Thursday, May 28, 2015

Rabbi Vs. Ice Cube in Detroit Casino

Over the past day I've been answering my cellphone like this: "No, I have never heard of a rabbi here in Detroit named Taras!" News reports all over the internet are saying that a Rabbi P. Taras is suing rapper Ice Cube for $2 million after he was attacked by the Hip Hop star at the MGM Grand casino in Downtown Detroit, about twenty minutes from my home in Michigan.

Now, for the record, I don't believe there is such a rabbi named Taras here in Detroit. Of course, there could have been a rabbi visiting over the Memorial Day weekend, but I'm skeptical that a rabbi would be at a Detroit casino this past weekend since Shabbat went right into the 2-day holiday of Shavuot. This would have made it highly unlikely that a rabbi was in Downtown Detroit at a casino.

Ice-Cube-Rabbi-Detroit-MGM-Grand
Ice Cube is accused of beating up a rabbi at the MGM Grand Casino in Detroit


The celebrity gossip website, TMZ.com, reports that this Rabbi P. Taras guy says he was attacked by Ice Cube because he was wearing a yarmulke (kippah) on Sunday, May 24. Well, again, I highly doubt any Jewish person wearing a yarmulke would have been at the MGM Grand on the Shavuot holiday, when going to a casino would be forbidden. I'll continue asking around myself, but my best guess is that this person was not a rabbi and as far as I know there was no Shavuot retreat being held at the MGM Grand Detroit.

While I personally do not gamble, I do enjoy walking around casinos and on one such visit to Las Vegas (I was in town for CES) in January 2013 I actually did happen upon a fight involving a famous rap star. I was not involved in this altercation at the Bellagio of course, but from a safe position about 20 yards away I watched as a drunk man was giving the rapper Tyga a hard time. This quickly escalated into a fight between when Tyga's bodyguard stepped in and gave the guy a pretty good beating until casino security stepped in. It's a good thing the police weren't called in because Tyga had just been released from a Las Vegas jail a few hours earlier for a minor traffic violation.

Rabbi Jason Miller with the rapper Tyga at the Bellagio Casino in Las Vegas


Update: On the TMZ.com website it looks like this P. Taras left a comment as "Rev Taras," so maybe he's actually a reverend (although that wouldn't explain the yarmulke). He posted the following comment: "This incident occurred in the HOTEL part, and their [sic] is video which is already in my possession. I am not releasing any videos due to the fact that Mr. Jackson has a right to defend this suit, and he has not yet been served with the complaint. When same happens, at the apporpriate [sic] time I will release such material. -P. Taras"


1 comment:

Aaron said...

Hi Rabbi. Nice work. You're probably really good at Jewish Geography.