UF’s Hillel is feeling the rhythm and blues.
The Jewish Student Union, Black Student Union and Alpha Epsilon Pi International will sponsor “Gospel Shabbat” tonight at UF Hillel.
The event will include gospel song and music interwoven into services by a professional gospel singer, Joshua Nelson, and an appearance by Florida Congresswoman and UF graduate Debbie Wasserman-Shultz.
Shabbat is a Jewish holiday celebrated at the end of every week from sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday. It is considered the “day of rest.”
Keith Dvorchik, executive director of Hillel, said Nelson, also known as “The Prince of Kosher Gospel,” is a black Jew who has performed around the world for presidents, congregations, music festivals and Oprah Winfrey.
The event is an opportunity to combine gospel music and Jewish prayer into a unique experience that will showcase a type of non-traditional service, he said.
Free Shabbat services and prayer will begin at 6:30 p.m. and a free kosher dinner will be served at 8 p.m in the dining room.
Nelson is well-known in prominent Jewish communities because of his special talents, Amanda Solomon, Hillel’s arts intern, said.
“He’s the only person who does what he does,” she said.
Nelson will bring a key board and three backup signers with him from New Jersey to perform during combined Conservative and Reform Jewish services.
Dvorchik said prior to dinner Wasserman-Shultz will speak about getting involved on campus and will take questions from students.
“It’s a great opportunity to hear from a congresswoman and a former Gator,” he said. “It definitely won’t be a common Friday night.”
Solomon said she hopes the event will force students to challenge the stereotypes of Jewish identity.
“You could be anyone,” she said. “You could be African American and Jewish or white and Muslim.”
UF Hillel Program Director Jeff Kaplan said that Jews are too often stereotyped into looking a certain way.
“Jews are not a race,” he said. “We’re an ethnicity.”
Kaplan said the Hillel staff is estimating an attendance of 200 and students are encouraged to mingle with Nelson and Wasserman-Shultz during dinner and throughout the night.
“It’s really a once-in-a-blue-moon-event,” he said.
Andrea James, one of the Shabbat and holidays student leaders at UF Hillel, believes that the event will be a good way to show people that Judaism can connect with different groups of people and have a great celebration.
Last fall, James attended a Shabbat where a professor from Israel spoke about mysticism and Judaism. After the event she realized “you don’t have to be traditional to be spiritual.”
She also thinks the kosher dinner will be a great way to establish a family environment where people from different cultures and beliefs can come closer.
Editor's note: In the original article, Joshua Nelson was incorrectly identified as an art intern for Hillel. Amanda Solomon is the arts intern.
