Yavilah McCoy

Yavilah McCoy (born November 8, 1972), an African-American Jew, is the founder of Ayecha, a nonprofit organization providing educational resources for Jewish diversity and advocacy for Jews of Color in the United States. She is a teacher, writer, editor, and diversity consultant.

Activism and professional career

In 2008, after directing Ayecha for eight years, Yavilah assumed the New England directorship of The Curriculum Initiative, (TCI), a non-profit educational consultancy.

In 2009, Yavilah McCoy co-wrote and performed “The Colors of Water,” an original theatrical piece that tells the story of the four generations of her African-American Jewish family, as part of Mayyim Hayyim’s Living Waters International Mikveh Conference in Newton, Massachusetts.

Early life

McCoy attended school in the Crown Heights, Brooklyn area, and studied at Hebrew University of Jerusalem. McCoy's great-grandmother "took off the shackle of Christianity, so to speak, and took on the religion of Israel,” McCoy said. “All she had to guide her was the Bible, so my great-grandmother developed an appreciation for the ethics and morality found in the stories of the people of Israel, and her songs were the songs of David.” The family moved to Brownsville, Brooklyn and McCoy's grandmother converted to Judaism when she married. Her father converted to Orthodox Judaism in his early 20s. McCoy and five siblings were raised in an Orthodox Jewish home in the East Flatbush and Crown Heights areas of Brooklyn.

Personal life McCoy's husband is also African-American and Jewish. They live in Boston, and have four children.