Donald Trump Wears a Tallit

This past Saturday, Donald Trump visited a Baptist church in Detroit. It was another recent opportunity for him to get some face time with the African American community after polls showed he had virtually zero support within that demographic. An odd thing happened at the Great Faith Ministries in Detroit, however, when Bishop Wayne Jackson wrapped Trump's shoulders in a tallit (Jewish prayer shawl) that the minister said was from Israel.

"This is a prayer shawl straight from Israel," Bishop Wayne Jackson said. "Whenever you're flying from coast to coast -- I know you just came back from Mexico and you’ll be flying from city to city -- there is an anointing. And anointing is the power of God. It's going to be sometimes in your life that you're going to feel forsaken, you're going to feel down, but the anointing is going to lift you up. I prayed over this personally and I fasted over it, and I wanted to just put this on you."

The response from most in the Jewish community was quick and critical. Many argued that a gentile like Donald Trump wearing a tallit was a form of cultural appropriation. At the very least, many maintained, this act was inappropriate and certainly puzzling. My first inclination was to rush to blog about this as an offensive act because a tallit, contrary to a yarmulke (kippah), is a Jewish religious garb based on a mitzvah (commandment) that mandates only Jews are to wear it. After reflecting on the situation at Great Faith Ministries and reading other comments about it, however, I don't think Trump can be held accountable for this. I also don't think it can simply be chalked up as cultural appropriation.

On Sunday morning, I posted the photo above of Trump wearing the tallit and jokingly captioned it, "I lent my bar mitzvah tallis to a Baptist church in Detroit over the weekend. Hope it gets to the dry cleaners before it's returned." The discussion that ensued was actually helpful for me to understand what happened and how to characterize it. The bottom line is that Trump was surprised by the gift of the tallit and did what most people in his situation would have done. The headlines that proclaimed that Trump "donned a tallit" were inaccurate. He didn't place the tallit over his own shoulders and it appears obvious that he didn't choose to have it placed on his shoulders.

LL Cool J is a Good Friend to the Jews

I just read an article in the Jewish Journal about a recent appearance that rap legend LL Cool J made at a benefit for The Ulmer Institute. The article, titled "LL Cool J discusses his Jewish friends, Israel and more," includes an interview LL Cool J gave at the event.

LL Cool J with Rabbi Jason Miller

The event Wednesday night supported TUI, which focuses on treating, researching and training around trauma relief for using methodologies developed by Israeli psychiatrists. Its founder, Faith Central Bible Church Bishop Kenneth Ulmer, is a friend of LL Cool J, who served as an honorary host of the event.

I'm not at all surprised that LL has been getting more involved with the Jewish community, Black-Jewish relations, and that he expressed interest in visiting Israel soon. I had the chance to shmooze with him a few years ago and he told me then that he was hoping to get to Israel soon.

LL Cool J even offered a "L'chayim" greeting to me on video:

Here is the complete interview with the Jewish Journal:

Straight Outta Compton and Black Lives Matter

When I was supposed to be learning Torah trope in my bedroom at 12 years old in preparation for my bar mitzvah, I would often sneakily substitute the audio cassette of my cantor singing the musical notes with a cassette of Run DMC, Ice-T, the Beastie Boys or Sugar Hill Gang. A few years later I would discover one of my favorite rap groups, N.W.A. Of course, my parents weren’t thrilled that the music CDs I was playing in my car contained the infamous “Parental Advisory – Explicit Content” stickers, but most of my driving at that age was back and forth to the synagogue for Jewish youth group events so they let it slide.

Rabbi Jason Miller with O'Shea Jackson, Jr. who plays his father Ice Cube in the movie

I continued to enjoy the Gangsta Rap genre into college, adding Snoop Dogg, Tupac Shakur, Geto Boys and Warren G to my typical mix of Ice Cube, Eazy E and Dr. Dre. However, when I headed off to New York City for rabbinical school at the Jewish Theological Seminary I left my rap CDs at home. It just didn’t feel right to be listening to the explicit lyrics that many consider misogynistic and pro-violence while studying Torah and Talmud in a seminary. My love for Gangsta Rap seemed to dissipate in the ensuing years as I became a rabbi and started a family.

Last month I realized that my love for Gangsta Rap had just been put on hold. I was invited to a private advance screening of the N.W.A. biopic “Straight Outta Compton” at a local theater outside of Detroit. I invited a few different friends to attend the screening with me, but they were either busy or not interested. So, I called my father and he accepted the invitation. I cautioned him that the movie would contain the same explicit music I listened to in high school that he had frowned against. He understood, but was willing to give the film a chance.