I hate to say it but it’s actually our fault. 50 Shekel, the parody hip-hop artist that rose from obscurity to some form of fame (at least, within the Jewish community) has turned to Jews For Jesus and we pretty much led him there. The rapper who took Eminem protégé 50 Cent’s “In Da Club” and re-worked it into “In Da Shul,” who regularly performed at Orthodox schools and synagogues, who wore an unavoidable silver Star of David around his neck, has fanatically embraced Jesus as witnessed on 50shekel.com. On his newly launched website, Shekel, who’s real name is Aviad Cohen, wastes no time in declaring his love for Jesus. In fact, there’s a paragraph-long quote from the New Testament paralleling his own life to that of his newly found savior.

I am sampling it here (like a DJ):

"If you were of the world, the world would love it's own. But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, for that reason the world hates you...now they have both seen and have hated both Me and My Father, but...that the word might be filled which was written in their Torah, 'They hated me without a cause." -  John 15:19

Pretty heavy stuff. And we haven’t even entered the site yet. When you first cross (gettit?) over into the Shekel’s domain, you are met with link buttons that read “Yahweh Saves” and “Oy Very” (which when you click on the latter features a banner that reads “Jesus Is More Jewish Than Your Rabbi”). With further digging, you’ll read propagandist literature spread throughout the site rambling on about a conspiracy theory wherein the Vatican is trying to take over Israel, and most outrageously sprinkled throughout, links to quite possibly the most anti-Semitic comic illustrator alive, Jeff Chick (personally, I find this inclusion the most offensive. Surely, Cohen can’t be that naive in thinking that Chick would be satisfied with Sheq still identifying himself as a Jew?). Further on into the newly-launched website, Cohen features pictures of himself wearing a mock-Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup T-shirt that reads “Jesus, King of Kings.” You can even purchase the T-shirt on the website by clicking Credits. Although it should be noted, Christ doesn’t charge wholesale. Shirts are $17.00.

The tracklisting to 50’s upcoming album feature song titles like “Hooked On The Truth,” “What Up Son!,” “Messiah's All Stars,” “Mark 10 (Interlude),” and “Jonathan's Mission.” With songs like these, it’s not likely that you’ll “find [him] in da shul.” Unless that shul happens to be associated with the International Alliance of Messianic Congregations and Synagogues (IAMCS).

While poking around 50shekel.com, I’m astonished and bewildered. How did this happen? How did a decent-enough guy (who I’ve met and actually liked as a person) go from pushing the merits of Orthodox Judaism in the pages of Esquire, Blender, Q Magazine, and the Forward to almost cultish-ly declare Jesus as his savior? What would Jesus do to get to the bottom of this?

Like I said, it’s our fault. Even as this news was being reported on Jewschool.com, a popular Jewish pseudo-news blog, the posting reads:

“Apparently it wasn't enough for 50 Shekel to suck. Now he officially sucks in the name of Yeshua, as his revamped website makes pretty clear. Some tip-offs: the "Jesus" Reeses tee, the iTestimony link, and the fact that all of his "Jewish" links are Hebrew-Christian organizations. All while claiming that he's all about "keepin' it true Jew."

When I did a Google search (with the words “50 Shekel” and “review”), I clicked on one of the first links that brought me to this comment posted, again, on the Jewschool site:

“50 Shekel is a f***ing joke.”

Unfortunately, I found multiple comments that mirrored this sentiment all using the f-bomb.

I also discovered this subtle descriptor (unnecessarily written in all caps):

“50 SHEKEL IS A FAKE JEW AND SHOWS NO CREATIVITY. SOMEONE SHOULD BATTLE HIM AND PUT HIM TO SLEEP.”

Found on another page on--you guessed it--Jewschool, (it should be noted that I have nothing personal against Jewschool.com. In fact, I occasionally enjoy the website. It was just much easier to find the overwhelming nastiness it contains within) in a posting entitled “Keep Sippin’ That Haterade (sounds like a misplaced encouragement)” Regenerated Headpiece’s Shred Lexicon (who’s album I’ve heard and...well, sometimes recording a cover is a safer bet) finally writes to Shekel after a non-confrontational exchange:

“Face it, you are what you are. A gimmick rapper. You wrote ONE damn song, and it's just a corny parody. You're hardly as clever as you seem to think you are, and the lyrics of your parody only serve to perpetuate hackneyed stereotypes of Jews.

So don't get it twisted, kid. Eventually you will be exposed for the fraud that you are. That much is certain.”

Lexicon wrote this to Shekel knowing that Shekel was reading. Ahh, the safety of hiding behind the internet.

Animosity this strong and bitter is usually reserved for pedophiles (like Michael Jackson) or murderers. Granted, Sheq shouldn’t be encouraged to rap but we seem to have forgotten that Cohen, at one point, was an Orthodox Jew trying to do something fun within the Orthodox community. Shekel didn’t deserve such blatant spite. He isn’t, uh, Judas. And the incredible thing is that Shekel never responded with equal malice. He just usually backed down and simply took the high road. His patience is a somewhat commendable quality.

The reason I’m responding to this with such attention and detail is, as a critic, as a Jew, as a human being with some sympathy, this story saddens me. While it may be acceptable in certain circles to belittle others to the extent that they have nowhere else to go but out, I don’t think there’s room for that here. Moreover, while the above-quoted critics may not care about Cohen’s transformation, they should. They drove him there after leaving him with exhaustion and depression. They had successfully broken a man.

Additionally, the most unfortunate aspect to Jewschool’s aforementioned breaking-news report is that they’ve completely missed the point here by illustrating exactly what inspired Cohen to become what he is--a Jesus freak. Again, maybe 50 Shekel was a novelty act, his rapping skills not on par with The Game, Tupac, or Jay-Z. And yeah, his mass emails were odd and unintentionally silly (what was with all the “chevry” talk?) but Fitty meant well. And all we did was gnash at him with malice and vitriol. So in return he’s going to try and make our children into followers of Jews For Jesus (there’s more conversion material on his site than hip-hop). Who’s laughing now?

If I had known about Cohen’s resurrection (pun intended), I would have been more than happy to introduce Sheq to a few people who could easily refute his newfound beliefs. Jesus didn’t die for our sins. He died for the holes in his hands and feet. Speaking of which, Jews for Jesus has many, many holes in their belief system. In fact, you can see proof of this only after spending a few minutes on Jews For Judaism.com.  But it’s probably too late. 50 Shekel has switched currency and there’s a good chance he won’t be coming back.

A few months back, one idealistic, lone voice on the internet wrote this to the hatas:

“What 50 Sheq wants to do is just bring a joy to the Jewish community. He isn’t claiming to be a GREAT EMCEE, a GREAT HIP HOPPER or that he has something OF VITAL IMPORTANCE  and he just he wants to bring his heart into the place- and YOU ALL ARE ACTUALLY SPEAKING AGAINST A FELLOW JEW.”

Yeah, it’s idealistic and cheesy and simplistic. But there’s a point there. Too bad Aviad Cohen thinks it has something to do with Jesus.

From Legacy
I read your article on 50 Shekel, and while you make valid points, I think you are at risk of winning the battle while losing the war.
 

Jews for Jesus, along with other predatory missionary organizations, is effectively penetrating Jewish circles. While we as religious Jews can confidently negate their message, there are many Jews who unfortunately cannot.

 

So while it might seem instinctive to denigrate people who have gone astray, we might be better off taking a different approach.

 

What if instead of making fun of his decision and actions we looked for a way to rekindle his connection to Judaism?

 

I agree with you in saying that people should not have written derogatory comments about 50 Shekel on the Internet. Besides violating the laws of Evil Speech, what did they hope to acomplish?

 

A better approach, or at least a productive approach, might be for everyone who knows him to be in contact with him.

 

Instead of him receiving a degrading treatment by Jews who rightfully see him as mistaken, let’s try to show him that he can come back. And that while we do not agree with him, we can understand his feelings.

 

If he did have a bad experience with a Rabbi, then let’s find 10 Rabbis that can show him the more positive side of Judaism.

 

If he had an issue with an Orthodox Jew, then let’s give him a positive experience with a hundred Orthodox Jews.

 

While this attempt might or might not be effective at bringing him back to Judaism, it will definitely be great practice at bringing and keeping thousands of other Jewish people home, who would otherwise be disconnected by professional missionary organizations.

 

A final note, what if you post his email address on this site? Then we can all send him an email every Friday wishing him a good Shabbos, and reminding him that there are Jews for Jews who would like to see him return with open arms.

 

This is in response to Arye Dworken's piece on Fifty Shekel:

I agree that Jew-on-Jew vitriol can get out of hand, but at the same time, this is the age of the Internet, Arye, and Fifty Shekel's song was, is, and always will be horrendous. And for him to play himself off as anything other than a novelty act (and 2 Live Jews managed to do that just fine) is a travesty. An insult to hip-hop and Yiddishkeit. And he shouldn't be surprised - nor should you - if the relative merits of his music were discussed openly and bluntly.

Honestly, are we supposed to just smile and make nice at every crappy artist just because he or she is a 'fellow Jew?' That's not ahavat yisrael, that's chanifa - insincerity and flattery. There's no place for that in Judaism, especially not today. Plenty of rabbis have excoriated one another in public over the last 200 years, and not one has turned to Jesus.

Clyde Haberman, also a Jew, spent several years as the Jerusalem-based correspondent for the NY Times. He got so much hate mail - the most vitriolic of which coming from his fellow Jews - that he ended up quitting the position, moving back to New York, and running the Metro desk. He was burned out, broken, scarred, and horrified by the ill will directed against him. He didn't turn to Jesus, though.

Fitty turned to Jesus, in my uninformed opinion, for two reasons: 1. They like him. Messianic congregations smile, make nice, and spend hours and hours telling you how special and good you are. He's not going to get that treatment in da shul. Many 'converted' Jews have told stories of being ignored or treated poorly in orthodox shuls, but being welcomed with open arms in Jews for Jesus churches. We'd do well to take that lesson to heart. That still doesn't mean we have to like Fitty's crappy song.

2. It's a publicity stunt - like Madonna turning to Kabbala. Fitty had a very limited audience, doing his one song in shuls and community centers across the nation. Now he has the entire J4J community, PLUS the entire Southern Baptist and evangelical Christian movements as fans. And they don't understand what he's rapping about anyway - so they'll just cheer him on a Jew who saw the error of his ways and got 'saved.'

Feh. Feh on all of them. I'm sad that Aviad Cohen moved over to the dark side. But I'll bet you fifty shekels he'll come back when prospects dry up over there. I look forward to the day when he graduates with a CPA degree and settles down in Riverdale, consigning his turntables and bling to the dustheap of youthful, foolish ideas.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 From Steven

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