Hurricane

 "Hurricane" is probably a better title, so that no one worries that the weather here has gone crazy (although it did pour TWICE on Monday, and rain after Purim is unusual and rain after Pesach is downright rare. Monday was Yom HaShoah/Holocaust Memorial Day and my friend Michal, whose mother was born in a DP camp to her Holocaust-surviving grandparents, very movingly described standing in the pouring rain for the two minute national siren that causes the nation to stop and stand in honor, and feeling that Gd was crying with her).

The "Hurricane" I'm referencing is Israel's entrance to the international singing competition, Eurovision (I wrote once before about Eurovision and, in homage to all of us clueless Americans, called my post "Euro-Whata?"). This year, there has been a huge amount of controversy associated with Eurovision. Aside from calls and petitions for Israel to be refused entry to the competition, the song itself, originally called "October Rain" was disqualified for being "too political" and required several weeks of rewrites before being accepted with its current, much more oblique, lyrics ("it's really about making it through any challenging time".  Yeah, right....).

Singer Eden Golan, all of 20, did not participate in the Eurovision opening ceremony on Monday, instead opting to go to a Yom HaShoah memorial event with the Swedish Jewish community. Golan was "welcomed" back with boos and screams of "Free Palestine" during the dress rehearsal the next day, to the extent that she had to wait to start her song (how this young woman has done such an excellent job keeping her composure is beyond my comprehension [I got teary just watching the video of the dress rehearsal]). Golan was born in Israel and moved to Russia when she was six for her father's work. They didn't move back until Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 (her mother is Ukranian). If she'd like my input, I think North Korea might not be a bad place to move next, if she's trying to have more hate in her life.....

During the actual competition, Golan will be on stage with backup dancers (all of whom are wearing clothing that looks like rags/bandages. The yellow outfit she was originally supposed to wear was rejected as "too political" given its references to freeing the hostages. Sigh). For anyone interested in hearing the song, I'd like to point you to this beautiful AI video (kol isha, no real humans are shown): Hurricane Video

Israel is participating in the semi-finals Thursday (ie hopefully the day you are receiving this). Voting for one's home country is not allowed, so if you'd like to vote/send Israel some love, please visit https://www.esc.vote/.