Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
The Schmooze

Rapper LL Cool J Has Tons of Jewish Friends — but Can’t Stand Gefilte Fish

Rapper LL Cool J has too many Jewish friends to count, but there’s one Jewish custom he won’t get on board with: gefilte fish.

“My grandfather was from the Bronx, he came home with gefilte fish every week. I mean, I didn’t like it, no disrespect, but I loved him, it wasn’t my thing, but I always had great Jewish friends, always, they’ve been good to me,” the rapper, whose stage name is an acronym for Ladies Love Cool James, told the Jewish Journal.

“I can go on and on and on and on and on, about the different Jewish friends I’ve had and it’s always been natural for me,” he said.

LL Cool J also said that he wants to visit Israel. “I would love to go. I really would. I’ve never been but first time for everything, right?”

The rapper was attending a launch event in Beverly Hills for the Ulmer Institute, a trauma center that will use Israeli trauma treatment methods. At the event the center’s founder, Bishop Kenneth Ulmer, who is black, spoke of the importance of unity between African-Americans and Jews, according to the Jewish Journal.

Contact Josefin Dolsten at [email protected] or on Twitter, @JosefinDolsten

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.