Lipa Schmeltzer in Uniform
Image by YouTube
By Ezra Glinter August 17, 2012
Lipa Schmeltzer, the Hasidic superstar we can’t stop talking about, keeps pushing buttons. Yesterday the Orthodox news site Vos Iz Neias picked up reports from the Israeli newspaper Maariv that Schmeltzer is shooting a new music video with Israeli soldiers, dressed as a soldier himself.
Image by YouTube
“Schmeltzer shot footage for the video several days ago in Jerusalem’s Kikar Tziyon, clad in army fatigues, with members of the Nachal Chareidi’s Netzach Yehuda division,” the site reports, referring to the Israel Defense Forces’ ultra-Orthodox unit.
Although Schmeltzer has denied making any kind of political statement, the video’s timing is provocative. On July 31 Israel’s Tal Law, which granted deferments to some 54,000 ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students, expired, leaving them subject to the draft. While some Haredim welcome enlistment and greater participation in mainstream Israeli economic and social life, many community leaders are resistant to having a draft enforced on yeshiva students.
The song Lipa performs, “Mizrach,” comes from his new album, “Leap of Faith,” and stresses Jewish unity. In a video of the shoot posted on YouTube, Schemeltzer sings about the gathering of the Jewish people from east and west, north and south, up and down.
Watch footage of Lipa Schmeltzer shooting his new music video in Jerusalem:
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
