How hip-hop became a key tool for Jewish nonprofits to connect communities

credit: Wikipedia

"For me to take my Judaism serious, I left [hip-hop] behind as one of the things that I sacrificed for my own life," rapper Nissim Black tells eJewishPhilanthropy.

"But friends encouraged him to pick up the mic, andRabbis encouraged him, too, and in 2011, I stumbled upon a broken microphone and saw it as a sign.

I was inspired by God to use my hip-hop back to give back to the community."

Now a practicing Hasidic Jew living in Israel, Black has released three albums and partnered with nonprofits including Amudim, Kisharon, and the Jewish Learning Exchange.

"This legacy is evident with newer who use hip-hop to not only introduce people to Jewish history and Jewish culture, but create dialogue between communities," the founder of Value Culture, which holds Soul Vey events, tells eJewishPhilanthropy.

"Hip-hop was born almost exactly 50 years ago when DJ Kool Herc first looped together records his family in the Bronx apartment in the summer of 1973."

The Jewish Center in Los Angeles was one of the first nonprofits to use hip-hop to engage young Jews, and the founder of JDub Culture, which was founded in 2002, tells eJewishPhilanthropy that

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