Matisyahu, the Jewish American reggae, hip-hop, and alternative rock singer, rapper, beatboxer, and musician, brought his multiple musical talents to the Troy Music Hall, 25 miles north of Albany, to perform for the Capital Region’s Jewish community. The Jewish Federation of Northeastern New York, which was entertaining Israelis from the Eshkol region in Israel, brought their guests and other members of the fundraising and social organization. Also in attendance were congregants from Shabbos House, the Chabad House serving the University of Albany (UAlbany) Jewish community and directed by Rabbi Mendel and Raizy Rubin. Members of Congregation Beth Abraham-Jacob in Albany also attended.
The six-foot-four Matisyahu, whose given name is Matthew Paul Miller, performed for more than one hour to a rousing appreciative crowd of nearly 300 attendees. He wore the baggiest pants you ever saw and a plaid button-down shirt.
A look at his life journey offers a necessary perspective on what makes Matisyahu who he is today.
Born in West Chester, PA, he was brought up a Reconstructionist Jew and attended Hebrew school at Bet Am Shalom, a Westchester County-based synagogue in White Plains. He spent much of his childhood learning the tenets of Judaism, but by the time he was a teenager, he began to rebel against his upbringing. At one Phish concert, Matisyahu dropped acid for the first time, an experience he recounted in 2016 that “changed my life.”
Matisyahu, 45, began taking classes on Jewish spirituality at The New School in Manhattan and started developing his reggae style, spending hours in his room, writing and practicing to the accompaniment of hip-hop tapes. At the same time, he started going to The Carlebach Shul, an Orthodox synagogue on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. He bought a siddur and tallit and began attending religious services every Shabbos at the synagogue. He regularly wore a yarmulke and tzitzit.
One morning after getting drunk the night before, Matisyahu encountered Rabbi David Korn of the Chabad House at New York University (now known as Chabad House Bowery), later moving into Korn’s house to study Torah all day.
By November 2001, Matisyahu, the etymological source of the English name Matthew, identified as a member of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement. He moved to Crown Heights in early 2002. He delved into chassidus and removed himself from popular culture. That phase of his life lasted ten years.
On December 13, 2011, after a session with his therapist, Matisyahu walked into a Supercuts on the Upper West Side in Manhattan and shaved his beard. He posted a beardless picture of himself on Twitter, explaining on his website: “At a certain point I felt the need to submit to a higher level of religiosity… to move away from my intuition and to accept an ultimate truth. I felt that in order to become a good person I needed rules – lots of them – or else I would somehow fall apart. I am reclaiming myself, trusting my goodness and my divine mission.”
Despite shaving his beard, Matisyahu remained a religious Jew and began to attend a chasidic synagogue associated with the Karlin dynasty in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
When it comes to Israel, Matisyahu is not shy about stating his opinion. He performed for the IDF and for AIPAC and supported Israeli settlers in Judea and Samaria. He voiced support for Israel in the current war. In January 2024, he told Newsweek: “I would like to see any terrorist, Hamas, or person who believes Israel has no right to exist or the Jews have no right to it – I would like Israel to destroy those people. Then I would like to see some type of new world that comes about in Gaza where Jews can go back to the Middle East.”
The concert at the Troy Music Hall on Thursday, November 21, brought out anti-Israel protesters and one lone pro-Israel supporter, Michael Kohn. The Albany resident raised a sign reading “You’re Not Freeing Palestine, You’re Just Harassing Jews.”
The protestors’ signs read, “Another Jew Against Genocide,” “Matisyahu Supports Genocide,” and “Genocide Supporters Belong in the Hague, not in Troy,” and there were several Palestinian flags flying around.
The co-directors of the Shabbos House Chabad Center just outside the grounds of UAlbany, a state university, Rabbi Mendel and Raizy Rubin, knew Matisyahu when he was transitioning from being a yeshiva bochur to launching his musical career.
“We knew him when he was at Hadar HaTorah yeshiva when we were at the Ivy League Torah Study program in Napanoch, Ulster County. Mendel would often speak to him there,” Raizy Rubin recalled. “His degree was going to be in music therapy. We remember him playing his bongos. He is extremely talented. When he started his music career, we asked him to come to SUNY Albany. He played in the Campus Center, Chanukah 2004. We called it ‘Extreme Chanukah.’”
The current Shabbos House is more than double the size of the previous facility two doors away. After the concert in the Campus Center Ballroom, “he stayed in the old Shabbos House. He actually stayed on the old couch in the old Shabbos House. His band stayed downstairs in the old basement,” Raizy Rubin recalled. “Mendel took a walk with Matisyahu and encouraged him to keep up his music career.”
Something clicked at that time and Matisyahu returned to Albany three years later, playing to a much larger venue, The Washington Avenue Armory.
“We arranged for a backstage minyan,” Raizy Rubin recalled. “The minyan was really memorable. We had a bunch of fraternity boys who came together to daven Ma’ariv with him backstage. That was in 2007.”
The latest concert, a few weeks ago, had a lot of Jewish pride, Raizy Rubin said. “It was great for the students to be a part of it and to see how Matisyahu took a stand for Israel and for the Jewish people,” she told The Jewish Press. “He started off with ‘Hineh mah tov umah na’im shevet achim gam yachad.’ The English translation is ‘Yea, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers and sisters to dwell together in unity!’”
After the concert and the hall cleared out, Matisyahu met on stage with members of the Jewish Federation and the Eshkol visitors as well as the students at Shabbos House.
“The students loved it. It was a great night of Jewish pride, being proud of who they are. He was excellent, really, really good. It was nice to see him and spend time with him. Seeing how 20 years later he still has a connection,” Rubin said fondly.
