Bob Marley
Bob Marley: One Love,” starring Jewish actor Kingsley Ben-Adir as the reggae icon, we are republishing this piece from May 19, 2021. Now that 40 years have passed since the May 1981 death of reggae pioneer Bob Marley, it’s worth noting how the impact of Jewish family lore may sometimes exceed mere documentary proof. A number of his relatives claim that Marley, whose hit recordings included “One Love,” “Redemption Song” and “No Woman No Cry,” was of Syrian Jewish ancestry. His estranged father, Jamaica-born Norval Marley, a naval officer, supposedly had Jewish roots, although biographers have hastened to dismiss these claims, saying that they are unverified. Yet Bob Marley, who died at age 36 of complications from skin cancer, was surely inspired by Jewish history and lore, starting with the Bible. As a Rastafarian, an adherent of an Abrahamic religion and social movement that developed in Jamaica during the 1930s, Marley was a student of the second book of the Torah, among other Jewish