was told, "Being black is your mayla (advantage) and not a chesaron (disadvantage)." Due to discrimination they experienced in the Meah Shearim neighborhood of Jerusalem, Black and his family relocated to the nearby city of Beit Shemesh. (Beit Shemesh (Hebrew: בֵּית שֶׁמֶשׁ [bet ʃemeʃ]) is a city located approximately 30 kilometres (19 mi) west of Jerusalem in Israel's Jerusalem District, with a population of 124,957 in 2019.)When the city was built in the 1950s, it was initially settled by new immigrants from Iran, Iraq, Romania, Bulgaria, Morocco and Iraqi Kurdistan. In the 1990s, the city saw a large influx of new immigrants from the former Soviet Union, Ethiopia and English-speaking countries, turning it into a major center for Anglo immigrants. Considerable numbers have come from North America, the United Kingdom, South Africa and Australia. This population tends to be Orthodox, educated and from middle income groups. At the same time, Orthodox Jews from within Israel also began moving to the city, seeking roomier, low-cost housing.
It's amazing to know that at a time when many of our Ashkenazi Jews and Sepharic Jews are so Hellenized by our American heritage that someone with no genetic ties to Judaism has fallen in love with the spirituality of Judaism and even converted, and not just converted but chose the most orthodox route and is living in Israel !! He's an icon for us all.
Black contracted COVID-19 in July 2020 and was hospitalized at Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem; he and his family remained in quarantine until Tisha B'Av. After recovering from the disease, he reduced his coffee intake and adopted a ketogenic diet. Speaking to The Jerusalem Post in 2021, he expressed concern with the Israeli government's COVID-19 pandemic response: "I understand the government wanted to make things safe but I think they went a little overboard. I think people were almost ready for a rebellion."
Orthodox rapper Nissim Black confirmed Tuesday night that he has been hospitalized with the coronavirus, but denied reports that he was in critical condition. "Thanks for all the tefillos [prayers -ed.] everybody. I am currently getting oxygen and meds in the Hospital and I AM NOT in critical condition. Still need tefillos for a speedy recovery. Thank you all," Black wrote on Twitter in response to reports about his condition.
In JBS's interview, Black remarked that HBO is making a
special documentary of his life. He's been Jewish for almost
10 years.
Resource:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nissim_Black
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beit_Shemesh
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_Hebrew_Israelites_in_Israel
https://www.thejewishinsights.com/wp/nissim-black-king-world/
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/283572?fbclid=IwAR3vd
SUVYxWLGhGLHCGs8VCUX9CJ2mIvQYUSGE7YFVPg0WH6r
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https://jewinthecity.com/2020/07/an-outpouring-of-support-for-covid-
battling-nissim-black-other-orthodox-jews-in-the-news/
https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/why-do-some-jews-visit
-uman-for-rosh-hashanah/
https://www.jta.org/2013/06/20/lifestyle/double-wedding-in-seattle-
caps-rappers-transformation
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