Kosher artist merges faith, ethnicity in his music

For most people, "kosher" isn’t a term that springs to mind when thinking about gospel music. Yet for Joshua Nelson, who’s black and Jewish, “kosher gospel” makes total sense. It’s a genre he created, merging his ethnicity and his faith. Nelson, 28, grew up in a home where kashrut and Shabbat were observed. (Meaning, respectively, the state of being kosher and the day of rest and worship for Jews.) Though his family, which he says can trace its Jewish ancestry back to Africa, were at one time part of the Black Hebrew community, they now practice traditional Judaism.