Yaakov Shwekey - Concert Controversy

Concert Controversy

In August 2007, Yaakov Shwekey and Avraham Fried were slated to headline a major concert in Jerusalem at Teddy Stadium. The event was produced by Moshe Ben-Zimra and billed as a commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem. Leading chareidi Rabbis, including Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, the Gerrer and Belzer Rabbis, Rabbi Aharon Leib Shteinman, Rabbi Shmuel Wosner, and Rabbi Chaim Pinchas Sheinberg signed a ban which appeared in the chareidi press forbidding participation or attendance of the event or similar events.

Yaakov Shwekey issued a response that he had already posed the question to his rabbi, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, when an earlier concert featuring him, along with Mordechai Ben David, was also banned. Rabbi Ovadia Yosef responded that there is absolutely no prohibition as long as it is a completely separate seating event. Neither Shwekey nor Fried pulled out of the concert.

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