A celebrity rabbi accused Lorde of being a bigot and a hypocrite in an ad that he took out to criticize the singer for canceling a concert.
A celebrity rabbi accused Lorde of being a bigot and a hypocrite in a full-page Washington Post ad that he took out to criticize the singer for canceling an upcoming concert in Tel Aviv.
The « Green Light » singer, 21, called off the concert, scheduled for June, last month amid pressure from the pro-Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement to boycott Israel.
In the ad, which ran Sunday, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach declared Lorde a hypocrite for not canceling two upcoming shows in Russia, and also took aim at her native New Zealand for voting in favor of a UN resolution urging the United States to withdraw its decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
« 21 is young to become a bigot, » the ad reads. « Sadly, New Zealand’s growing prejudice against the Jewish State seems to be trickling down to its youth. »
Lorde cancels concert amid calls to boycott Israel
Boteach — a New Jersey-based rabbi and regular Breitbart News contributor — defended his decision to run the ad in order to « protest Lorde’s bigotry. »
« Israel’s not perfect, of course, but compared to any country facing a similar threat, it is arguably the most just and most humanitarian country in the world, » he said in a Facebook video on New Year’s Eve.
The rabbi previously placed an ad in the Washington Post in 2015 accusing Susan Rice, then the national security adviser, of « having a blind spot to genocide. » He later apologized .
He’s not the only one to publicly criticize the singer — Lorde’s decision to ax the show was also deemed « disappointing » in an open letter written by the ambassador of Israel to New Zealand Itzhak Gerberg.
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« Boycott and hate… represents hostility and intolerance and I was sorry to see that you have succumbed to the supporters of a small fanatic group of BDS movement that denies the right of the State of Israel to exist and spreads hatred and animosity, » he wrote.
The « Green Light » singer announced she was canceling the show in a statement Dec. 24.
« I’ve received an overwhelming number of messages & letters and have had a lot of discussions with people holding many views, and I think the right decision at this time is to cancel the show, » she wrote. « I pride myself on being an informed young citizen, and I had done a lot of reading and sought a lot of opinions before deciding to book a show in Tel Aviv, but I’m not too proud to admit I didn’t make the right call on this one. »
Lorde had previously responded to an open letter written by BDS supporters who wanted her to cancel the show as part of the « artistic boycott » of Israel, saying that she’d take their point of view into consideration.
