Raphael Nathan

Raphael Nathan (February 27, 1990), known professionally as DJ Raphi is an Israeli content creator, recording artist, DJ, dancer and beatboxer based in Jerusalem.

He has achieved popularity on YouTube, where his dance tutorials exceed 280 million views.

Early life
Raphael Nathan was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, son of Mickey Nathan, musician, and Naomi, educator and editor. He immigrated to Israel with his family in 1998. They settled in Ra'anana. His mother passed away in a traffic accident in 2022. Nathan had difficulties with learning the language and suffered from bullying at school. He began taking drum lessons at the age of 10. Since he did not have his own drum kit to practice on at the time, he started developing his rhythmic ability by doing beatboxing.

Since the age of 16, he also trained as a breakdancer. He then went on to win the Israeli National Beatboxing Championship in 2007.

In 2010, during his service in the army, he participated in a breakdance video broadcast by the official account of the Israeli Defense Forces, on the occasion of the celebration of Purim.

Career
Nathan co-founded the Kosher Flava crew which went on to win the Israeli Street Festival breakdance competition in 2011 and 2012. The Kosher Flava crew represented Israel at the Battle of the Year in France, at Notorious IBE festival in the Netherlands, and at the DOYOBE International Hip Hop Festival in Salzburg.

In 2013, Nathan co-founded Kippalive, an acappella group. The group appeared on The X Factor Israel reality show. Kippalive went on to achieve online popularity with a series of viral videos that feature versions of pop songs reworked to reference Jewish themes.

In 2015, Nathan began creating content on YouTube under the name DJ Raphi. In March 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, his video "The Cha Cha Slide Dance" had an extraordinary impact, surpassing 40 million plays.

In the year 2021, DJ Raphi was featured in the Jewish Festival Tzama, where he introduced his dance instruction videos to the orthodox Jewish community. Tzama is known as the biggest Jewish Music festival with singers such Ishay Ribo, Avraham Fried and Nathan Goshen.

In 2023, his video celebrating the 75th anniversary of Israel's Independence became the focus of antisemitic comments. His activity as a DJ was momentarily interrupted in during the Israel–Hamas war

He currently resides in Jerusalem, with his wife and two children.