Yoseph is survived by his parents; his children, Chelsea, Chae, Cordell and Chana and his girlfriend Lahava Shneor and a multitude of friends who will miss him dearly.
Blogger MaNishtana will be collecting funds this week in order to donate Yom Kippur machzors to the Flatbush Park Jewish Center in Yoseph Robinson’s name. If you knew him you’d know the high level of respect he gave his seforim, so this would only be a fitting and appropriate way to honor his memory. The price is $20/book. Anyone interested please contact me at manishtanablog@gmail.com.
“Clerk Dies A Hero” (NY Post)
“Yoseph Robinson’s life was remarkable journey from petty criminal to observant Jew” (NY Daily News)
“‘I would look at him and say, ‘Yoseph, how can you be black and be Jewish?’ a grieving pal, Joane Tomas, 25, said. ‘And Yoseph would just look at me with this big smile and say, ‘It’s not about color, it’s about faith.'”
“That a robber had felled a man who spoke of turning away from violence struck Ms. Wallace as particularly painful. ‘It was a coward’s act,’ she said. ‘He took away such a bright light. It was unnecessary. He took the most precious thing that was in that store.'”
“Death of a Hip Hop Jew” (MyJewishLearning.com)
“NY Police offer reward for killer of Jamaican Jew” (Jamaica Observer)
“Police Search for Gunman in Botched Liquor Store Robbery” (NY Times/City Room)
“A long journey ends in gunfire: remembering Yoseph Robinson” (Jewish Star)
“Robinson was a popular fixture in the Brooklyn Jewish community and after his death hundreds gathered by the liquor store. Shais Rison, another close friend of Robinson’s, who blogs under the name MaNishtana, received the news while he was on the train. Usually, he along with Shneor, spent Thursday evening with Robinson in the store. This past Thursday, he had missed their usual get-together.
‘I was hoping it was the worst practical joke in the world,’ he said when he was told about the news. ‘I didn’t believe it. We lost one of our brightest lights last night, as people, as Jews, as Jews of color.’
‘I don’t see how Hashem could take such a beautiful neshoma away from us,’ Akedah Fulcher, another friend wondered. ‘He was a proud person, he made being multicultural and Jewish fun. [The media] keeps on focusing on him being a convert, I would rather them focus on the fact that he was a Jew. His cultural background enhanced his Jewish identity. He could have contributed so much…. Hashem gives and Hashem takes.'”
“Remarkable Journey of Hero Clerk Yoseph Robinson O”H’s Life; Police Offer 12,000 Reward” (Voz Iz Neias?)
“‘On Facebook, Robinson wrote that to resist the pull of his old life he only had to see his tzitzis, a fringed garment worn by observant Jewish men, and ‘a smile spreads across my face.'”
“Yoseph Robinson, Former Hip-Hop Exec Turned Orthodox Jew, Murdered in Robbery” (BV Black Spin)
“Yoseph Robinson girlfriend says shooting ‘like a horror movie,’; NYPD offers $12K for crime tips” (NY Daily News)
“Former Hip-Hop Exec and Orthodox Jew Fatally Shot in Robbery” (Gothamist)
“Hip-hop artist turned Orthodox Jew murdered in Brooklyn” (JTA)
Memoirs of a Jewminicana 