Rabbi Shais Rishon (MaNishtana)

MaNishtana, pseudonym of Shais Rishon, is an author, writer, educator, playwright, rabbi, and public speaker, whose work on racial and religious identity and culture–and how their intersections manifest in America–takes prejudice, bias, and ignorance head-on, asking the questions about humanity, race, religion, and social injustice that we all have with gut-punching insight and gut-busting sarcasm. MaNishtana’s work explores the fact that Jews of color are often subject to skepticism about their legitimacy as Jews, and experience racism even within their own Jewish communities. The pseudonym “MaNishtana” is inspired by the first of the Four Questions of the Passover seder, “Mah nishtana halayla hazeh mikol haleilot?/What makes this night different from all other nights?” with the intent to invoke the question with regards to Jews of Color vis a vis “Why is this Jew different from all other Jews?.” The answer to this loaded question, according to MaNishtana, is “Everything and nothing.” His unique, humorous, and often irreverent outlook on Judaism, race politics, and racial issues within Judaism and without—illustrated through his blogs and videos—has continually gained popularity.

A New York-based African American Orthodox Jew born to two African-American Orthodox Jewish parents, MaNishtana grew up Chabad-Lubavitch and hails on his mother’s side from a legacy of African American Judaism stretching into the 1780s. He was born February 14, 1982, in Brooklyn. Growing up he felt alienated from the Jewish community due to his race and the treatment he received from other Jews. Alongside such notable figures as Chris Rock, Dmitry Salita, Bernie Sanders, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, MaNishtana is an alumnus of James Madison High School in Brooklyn (Class of 1999). He graduated from Brooklyn College in 2005 with BA in English and Secondary Education.

Rishon began blogging about his black and Jewish identities as MaNishtana in 2009. He has worked as a content manager for Bend the Arc, a progressive Jewish organization focused on social justice. In 2010 MaNishtana launched the first online dating site catering to Jews of Color, Mosaic Matches, and in 2014 he founded the multi-culturally Jewish online magazine, JN Magazine. MaNishtana has appeared in both national and international press–including the New York Times, New York Magazine, the Jewish Week, the Jerusalem Post, Tachles, D La Reppublica, Unleash the Fanboy, and others–and has appeared on film in the documentaries Punk Jews (2012) and Doing Jewish: A Story From Ghana (2016). He has contributed to the Jewish Daily Forward, Tablet Magazine, and Hevria, and was selected as a presenter to both the BBYO International Convention and for ELI Talks in 2017.

A recipient of the Jewish Week’s “36 Under 36” award in 2014, and a cohort of the 2016 ROI Summit, MaNishtana is the author of three books on Jewish and African American identity. His debut novel Ariel Samson, Freelance Rabbi won as Finalist for the 2018 National Jewish Book Award’s Goldberg Award in the category of Debut Fiction and is an Amazon Kindle Top 50 bestseller in the category of Jewish American Fiction. Additionally, MaNishtana has been a contributor to both The Kveller Haggadah: A Seder for Curious Kids (and Their Grownups), and the Tablet Magazine-published James Beard Award Nominee The 100 Most Jewish Foods: A Highly Debatable List. 

In 2018, MaNishtana earned his first Orthodox rabbinical ordination and is rabbi for Kehilat Ir Chadash, an Orthodox congregation in New City, Rockland County, New York. He is currently earning his second rabbinical ordination.

In 2019, MaNishtana was named to both the 50 Jews Everyone Should Follow on Twitter by Jewish Telegraphic Agency, and Forward Magazine’s 25th annual list of influential American Jews, the Forward 50. Since 2019, he has presented at several Limmud conferences, including Limmud UK, Limmud Oz, and Limmud NY. In 2020, Rishon and rapper Yitz Jordan (Y-Love) announced plans to create a Jewish Community Center specifically for Jews of color. The community center would be open to all Jews, but focused on Jews of color, and would build bridges both within the Jewish community and between Jews of color and other minorities. That same year, he appeared on The Algemeiner’s annual J100 list.

In June 2021, Rishon revealed publicly that he is autistic and polyamorous, stating that his discovery of both was “less than 3 years old.” MaNishtana lives in New York with his wife–a biracial American Jew and fourteenth-generation descendant of Rabbi Yom Tov Lipman-Heller, the Tosafot Yom Tov and 17th-century chief rabbi of Prague–and their daughter, the Tosafot Yom Tov’s African-American fifteenth-generation descendant.

Books:

1. Thoughts From A Unicorn: 100% Black. 100% Jewish. 0% Safe. (2012, Hyphen Publishing)
2. “Fine, thanks. How are you, Jewish?”: A Stream-Of-Consciousness Stroll Through the Jew of Color Mind (2014)
3. The Rishoni Illuminated Legacy Hagadah (2015)
4. Ariel Samson: Freelance Rabbi (2018, Multikosheral Press)

Short stories

1. 2014: “One Man’s Dystopia Is Another Man’s What?”
2. 2014: “The (Space)Time Of Your Life”

Poems

1. 2015: “Mashiach Now?”