Outspoken rabbi Shmuley Boteach published an advert in the Washington Post calling Lorde a bigot after the singer cancelled a concert in Israel.
ADVERTISEMENTThe advert, paid for by Boteach’s This World: The Values Network, accuses the 21-year-old singer of joining “a global antisemitic boycott of Israel”.
The advert's headline reads “Lorde and New Zealand ignore Syria to attack Israel,” and shows men holding babies, apparently feeling a war zone.
“While Lorde claims to be concerned with human rights, she hypocritically chose to proceed with her two concerts in Putin’s Russia, despite his support for [Syrian president] Assad’s genocidal regime which has already claimed the lives of over 500,000 innocents,” it continues.
Lorde cancelled a June 2018 concert in Tel Aviv after calls from campaign group Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions, which is opposed to the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
An open letter from two fellow New Zealanders explaining that "playing in Tel Aviv will be seen as giving support to the policies of the Israeli government," amplified pressure to drop the date.
“Been speaking w many people about this and considering all options ... think the right decision at this time is to cancel the show,” Lorde wrote at the time. “I’m not too proud to admit I didn’t make the right call on this one.”
The advert also attacked Lorde's native New Zealand, which was one of 128 countries that last month called for the US to retract its recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.
Boteach is an outspoken rabbi and political advocate in the US.