Joshua Nelson (singer)

Joshua Nelson is an American gospel singer and Hebrew teacher.

Joshua Nelson is Black and Jewish and he goes by the nickname “the prince of kosher gospel,” and he has called himself "the KKK's worst nightmare." His grandparents emigrated to the U.S.A. from Senegal, in West Africa, and he became fascinated with music when he was 8, while living in Brooklyn. His fascination lasted after he graduated from Newark's Performing Arts High School. Nelson was the high school's official soloist for the 4 years he studied there. He went on to do a 2-year college and kibbutz program in Israel studying at the Hebrew Union College as well as at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

While attending Hebrew University, he started blending Hebrew texts with gospel melodies and arranging Jewish hymns in gospel style, resulting in solo CDs like "Hebrew Soul" (2004) and "Mi Chamocha" (2005).

Both of Mr. Nelson’s parents are Jewish, and his family attended temple at a black synagogue in Brooklyn, then switched to Sharey Tefilo-Israel, in South Orange, New Jersey, a reform synagogue with a liberal reputation.

Nelson is both a Jewish Gospel singer in the tradition of Mahalia Jackson, and a full-time Hebrew teacher in the Hebrew school at Sharey Tefilo-Israel, a Reform synagogue in South Orange, NJ, when he is not on the road. He also serves as director of music at Hopewell Baptist Church in Newark, NJ, which is housed in the building of a former synagogue (the former B’nai Jeshurun).

Nelson has performed with musical legends including Wynton Marsalis and Aretha Franklin and Stephanie Mills and Billy Preston, as well as gospel singers Albertina Walker, the Barret Sisters, Hezekiah Walker, Kirk Franklin, Dottie Peoples, Dorothy Norwood, Vanessa Bell Armstrong, Reverend Timothy Wright, and Bobby Jones & New Life. Nelson also performs frequently with the Jewish Klezmer band The Klezmatics, and performed with the late jazz greats Cab Calloway and Dizzy Gillespie.

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