Renee Rosenblum-Lowden: The Jewess who created Jay Z

Shawn Corey Carter – better known by his rapper pseudonym of Jay Z – needs little introduction, but what you may not know is that Carter became Jay Z because of his sixth-grade English teacher in Brooklyn. Her name was Renee Rosenblum-Lowden and she was a jewess. (1)

Jay Z has repeatedly referenced how it was Rosenblum-Lowden who ‘inspired’ him to become Jay Z in interview down the years from 1999 to 2018. (2) He also likes to refer to himself privately as ‘Hova’, which is derived from the word ‘Jehovah’ and is a nod to Rosenblum-Lowden’s influence on him. (3)

Despite this Jay Z has had his lyrics labelled as ‘anti-Semitic’ by powerful jewish organisations such as the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith (4) as well as his editing out the word ‘Shalom’ in a promo claimed as some part of anti-Semitic plot against the jews. (5)

The reality however is that Jay Z was actually trying to campaign against ‘anti-Semitism’ with said lyrics. (6) In part because of the memory of Rosenblum-Lowden. (7)

References

(1) https://forward.com/culture/music/399158/jay-z-6th-grade-jewish-teacher-helped-him-love-language/

(2) Ibid.

(3) Ibid.

(4) https://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/adl-rebukes-jay-z-over-jewish-lyric-in-the-story-of-oj-w491217

(5) https://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/Why-was-shalom-erased-from-a-Netflix-promo-co-produced-by-Jay-Z-558573

(6) https://chicagodefender.com/2017/07/25/is-jay-z-anti-semitic/ ; https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/jay-z-defends-lyric-called-anti-semitic-context-is-everything-1.5445826 ; http://www.nme.com/news/jay-z-addresses-accusations-anti-semitism-4-44-2127068 ; https://www.thejc.com/news/world/jay-z-tackled-stereotypes-with-jews-and-property-lyric-1.443151

(7) https://forward.com/culture/music/399158/jay-z-6th-grade-jewish-teacher-helped-him-love-language/