Weekly Kibbitz
Orthodox Pop Star Ishay Ribo Will Be First Israeli
to Headline Madison Square Garden
The Orthodox singer Ishay Ribo, whose music has
attracted a diverse audience of religious and secular
Israeli fans, will be the first Israeli artist to headline a
concert at New York City’s Madison Square Garden.

“I’ve been keeping this inside for a long time,
and more than once I pinched myself to check if I
was dreaming or if this is real,” Ribo wrote on his
Facebook page on May 15. “It seems that both
answers are correct, thank God.”
At a time when Israeli society is deeply divided
by political and religious fault lines, Ribo, 34, has
achieved crossover appeal by blending religiously
themed lyrics with pop melodies and is a leading
voice in Israel’s “faithful pop” genre. One of his
songs, “Sibat Hasibot,” was the most-played song
on the country’s radio stations in 2021, according to
a recent New York Times profile.

Born in Marseille, France, to parents from Algeria
and Morocco, Ribo’s family moved to the Israeli West
Bank settlement of Kfar Adumim when he was 8. He
grew up in a haredi Orthodox family and was first
exposed to secular music when it played over the
speakers during bus rides to school.

Ribo self-released his first album in 2014, and
four of his five albums have reached gold certi-
fication, each selling more than 15,000 copies Ishay Ribo, the Israeli singer-songwriter whose faith pop
in the Israeli music market. He has performed music has united religious and secular audiences, is set to
perform at Madison Square Garden in September.

alongside popular Israeli musicians such as
Shlomo Artzi and Idan Raichel, and has drawn
some backlash from Orthodox Israelis.

sensibilities of the Greenwich Village folk scene and,
The poster for Ribo’s show at the iconic 20,000- later, San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury neighborhood
seat New York City venue, which is scheduled for — and the Miami Boys Choir, an American musical
Sept. 3, highlights his religious identity. The concert group founded in the 1970s that recently had a song
is advertised with a photo of Ribo in silhouette, go viral on TikTok.

performing in front of a crowd full of flashing phone
Nor is Ribo the first Orthodox singer to plan
cameras. Block letters spell out his name in gold, a concert at Madison Square Garden. In 2008,
above Hebrew text reading “Elul 5783,” — the month a Chasidic charity concert was planned for the
and year of the show on the Jewish calendar. One of stadium, to be headlined by singer Lipa Schmeltzer,
the partners in the show’s production is Bnei Akiva, but Schmeltzer ultimately dropped out of the event
the religious Zionist youth group.

after a group of 33 rabbis signed a decree saying the
Ribo is not the first Orthodox Jewish musician concert would cause “ribaldry and lightheadedness”
to have captured the attention of secular listen- and “strip the youth of every shred of fear of heaven
ers. Other such performers include Rabbi Shlomo and [lower] them into a pit of destruction.”
Carlebach — who blended liturgical lyrics with the
— Jackie Hajdenberg | JTA.org
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