On tour in South America, Paul McCartney attends Yom Kippur services in Santiago, Chile
McCartney has previously attended Yom Kippur services with his Jewish wife Nancy Shevell
Sir Paul McCartney and his wife Nancy Shevell leave a Yom Kippur service at Circulo Israelita de Santiago, Oct. 12, 2024. (Courtesy Circulo Israelita de Santiago)
(JTA) — You could say he said sorry with a little help from his friends.
Paul McCartney, the former Beatle, attended Yom Kippur services on Saturday with his Jewish wife in Santiago, Chile. He had performed a solo concert there on Friday night, the beginning of the Jewish holiday of atonement.
Ariela Agosin, president of Chile Jewish Community, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that McCartney had arranged his attendance at the Círculo Israelita Synagogue through a friend but that very few in the congregation had been aware in advance that he would be present.
“It was very moving to have the presence of Sir Paul and his wife Nancy Shevell among us,” Agosin said. “Of course, as a community we feel honored by their company and respect the moment of recognition they wanted to give by attending Yizkor, the memorial service of the deceased.”
Shevell’s father, Myron, died in 2022; her mother Arlene, a cousin of Barbara Walters, died in 1991.
Photos taken in Santiago show McCartney and Shevell entering and leaving the modernist synagogue building, designed by Chilean Jewish architect Jaime Bendersky Smuclir, as well as wearing a white kippah while inside. McCartney left shortly after the service for Brazil, where he is due to play several concerts this week.
Claudio Epelman, executive director of the Latin American Jewish Congress, the regional branch of the World Jewish Congress, told JTA that McCartney’s participation had provided valuable visibility for Jewish life in Chile, home to an estimated 18,000 Jews.
“Paul’s presence in a Jewish religious ceremony contributes to the consolidation of the interreligious diversity that Chile has,” Epelman said. “That is a very valuable asset.”
It is not the first time that McCartney has surprised Jewish worshippers by showing up at services with Shevell, a New York Jew whom he married in 2011. The day before their civil wedding, they attended Yom Kippur services at St John’s Wood’s Liberal Jewish Synagogue in London, the Jewish Chronicle reported at the time. He has also reportedly attended Yom Kippur prayers at New York City’s Temple Emanu-El in the past.
McCartney’s first wife, Linda Eastman, was also Jewish; the couple were married from 1969 until Eastman’s death in 1998. In 2008, shortly after starting to date Shevell, a former member of New York’s Metropolitan Transit Authority board, McCartney performed in Israel, saying while there that he supported a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. His current tour, called “Get Back,” has no planned stops in Israel, which banned The Beatles from performing in 1965 out of concern about the moral influence of the pioneering band.
Among the thousands of fans at McCartney’s Friday night concert was Chilean President Gabriel Boric, a harsh critic of Israel and of Chilean Jews who support it.
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