Image by Facebook

Getting in to see “Hamilton” is hard enough. But on Saturday night, the ticket line turned into a security check at Ben-Gurion Airport, as Benjamin Netanyahu attended the Broadway hit.

Visiting New York for a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly, the Israeli premier detoured to Richard Rodgers Theater to see the famed musical, and brought with him a retinue of handlers.

That irked some of his fellow spectators, who suffered through long wait-times at the door and had to go through body scanners. “The show started late because of his arrival — the heightened security slowed down seating,” kvetched one to the New York Post. “But he still entered and sat down before the lights went down, so everyone was focused on him. There was a lot of applause when he walked in, but definitely a few loud boos.”

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

Some of those boos, it appeared, had to do with the fraught situation in the Middle East. The Daily Mail reported that two women stormed out of the venue when he came in, screaming “Free Palestine.”

Other V.I.P.s have snaked the line at “Hamilton,” a show that celebrates the rags-to-riches ascent of the United States’ first treasury secretary, Alexander Hamilton. With the Secret Service in tow, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton attended performances earlier in the year, when the musical still featured its original cast.

Contact Daniel Solomon at [email protected] or on Twitter @danieljsolomon

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

2X match on all Passover gifts!

$90 → $180 $180 → $360

$360 → $720

Other amount