Marcus Hardie

Marcus Hardie is an American-Israeli attorney author, and aspiring politician. Hardie, an African-American convert to Judaism, was raised by his grandmother in a violent and poor neighborhood on the outskirts of Los Angeles, and joined a gang founded by a cousing. Hardie left his gang after his cousin was killed during a burglary. He began to look for another meaning in life, and gained an interest in Jewish tradition after he read the Biblical stories of the exodus from Egypt. While in college, he began talking to a rabbi, and announced that he planned to convert following a family tragedy. Hardie converted three times, first with Reform, then Conservative, and finally with Orthodox rabbis in 1997. After finishing law school, Hardie worked for California governor Pete Wilson. In 1999, Hardie moved to Israel, where he studied at a Jerusalem yeshiva and interned for Ehud Olmert, then mayor of Jerusalem. In 2000, he enrolled in the Israel Defense Forces, and joined the elite Golani Brigade. Hardie saw combat during the Battle of Jenin before being transferred to the army's legal department, but after six months, he decided to return to a combat position, and was transferred to the 7th Armored Brigade, where he drove and loaded tanks near Israel's northern border and manned checkpoints in the West Bank. Following his army service, Hardie moved to the Orthodox city of Bnei Brak, and found work as a security guard. He eventually moved back to the United States, but continued to study Judaism, and in 2011, Hardie announced that he would return to Israel within the next two years. Hardie has announced that he plans to get involved in politics, having joined the Likud party, and become the first African-American member of the Knesset. He wrote a book of his experiences, Black & Bulletproof.^{[1] [2][3]}

References

1. ^ KTLA News 5. KTLA. KTLA, Los Angeles, California. 2011-02-12. 4:42 minutes in.
2. ^ Gold, Linda (2/5/2011), "Californian details life, turn to Judaism", SGV Tribune, http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:0aEz0X0Z-8YJ:www.sgvtribune.com/taste/ci_17306879+Marcus+Hardie+is+California-born,+raised+in+Long+Beach+and+bred+not+to+be+easily+intimidated.&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a&source=www.google.com 
3. ^ http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/anglo-file/former-thug-who-found-judaism-hopes-to-be-first-african-american-in-the-knesset-1.362915

External Links

• Marcus Hardie Website

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Name	Hardy, Marcus
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