Kanye West to Perform in Israel

Kanye West Image by Getty Images

By JTA August 4, 2015

The American rapper Kanye West will perform in Israel.

Promoters announced the Sept. 30 concert in Tel Aviv on Tuesday, nearly four months after West visited the country with his wife, the reality star Kim Kardashian, and their daughter, North. During the April visit, the power couple baptized North at the Cathedral of St. James in Jerusalem’s Armenian Quarter.

Kardashian recently announced that she has a baby boy due in December. It is not known if she will accompany West to Israel for the concert.

Concert producers Leah Luzon and Benny Menashe told The Jerusalem Post that West’s April visit to Israel strongly influenced his decision to perform there. During the visit it was rumored that West would perform an impromptu concert in Jerusalem, which never occurred.

In 2013, West said in a radio interview, “Black people don’t have the same level of connections as Jewish people” in defending President Barack Obama’s difficulty in passing his policies, raising the ire of Jewish groups, including the Anti-Defamation League.

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.

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 the protests on college campuses.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

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