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Yavilah McCoy, an African-American and a fourth-generation Jew, is a Jewish gospel singer and the founder of Ayecha.

Jewish gospel

McCoy grew up in an Orthodox Jewish home in a heavily Jewish area of Brooklyn. In her home Jewish songs sung during religious observances were combined with the rhythm and spirit of African-American gospels into what she calls “Jewish gospel.” She became a performing Jewish gospel singer.

Family's adoption of Judaism

Her great-grandmother on her mother’s side, growing up in Virginia, was influenced by Marcus Garvey. He led a crusade for black nationalism in the 1920s. What especially interested her was the notion that American blacks needed to investigate their African origins, and that they had a relationship with God that didn’t have to go through a white Jesus. “So she took off the shackle of Christianity, so to speak, and took on the religion of Israel,” McCoy said. “All she had was the Bible. So most of my great-grandmother’s songs were the songs of David.”

The family moved to Brownsville in Brooklyn, where Jews and blacks lived side by side. “My grandfather started developing friendships with Jews and started to take on Jewish practices. He started to learn about kosher and observing the Jewish holidays. He would wear a yarmulke and really started to identify as a Jew. In the 1940s and ’50s, there were a number of people of color who identified with Judaism in Brownsville, many for similar reasons as those that drew my grandmother to the faith of the people of Israel in the ’20s and ’30s. When my grandfather met my grandmother, she took on his way of life.”

In her grandparents’ home, McCoy’s mother's parents bought kosher meat and observed the Jewish holidays. McCoy’s father converted to Orthodox Judaism in his early 20s, and later married her mother, who converted to Orthodox observance as well.

Early life

McCoy attended Jewish elementary and high schools, and studied at Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She has taught Judaic studies, Hebrew, and English literature in elementary and secondary schools during the last 10 years. She is now a teacher, writer, editor, Jewish gospel singer, and diversity consultant.

Ayecha

She is also the founder and director of Ayecha, a nonprofit organization with offices in New York City and St. Louis which provides training and educational resources to build greater sensitivity toward differences in the Jewish community. The organization also serves as a support group and network for Jews of color and multiracial families. McCoy said: “We teach people how to understand their Judaism through the lens of race, age and economic status. When most people think of Jewish, they think white and they think European. But Jews of color have been alive and well for thousands of years in parts of the world.”

McCoy said recent research estimates that there are about 200,000 Jews of color in the United States.

Miscellaneous

McCoy's husband is also African-American and Jewish, and the couple keeps kosher in their St. Louis home with their three children, who attend a local Jewish day school.