Kabbalah enthusiast Madonna is coming to Israel for the first time since taking the stage as an interval performer during the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest in Tel Aviv.
The international pop star, who unofficially adopted the Hebrew name Esther in 2004, will celebrate the Jewish holiday of Shavuot in the Holy Land, Channel 12 entertainment show “Good Evening with Guy Pines” confirmed.
The 64-year-old Italian-American was raised Catholic and did not convert to Judaism but is a devotee of the Kabbalah Jewish mysticism movement. She is reportedly heading to the Kabbalah center of Tzfat in the Upper Galilee to celebrate the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai, known as Matan Torah.
She will visit the grave of Rabbi Yitzhak Luria (1534-72), who promoted the Kabbalah, as well as that of Rabbi Philip Berg (1927-2013), who was dean of the worldwide Kabbalah Centre organization based in Los Angeles.
“I didn’t convert, I studied Kabbalah for many years, and I do many things that might make people think I’m Jewish, but these rituals are connected to what I call the ‘tree of circumstances of life’ and are much more related to the fact that I see myself as a daughter of Israel, but not Jewish,” Madonna said in a 2015 interview.
In addition to 2019, Madonna performed in Israel in 2009 and 2012, but she is not expected to do so during this trip. Israel is not one of the countries on her Celebration world tour that begins in July.