In the period between the two world wars, several African Americans began recording and performing popular and liturgical Jewish music in both Yiddish and Hebrew, sometimes officiating as cantors. Among the most successful was Thomas LaRue, who even toured European Jewish communities in the 1930s. Renee Ghert-Zand writes that LaRue was “reportedly raised in Newark, New Jersey, by a single mother who was drawn to Judaism.” Listen to a recently rediscovered recording of him singing the prayer Mitratseh b’raḥamim:
Read more on Times of Israel: https://www.timesofisrael.com/yiddisher-black-cantors-from-100-years-ago-rediscovered-thanks-to-rare-recording