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Slain Jewish Convert Had Traded Violence for Prayer
By Mara Gay
AOL News
Published: August 25, 2010
NEW YORK (Aug. 24) -- The first time Ari Schwartz brought Yoseph Robinson home for Sabbath dinner, his family was taken aback.
After all, it wasn't every day that a black man -- a Jamaican wearing the broad black hat often used by Orthodox Jews -- arrived on their Brooklyn doorstep. But when Schwartz learned that the devout Jewish convert had no family to celebrate the weekly day of rest with, he invited Robinson home for dinner.
"Their mouths were open wide when I opened the door," Schwartz told AOL News today. Before long though, Robinson had won over the white Orthodox family with an impressive understanding of his adopted religion, and the evening was a success.
Schwartz shared his recollection a day after the funeral of the 34-year-old Robinson, a peaceful and deeply religious man who turned his life of drug use around by converting to Judaism and built bridges between communities.
He was shot to death Aug. 18 in a robbery at the Brooklyn wine store in the Midwood section where he worked. Witnesses said he died while protecting his girlfriend from the robber, who had pointed a gun at her and demanded her jewelry. They said Robinson lunged at the robber and was shot during the struggle. The attacker ran away.
It was a sad and ironic end to the life of a man who had traded violence for prayer and worked to ease tensions between blacks and Jews in New York.
"It's not easy for someone who converts," Schwartz said, "but Yoseph was very tuned in to who he was, where he was coming from, what he was doing."
Shais Rison, a friend and a fellow black Orthodox Jew who blogs under the pseudonym "MaNishtana," said the sense of loss was great. "It's hard," Rison told AOL News. "He was a bridge builder between Jewish and non-Jewish communities, and between the black Jewish community and the white Jewish community. He was a proud Jew and a proud Jamaican. He never forgot who he was."
His early years were more turbulent. Robinson was born in Jamaica, moved to New York at age 12 and dropped out of high school by 16. Before long, he had "entered the world of drug deals, street crime and violence," a life he described in an excerpt from his unfinished memoir. Then, after a brief stint in the world of hip-hop, Robinson discovered Judaism.
His transformation began at 23, when he converted "as a means to surrender control, accept humility and educate," according to his website. He moved back to Brooklyn and became a fixture in both the white Orthodox Jewish and black Jewish communities.
Before he was gunned down last week, Robinson had been working on his memoir. In an excerpt, he said he hoped the book would "inspire a social movement to build a community between Jews and blacks." He wrote that he "longs to be judged on his renewed character, not superficially by his skin color." His website says the book will be "Available here Chanukah (December 2010)."
Robinson brought people together in death as well. At a Brooklyn funeral home Monday night, white Orthodox Jews stood beside black Jews and Jamaican Christians to celebrate Robinson's life.
Rabbi Ezra Max, who used to pray with Robinson, said the funeral was a testament to the way his friend lived his life.
"There were people everywhere. It was beautiful," Max said of his friend's funeral. "That color line, it was not there. People were standing shoulder to shoulder."
Robinson's brother-in-law, Shawn Walters, credited Judaism for Robinson's new way of living. "The Jewish community saved his life," he said at the funeral, according to the New York Daily News.
Police say there are no suspects in the shooting. Schwartz said he wants justice. "Someone has to be judged for the terrible act that was committed," he said. But Schwartz, himself an Orthodox Jew, added that it wasn't his place to make sense of his friend's death. "God gives and God takes," he said.
Robinson might have agreed. Just hours before he died, he took to his Facebook page to send out a message.
"Given that everything is ordained from Heaven -- Hakadosh Baruch Hu [God] -- Of what consequence is the action's of others?" he asked.
Originally published here: http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/slain-jewish-convert-yoseph-robinson-remembered-for-bridging-communities/19606030
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