Syndication
Y-Love
Madonna Hearts Shimon
Madonna dropped in on Israel’s president Shimon Peres this weekend amid her latest celebrity-packed Kabbalah conclave in the holy land.
Y-Net reports that she presented Peres with a copy of the “Book of Splendor” (i.e. the Zohar) with the dedication: “To Shimon Peres, the man I admire and love, Madonna.”
The Material Girl also proclaimed herself an “ambassador for Judaism” and beseeched Israel’s president: “Tell me what I should do, Mr Peres, because I am in love with Israel.”
Perhaps Peres could ask her to bottle her enthusiasm and give a little of it to young American Jews. Then again, cults and enthusiasm do tend to go hand in hand.
Jewlicious blogger and Hasidic rapper Y-Love, for one, thinks Paula Abdul would make a better ambassador.
Who Lost Matisyahu?
It looks like the Lubavitchers did. The Hasidic reggae sensation recently told the Miami New Times:
My initial ties were through the Lubovitch sect… I went to a Hasidic school for two years in Brooklyn. At this point, I don´t necessarily identify with it any more. I´m really religious, but the more I´m learning about other types of Jews, I don´t want to exclude myself. I felt boxed in.
The New York Jewish Week took a look at the fallout in the Lubavitch world, and (non-Lubavitch) Hasidic rapper Y-Love chimes in on Jewschool. Y-Love’s post is particularly interesting, as are the reader comments.
Some Lubavitchers, it seems, fear their embrace of Matisyahu may have backfired. They touted him as a role model, and now he’s distancing himself from their movement. So they worry that young Lubavitchers may now follow their reggae idol’s lead.
Y-Love, however, (writing in the comments section of his original post) agues that Matisyahu will still be a good role model even if he chooses another flavor of Orthodox Judaism.
