Can Kabbalah Help ‘Broken’ Ariana Grande Heal After Concert Bombing?

Ariana Grande Image by Getty Images

By Dave Goldiner May 23, 2017

Pop star Ariana Grande said she was “broken” after a suspected terror bombing killed 22 people at her concert in Manchester, England — but could she find solace in her nascent kabbalah practice?

Making her first comment since an explosion detonated just outside Manchester Arena at the end of her performance there, Grande said on Twitter: “broken. from the bottom of my heart, i am so so sorry. i don’t have words.”

Grande, 23, was raised in a Catholic home in Boca Raton, Florida. But she turned to the Jewish mystic faith after discovering that her brother was gay — and that the church frowned on his orientation.

Image by Getty Images

After a kabbalah center opened nearby she embraced the practice.

“Since then my life has unfolded in a really beautiful way, and I think that it has a lot to do with the tools I’ve learnt through kabbalah, I really do,” Grande told the Telegraph.

“You have the power to change your reality,” she said. “You have to take a second and breathe and reassess how you want to approach or react to a situation or approach an obstacle, or deal with a negative person in your space.”

Grande is reportedly physically “okay” after the bombing — and it remains to be seen if she will turn to kabbalah to heal.

Dave Goldiner is the Forward’s director of digital media. Dave is a veteran journalist who has spent two decades working at newspapers in the United States and Africa. A native New Yorker, Goldiner wrote for the New York Daily News, where he covered some of the biggest stories of our time, including the attacks of September 11, along with thousands of stories of hope and heartbreak. He also studied and worked in Southern Africa and has written for publications in South Africa and Zimbabwe. He holds masters degrees in journalism and public administration from Columbia University. Dave can be reached at [email protected], or follow him on Twitter @davegoldiner

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO