JTA — Jewish singer-songwriter Regina Spektor shot back at a pro-Palestinian protester who interrupted her concert Saturday night, telling the protester, “You’re just yelling at a Jew.”
Later, she engaged in a back and forth with another audience member about the hunger crisis in Gaza, in a dramatic example of how deeply Israel’s war in Gaza is interceding in the public consciousness and shaping the experience of Jews.
The confrontation came 10 songs into Spektor’s performance at Revolution Hall in Portland, Oregon, when a protester began shouting “Free f—ing Palestine” from the crowd.
Spektor, who emigrated from the Soviet Union to the United States as a child, has faced scrutiny for her pro-Israel activism on social media. In November 2023, the singer rebuked fellow artist Bjork for sharing an infographic about the displacement of Palestinians, and in July 2024 she was targeted by the Instagram account Zionists in Music for being a “proud Zionist who frequently posts her support for Israel on Instagram and X/Twitter.”
During an event in New York to commemorate the anniversary of Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel that started the ongoing war, Spektor sang a rendition of “Avinu Malkeinu,” the classic High Holiday prayer.
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On Saturday, the singer stopped her concert and began speaking directly to the pro-Palestinian protester.
“You’re just yelling at a Jew,” she said to the person who interrupted her set. To the rest of the crowd, she said, “I don’t know what he thinks he’s doing. I really appreciate the security. We had a really hard time last night, when I said, ‘Shalom aleichem.’”
Most of the crowd responded by cheering for Spektor while others laughed, and several people yelled, “Am Yisrael Chai,” according to video of the concert posted on social media. Later, while an audience member who had yelled “Free Palestine” left the venue, Spektor said, “I thought this was different than the internet. This is real life.”
When another audience member said, “There’s a genocide happening,” Spektor said, “You can leave the show if you want. This is not an internet comment section. I know that you are mistaking my show for a YouTube video.”
The audience member then replied, “I’m watching children dying. That hurts.”
“I think you should go because this is not the place for that conversation,” Spektor replied.
“The only reason I even speak English is because I came here to escape this shit,” Spektor continued after several audience members left the concert. “I only speak English because I came from a country where people were treating Jews as others, and now I’m being othered here, and it sucks. It’ll be nice if one of my family’s generation didn’t have to go to a new country and learn a new language.”
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
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