Raphael Nathan
Raphael Nathan, known professionally as DJ Raphi is an Israeli content creator, recording artist, DJ, dancer and beatboxer.
He has achieved popularity on YouTube,where his dance tutorials exceed 592 million views.
Early life
Raphael Nathan was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, son of musician Mickey Nathan, and Naomi, editorand teacher at King David SchoolsHe immigrated to Israel with his family in 1998. They settled in Ra'anana. His mother died 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 he participated in a breakdance video 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 September 2024, he produced and released a new dance video to the song “Nekudot” alongside musician Shmuel Perednik, who wrote the song, presenting it as "a moment of light in the context of the war".
Despite facing social media backlash,particularly after October 7 attacks, Nathan said he has many followers in Muslim countries and that he has 'focused less on fighting and more on dancing together.In another interview, he stated that Muslim countries account for 20% of his audience.
In April 2025, he reached 1 million subscribers on YouTube.
He currently resides in Jerusalem, with his wife and two children.