Rapper Finds Order in Orthodox Judaism in Israel
Ricki Rosen for The New York Times
The rapper Shyne at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. “My entire life screams that I have a Jewish neshama,” he said, using the Hebrew word for soul.
By DINA KRAFT
Published: November 10, 2010
JERUSALEM — The tall man in the velvet fedora and knee-length black jacket with ritual fringes peeking out takes long, swift strides toward the Western Wall. It’s late in the day, and he does not want to miss afternoon prayers at Judaism’s holiest site.
Related
From Behind Bars, a Rapper Aims at the Top of the Chart (August 08, 2004)
Ricki Rosen for The New York Times
Shyne, whose legal name is now Moses Levi, in the neighborhood of Mea Shearim, in Jerusalem.
New York State Department of Correctional Services
Shyne, when he was Jamaal Barrow. (The prison department misspelled his name.)
Ricki Rosen for The New York Times
Shyne at a protest for a kidnapped Israeli soldier.
“We have to get there before the sun goes down,” he says, his stare fixed behind a pair of Ray-Ban sunglasses, the first clue that this is no ordinary Jerusalem man of God. It’s the rapper Shyne, the Sean Combs protégé who served almost nine years in New York prisons for opening fire in a nightclub in 1999 during an evening out with Mr. Combs and his girlfriend at the time, Jennifer Lopez.
“My entire life screams that I have a Jewish neshama,” he said, using the Hebrew word for soul.
Living as Moses Levi, an Orthodox Jew in Jerusalem (he legally changed his name from Jamaal Barrow), he shuttles between sessions of Talmud study with some of the most religiously stringent rabbis in the city and preparations for a musical comeback.
To read more, please click here:
“My entire life screams that I have a Jewish neshama,” he said, using the Hebrew word for soul.
Living as Moses Levi, an Orthodox Jew in Jerusalem (he legally changed his name from Jamaal Barrow), he shuttles between sessions of Talmud study with some of the most religiously stringent rabbis in the city and preparations for a musical comeback.
To read more, please click here:
Main picture is not there. Also too much blank space on this site gotta figure out hou to reduce it.
ReplyDelete