[Video below.] Brooklyn, NY – Today, at a special ceremony, New York City renamed an intersection “Yoseph Robinson Avenue” in memory of Yoseph Robinson, who was gunned down while trying to protect his friend during a robbery of a liquor store.
Avenue J and Nostrand Ave. in Midwood is now “Yoseph Robinson Avenue” in honor of the victim who tried to grab the gun of a masked robber.
The legislation to honor Yosef was passed unanimously by the City Council and signed into law by Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Robinson was a Jamaican hip-hop artist who became a ger tzedek. Robinson’s remarkable journey from Spanish Town, Jamaica, to Midwood, Brooklyn, was set on a rocky road. As a teenager, Robinson was an aspiring hip-hop artist caught up in gang related activity. Looking to change his life, he was drawn to Yiddishkeit and converted at age 23. Never giving up music, he began to mix Torah passages into his lyrics while making a living working as a clerk at MB Vineyards on Nostrand Avenue.
Yoseph was murdered by armed robber Eion Klass on August 19, 2010, while working at MB Vineyards on Nostrand Avenue. Klass was eventually sentenced to 35 years in prison.
The Robinson legislation was passed alongside a bill to honor murdered teenager Christopher Rose, who was stabbed to death while being robbed. Rose is given the sad distinction as being the first person killed for his iPod.
Klass was sentenced last January to 35 years in prison for manslaughter and robbery.
Among those in attendance at today’s dedication were State Senator Simcha Felder, Councilman David Greenfield, and Rabbi Aryeh Ralbag, rov of Young Israel of Avenue K and chief rabbi of Amsterdam.
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