Country Yossi facts for kids

Yossi Toiv (born January 9, 1949) is an American Orthodox Jewish artist. He is widely known as Country Yossi. He is a talented composer, singer, radio show host, author, and magazine publisher.

Yossi Toiv has created a lot of Jewish music. He was part of the group Or Chodosh ("New Light") in the early 1970s. Later, he released seven albums with his group, Country Yossi and the Shteeble Hoppers. He also made a popular series of six albums for kids called Kivi and Tuki. You might even know the famous Kars4Kids jingle; Yossi Toiv helped create it!

Early Life and Music

Yossi Toiv grew up in East New York, Brooklyn. His dad, Chaim Toiv, was a famous hazzan, which is a Jewish cantor or prayer leader. As a kid in the 1950s, Yossi loved listening to country music. He also enjoyed writing his own funny Jewish versions of popular songs. One example was "Big Bad Moish," which was a takeoff on the song "Big Bad John."

He went to a Lubavitcher yeshiva in Brooklyn. He was also one of the first students at Yeshiva Sh'or Yoshuv. There, he met Rabbi Shmuel Brazil. They formed a band together called Ohr Chodosh, meaning "New Light." While Rabbi Brazil mainly helped with recording, Yossi and other band members, Yussie Lieber and Nachum Deutsch, performed concerts.

The Country Yossi Show

After a few years, Yossi Toiv started working in the diamond business. But during a summer trip, he met a bandleader named Heshy Walfish. Yossi told him about his old country music parodies. Walfish encouraged him to start performing again with a new stage name: Country Yossi! They worked together on new songs.

In 1986, Country Yossi became even more popular. He started his own Orthodox Jewish radio program in New York City. It was called the Country Yossi Show. To respect Jewish customs, he set aside different hours for different groups. There was one hour for children, one for men, and one for women. Later, he also started a weekly evening show in the Catskills. The Country Yossi Show played music, had chats, and asked fun questions about halakha (Jewish law) with prizes. The show was on air from 1986 until 2015.

Country Yossi Magazine

In 1988, Yossi Toiv began publishing a monthly magazine. It was called Country Yossi Magazine and was written in English. The magazine was given out in New York City. It covered many different topics. These included Torah lessons, humor, stories about people, and opinions. It also had sections for "Real Life" stories and "Letters to the Editor." The magazine often talked about important or sometimes debated issues.

Through his magazine and radio show, Yossi Toiv helped many other Jewish singers and entertainers. He helped artists like Dovid Gabay, Avi Newmark, and Yossi Green. His own career has also inspired many others in Jewish music.

Music and Songs

Country Yossi has worked with Heshy Walfish on 15 funny music albums. These albums are about Orthodox Jewish themes and are great for kids. Many of the songs are parodies, which means they are new versions of popular songs. Yossi Toiv changes the words to share Jewish messages. For these albums, he created the fun characters Kivi and Tuki, and the Shteeble-Hoppers.

In 2008, Yossi Toiv wrote lyrics for an NCSY CD called The Jewish Version. This CD also made parodies of popular pop, rock, and punk songs. For example, he changed "Hey There Delilah" into "Hey There Gedaliah." He also wrote the words for "Daddy Come Home" by the Yeshiva Boys Choir. The music video for this song has been watched over 11 million times on YouTube!

Personal Life

Yossi Toiv married Hadassah Buchinger in October 1973 in Brooklyn. Hadassah was born in 1954 in Tel Aviv. They have four daughters together.

Yossi Toiv also earned a master's degree in psychology from Long Island University.