Rapper LL Cool J Has Tons of Jewish Friends — but Can’t Stand Gefilte Fish
Actor and rapper LL Cool J on April 15, 2016 in Beverly Hills, California. Image by Getty Images
By Josefin Dolsten May 23, 2016
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
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
