Askanim And Machers: The Jewish Press Community Profile,Tova Stulman

After the musical phenomenon of Matisyahu, the Chassidic singer who famously infused Jewish music with the spirit of reggae, many people might not be surprised to hear about another Chassidic singer who is putting a unique spin on his Jewish music - namely that of hip-hop.

Y-Love, otherwise known as Yitzchak or Yitz Jordan, is not only a convert to Judaism - living a radically different lifestyle from the one he lived growing up in Baltimore - but he's also black. This fact allows him to be an unavoidable anomaly among his community, and among the Jewish music scene. By day, he's a computer programmer living in Brooklyn. But by night, he is an amazingly original musician.

As a child living with his Ethiopian and Puerto Rican parents in Baltimore, it took an ad wishing viewers a "Happy Passover" to pique Jordan's interest in Judaism at age 8. Despite the seeming improbability of a black youth growing up amid secular culture sustaining an interest in an ancient religion where few people look like him, Jordan's love of Judaism only grew. Thus, at 14, he approached Rabbi Joseph Katz about converting. "In my mind, I never questioned that the Torah was real," he says.

Katz, who worked at Johns Hopkins University at the time, was impressed with the young Jordan's initiative but felt he was too young to make such a commitment.

"I talked to a local rav," says Katz, "who felt he was too young to start the geirus [conversion] process at that time."

Though Jordan was told that he had to wait until he was 18 to officially convert, he spent the next four years fueling his interest in the religion by studying Jewish texts and attending synagogue in Baltimore.

Weeks after converting at 18, Jordan traveled to Israel, where he began studying in the famous Ohr Sameach, a yeshiva exclusively for converts and Jews with little religious background. It was a stroke of luck that his learning partner happened to be a Jewish emcee named David Singer, who also goes by the stage name Cels-1. Bonding over their shared love of music, the pair quickly came up with a unique way to memorize the Gemara. When it came to learning the complexities of Gemara, they discovered that rapping to the words of the text allowed them to memorize pages at a time.

It was Cels-1 who coined Jordan's alias of Y-Love. And when Jordan decided to move to Brooklyn after Israel, he quickly found a manager in DJ Erez Handler, who works for the label Modular Moods. "Yitzchak is the only person I know who could balance street slang with Talmudic diction," says Handler. "I knew that above all else and all other projects, I needed to get him in the studio to blow away the world." Though music listeners might, at first, group Y-Love together with the exemplar of Hassidic singer possessing mainstream appeal - Matisyahu - Handler says that they can't really be compared. "His writing is not like any other artist's, which I think explains the great appeal of his music."

After securing a day job in computer programming and a small apartment in the religious neighborhood of Boro Park, Jordan began performing in small clubs and local colleges. Slowly but surely, he gained a small but devoted following.

"I hope my rap music can negate the belief that lyrics need to contain smut to be catchy," he says.

He uses no profanity in his music, in accordance with his belief that his music should carry a deeper message meant to inspire listeners about Judaism, and serve as a conduit for reaching Jews who would otherwise not learn much about Judaism.

"My personal goal is my professional goal," he says, "and that's to change as many lives as possible for the better. Period." Other goals he hopes to accomplish include expanding his charitable work and reaching as many Jews as possible with his music. "I would like to expand Torah outreach to the many Jews who have no idea of the rich heritage they possess."

Y-Love currently has a sefirah album, which he says is different from other a cappella music available. "I went through the Gemara to choose lyrics that will bring back learning and scholarship to Jewish music, rather than the same few verses of Tehillim repeated to a melody," he says, explaining how he wanted to do something completely different. "Also, the fact that it's hip-hop and beatboxing helps it stand out from the crowd."

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