Haredi Singer Defended Over Gender Separation Request

Ran Shimeoni, a journalist at the left-leaning Israeli daily Haaretz, has publicly defended Hasidic singer Moti Steinmetz following online criticism of the performer. Steinmetz came under fire after reports emerged that he had agreed to perform at the wedding of Israeli pop star Omer Adam on the condition that the ceremony portion include gender-separated seating, a requirement stemming from his Orthodox religious observance.

The request sparked hundreds of critical comments on social media, with users accusing Steinmetz of imposing his religious beliefs on others and excluding women from public spaces. Writing on social media, Shimeoni recalled attending a wedding where Steinmetz performed: "I once attended a wedding ceremony where Moti Steinmetz sang. It was the most beautiful live singing I've ever heard in my life." He noted that other prominent performers, Shlomi Shabat, Amir Benayoun, and Yonatan Razel, had also appeared, "but when he sang 'Kah Ekhsof,' the entire hall fell silent. I remember people putting down their phones and watching him, swaying side to side. The bride's father stood at the ceremony and wept. He truly wept."

Shimeoni continued his account: "When he finished singing, Steinmetz came down from the stage and rushed outside. People stopped him along the way, patted him on the shoulder, told him they'd never heard anything like it. But he was convinced everything had gone wrong. I approached him and his hands were shaking. 'I was frozen, I was frozen,' he told me outside. 'The audience seemed happy, but I don't know, maybe they're just saying that, maybe they wanted to make me feel good.'"

The journalist added a character assessment: "Behind this great singer is a young man still full of questions and doubts, trying to remain faithful to the world he grew up in even as he reaches completely different places. On the internet, everything immediately becomes another battle over the character of the state. I'm here to remind people that there is reality and there are private lives and there are people, and among them there are arrangements and understandings and compromises, thanks to which this society still stands."