Is Britney Spears hot for Hasidic beards?
The popstar posted a cryptic Instagram admiring the whiskers of Chabadniks playing chess
Britney likes the beard. Photo by Scott Dudelson/Getty Images
By PJ Grisar September 29, 2025
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To paraphrase megastar Britney Spears, and the Chabad youth now out in droves on the streets, “A guy like you should wear tefillin.”
In a weekend Instagram post, Spears shared a photo of a group of Haredi men gathered around a chessboard. Her caption: “I like the beard !!!”
This out-of-context message, beamed to Spears’ 41.9 million followers, is somewhat baffling, prompting comedian Eitan Levine to wonder, “Does Britney Spears have a Chabad fetish.”
While Spears has yet to state this in such terms, Levine was intrigued by the pop star’s’ use of a photo credit for the image, which directed to COLlive official, a Chabad account that posts a lot of engagement announcements (often with couples at the Ohel, the site of the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s grave), Jewish music and other simchas. Its bio includes an invitation for submissions from the community.
What are we to make of the fact that Spears — who doesn’t appear to follow the account — stumbled upon this? Is she considering a life change? Or merely admiring the whiskers of some cerebral yeshiva bochers.
We can’t say for sure, but it may have more to do with chess. Spears’ Instagram is a weird mood board of her emoji-covered nudes, floral art projects, anime, black-and-white photos of children and AI-generated images of jewel-encrusted jungle cats, bunny rabbits in dresses and luminous clouds.
But it also features several images of kids playing chess or stock images of chess pieces. While most simply have a credit line, one from two weeks ago, showing a vintage image of a chess tournament, with a young person squaring off against old and middle-aged men, had the following text appended:
“Don’t know how to play this game but I’m willing to learn but people with the word ‘red’ in their name can rarely be taught !!! I see from a distance it’s sacred. Some respect it, some destroy it. Most enjoy the intense range of intelligence in it … Some like it done in silence … Some like how loud the silence gets … Some are just bored. Some like me have never tried and honestly don’t care to !!! But why do my eyes feel like I go to another world when I see the game ??? Is it because people care ???”
I don’t really know what all that means, but I think it’s safe to say that she is interested in the game that takes 10 minutes to learn and a lifetime to master. It’s possible she wants a bearded Orthodox Jew to teach her.
Could this be the start of the Yentl remake we’ve all been waiting for?
