Jeffrey Goldberg, reporter for the Atlantic, has the scoop of the century on his blog. According to Goldberg, Bruce Springsteen played Hava Nagila at his Washington, DC concert last week — thanks in large part to White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. Here’s a link to the story.
As Goldberg tells it, a guy named Clifford Mendelson, who had recently met Bruce, went to the concert holding a “Hava Nagila” sign — urging Springsteen to play it. I’ve been to a dozen or more Springsteen shows, and can safely attest to the fact that normally, people show up with “Rosalita” or “Murder Incorporated” or “Jungleland” signs. This might have been a first.
Anyway, Rahm saw the sign, and loved it, and handed it up to NY Times columnist David Brooks, who handed it to a Secret Service agent, who handed it up to Bruce on stage. Springsteen loved it, too, and promptly played it! Here’s the priceless YouTube video.
As Goldberg writes:
There are those in Israel who say that Rahm is insufficiently zealous in his Jewishness. I think Mendelson’s story is an appropriate response to such a charge.
Or, as Springsteen might put it: Rahm believes in the promised land!
(Cross-posted on NJDC’s blog here.)