Regina Spektor pauses concert in Portland due to pro-Palestine protestors: “You’re just yelling at a Jew”
Regina Spektor‘s recent show in Portland, Oregon, was interrupted by a small group of pro-Palestine protestors, who later walked out of the concert.
Over the weekend, Spektor played two shows at the Revolution Hall in Portland. During the second concert on July 26th, chants of ‘Free Palestine‘ broke out from the crowd before the singer-songwriter was set to play ‘Poor Little Rich Boy’ around the halfway mark of the set.
The part of the concert, which was caught on film, led to Spektor responding to the protestors by saying, “You’re just yelling at a Jew. 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'”.
According to Stereogum, several members of the crowd then chanted, “Am Yisrael Chai”, a Hebrew phrase which translates to, “The people of Israel live.”Spektor also said to the audience, “I thought this was different than the internet. This is real life.”
In response to another protester, 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 replied, “I’m watching dying children. That hurts.”
Spektor, who is Jewish and moved from the Soviet Union to New York with her family as a refugee, then said that her concert’s are not the place for this discussion, stating: “I think you should go because this is not the place for that conversation. I’m a real person who came here to play music. If anybody wants to walk out, this is your chance. Does anybody else want to take a walk? You can.” A handful of audience members then elected to leave the theatre.
The singer-songwriter continued: “The only reason I even speak English is because I came here to escape this shit. 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, just stay put, have nice lives, you guys.”
She then resumed the show to play ‘Poor Little Rich Boy’.
Last year, Spektor shared a lengthy Instagram post in which she said that “Netanyahu does NOT speak for all Israelis, or all Jews living across the world”. She also wrote in the message: “I will not be indifferent to anybody’s suffering. Return the hostages. Stop the bombing. Denounce Hamas. All of this can be done at the same time.”
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