We are a collective of artists, musicians, academics, students and concerned citizens who are opposed to racism, fascism and genocide. We write to you regarding the troubling news that singer/songwriter Matisyahu will be performing at your venue. We are concerned that your venue is hosting a performer who has become, in recent years, a representative of the further right-wing advocates of racism, violence, and exclusion against Palestinians. We call on you to follow along with other venues around the country–Chicago’s House of Blues, Tucson’s Rialto Theatre and Santa Fe’s Meow Wolf –in canceling his show. If you had discovered that a band was supporting the Proud Boys, or a white supremacist group like the KKK, you would, undoubtedly, reconsider hosting them. We expect no less from your venue regarding Matisyahu, so allow us to make the case.

Matisyahu was once a symbol of peaceableness and cultural coexistence. No longer. He is now publicly associating himself with violent hate groups, and the far racist right. Let us explain:

First, siding with Israel’s most destructive forces during a time of war and mass civilian death. Matisyahu has been supporting the Israeli Defense Forces when they were actively involved in a war that has taken thousands of civilian Palestinian lives and devastating civilian infrastructure in Gaza–rendering life unlivable in the rubble of hospitals, refugee camps, More than a million Gazan civilians are experiencing food insecurity, as the State of Israel truncates, when not blocking, desperate food and humanitarian supplies from reaching Gazan civilians. More than perfunctory “support” Matisyahu has, for example, performed for the Golani Brigade, an elite combat unit recently exposed as having committed atrocities, murdering more than a dozen Palestinian paramedics, buying them in a mass grave and then lying to the media to cover up their actions.  

Second, supporting openly racist organizations. More than a bad look, Matisyahu has become the public face of violent extremism. Matisyahu has become an open supporter of the ideology known as Kahaneism—followers of the late Jewish-American agitator Meir Kahane, founder of the US-based “Jewish Defense League” (JDL), whose Israeli party, Kach was, in 1988, disqualified from the Israeli Parliament (Knesset) on grounds of being blatantly racist. The JDL has been classified as a "right-wing terrorist group" by the FBI since 2001, and is also designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Matisyahu proudly promotes the legacy of the JDL.

Third, supporting violent extremists. Matisyahu has, in recent months, become a prominent supporter of BETAR, a movement on the far-right of Zionist political spectrum. Matisyahu himself is featured prominently on the homepage of BETAR’s website, in a video playing the guitar and wearing a shirt with BETAR’s logo, and a headband with the logo of the Jewish Defense League. Matisyahu has also publicly posted about his support of BETAR and the other organizations mentioned all throughout his various social media channels. BETAR began as the youth wing of a right-wing Zionist group with fascist influence and a long-standing hostility to Arabs, critics of Israel, and to Jews and Israelis seeking peace and coexistence. In recent months BETAR has “rebooted” and has been actively threatening Jews, and non-Jewish officials, critical of Israel’s war in Gaza. In the spirit of Meir Kahane’s legacy they encourage violent confrontation when working through the censoring mechanisms of the state to deport critics are not available.  

BETAR is heir to the legacy of far-right militias and movements which were inspired by European fascism and hypernationalism. One of BETAR’s most famous products was the late Prime Minister Menachim Begin, who, as a leader of the far-right Irgun, terrorized both the British and the local Arab populations. In 1948, as Begin was forming a right-wing political party in the new State of Israel, Albert Einstein, Hannah Arendt, and other Jewish luminaries signed an open-letter decrying Begin’s fascist influences and the crimes of the Deir Yassin massacre. Like Einstein then we protest now the welcoming of a supporter of this latest iteration of far-right Zionism.  

In the United States, Matisyahu benefits from the general public’s lack of knowledge regarding the specifics of these organizations and ideologies and is able to fraudulently position himself as an anti-war reggae artist. Yet Matisyahu’s boostering these violent right wing extremists and his support for the ongoing ethnic cleansing and genocide of the Palestinian people. We would imagine that a Russian artist who openly supported the invasion of Ukraine and the destruction of Ukrainian civilians would not be welcome at your venue; we see no moral difference with Matisyahu’s entanglements.

This letter was jointly authored by Jewish and Palestinian activists–Zionist, non-Zionist, and anti-Zionist–believing that by sharing information, fostering constructive dialogue, and standing in solidarity with one another against racist and fascist ideologies, that we can write a new chapter of hope in a land we both call home.

We call on your venue to deplatform the face of violent extremism, anticipating, tragically, that many young people will attend this concert, unaware of Matisyahu’s turn to the radical right. We also want to put your venue on notice that there will be protests against Matisyahu’s appearance: this is not to single out a Jewish artist, not at all; not even an artist who is sympathetic to Israel’s military actions. Liberal-left Zionists and Palestinian solidarity activists are united in rejecting Matisyahu as a wholesome artist, as we would if any artist openly supported violent extremism.

Below you will find sources for the claims mentioned above.

Matisyahu playing for Golani Brigade:
https://www.instagram.com/israelcc/reel/C2N1qR_vAT5/?hl=en

BETAR:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betar
https://betarus.org/
Andrew Lapin, “Betar US, a rebooted Zionist group, is identifying pro-Palestinian protesters for Trump to deport,” JTA, 2-211-2025
https://www.jta.org/2025/02/11/united-states/a-century-old-zionist-group-is-being-rebooted-with-a-new-motto-jews-fight-back 

Kahanism
“Fact Sheet: Meir Kahane & The Extremist Kahanist Movement” Institute for Middle East Understanding, 4-17-2024
https://imeu.org/article/fact-sheet-meir-kahane-the-extremist-kahanist-movement

Jewish Defense League
https://www.splcenter.org/resources/extremist-files/jewish-defense-league/

Deir Yassin Massacre
https://www.britannica.com/place/Deir-Yassin 

Albert Einstein and Other Jewish luminaries on BETAR’s Fascist Associations https://archive.org/details/AlbertEinsteinLetterToTheNewYorkTimes.December41948

Noam Rotem, “The Israeli Right’s historic ties to European fascism,” +972 Magazine 4-14-2016 https://www.972mag.com/an-alliance-of-hate-the-israeli-rights-ties-to-european-facism/ 

ICJ/ICC Rulings Genocide Rulings:
https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/01/26/gaza-world-court-orders-israel-prevent-genocide​

https://www.icj-cij.org/node/203454​

https://www.icj-cij.org/sites/default/files/case-related/192/192-20240126-ord-01-00-en.pdf​

https://www.icc-cpi.int/news/situation-state-palestine-icc-pre-trial-chamber-i-rejects-state-israels-challenges

Amnesty International:
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/12/amnesty-international-concludes-israel-is-committing-genocide-against-palestinians-in-gaza/

Human Rights Watch:
https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/12/19/israels-crime-extermination-acts-genocide-gaza

United Nations Human Rights Council:
https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/11/un-special-committee-finds-israels-warfare-methods-gaza-consistent-genocide