Yavilah McCoy has a story to tell that spans generations

She’s African-American and she’s Jewish
Yavilah McCoy has a story to tell that spans generations.
By HELEN T. GRAY
The Kansas City Star

PHOTO FROM YAVILAH MCCOY

Most people are unaware of someone like Yavilah McCoy: an African-American and a fourth-generation Jew.

“People are surprised to find a Jew of color,” said McCoy, who grew up in an Orthodox Jewish home in a heavily Jewish area of Brooklyn.

Wherever she is, McCoy said, she has to explain to African-Americans that being Jewish doesn’t necessarily mean being white. And Jews want to know how she can be Jewish and African-American.