Video: Guns N’ Roses Rock ‘Hatikvah’
Axl Rose Image by getty images
Axl Rose and his newest iteration of Guns n’ Roses brought down the house in Tel Aviv when lead guitarist Ronald Jay Blumenthal, better known by his alias Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal, did an abbreviated solo version of “Hatikvah.”
Blumenthal, who adapted his stage title from a colorfully named bacterial infection, had performed the national Israeli anthem before in 2011 alongside Salem, a pioneering Israeli Death Metal band.
A Jewish American, he has roots in Lithuania and Poland.
Perhaps, as the Forward has previously suggested, “Hatikvah” could be on its way to becoming a more inclusive national anthem — one that includes everyone. Even metalheads.
Watch Blumenthal’s Version of the Anthem:
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
