Last week, it was time for Abraham Marley, the grandson of reggae icon Bob Marley, to “get up, stand up” – the title of one of his granddad’s biggest hit songs – for his bar mitzvah.
Ziggy Marley, Abraham’s proud father, posted a photo of himself and the bar mitzvah boy on his Instagram account, writing, “I share this photo of Abraham and I from his celebration of becoming a man according to the ancient tradition he has reached that age of responsibility and change. JAH.”
Although at this time of the year, the Torah portion Abraham read would not have been from Exodus, the title of another one of his grandfather’s most famous songs, judging from serious looks on the handsome father and son, dressed in beautiful blue suits, it was still an occasion that satisfied their souls.
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Ziggy was raised in the Rastafarian faith of his father, and Rastafarianism is considered to be an Abrahamic religion, basing its belief system on the Torah. Abraham’s mother, Orly Agai Marley, is Israeli, of Iranian Jewish descent.
Support for Israel
Following Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, Ziggy signed a letter supporting Israel released by the Creative Community for Peace, and on October 20, posted, “Free Gaza from Hamas.”
It's likely that if Bob, who died in 1981 from cancer at the age of 36, were alive today, he would have been proud to see his grandson taking his place as a member of the tribe. It was Bob who wrote, in “Redemption Song”: “How long shall they kill our prophets/While we stand aside and look? Ooh!/Some say it's just a part of it:/We've got to fulfill de book.”