Singer Liraz Russo, who goes by the stage name “Static,” lamented what he called the phenomenon of “ignoring Yom Kippur” by many Israelis in a post on his Facebook profile.
“The fast was actually so easy,” he said as he discussed the events of Yom Kippur from his own perspective. “I spent Yom Kippur with good people,” he said, “I managed to walk through the crowded streets of the city and even make amends with a friend who I hadn’t spoken to in a year…so what bothered me? That I felt like I was in a cohort of people fasting alone. Everyone had their cellphones and music. Everyone has iPhones and cigarettes and electric bikes. Every now and then a car would drive by and nobody would even say anything.”
“it’s important for me to mention that I am not religious. At all. I keep tradition and not because I am afraid that God will punish me. The opposite. I think that it’s far more important to God that we be good people rather than refrain from eating pork. But that’s just my opinion,” Russo wrote.
Russo describes his shock to see how many around him did not keep Yom Kippur.
“I was in shock by how many people didn’t even respect this day,” he said, adding that “when I was young, no one would dare publicly desecrate Yom Kippur. Whoever didn’t keep the holiday, and it was his right to do so, did it at home. Yesterday it was the opposite. Only we were keeping the holiday and everyone else was not. I was shocked. People who approached me to take a picture and I found myself apologizing because I can’t take a photo with them on the holiday.”
“Me! Sorry! That I was keeping Yom Kippur! What is worse is that not one of them asked what the connection was between the fact that I was fasting and the fact that I would not take a picture with them. I was really hurt,” Russo wrote.
“Where is Jewish identity going?” he said later, “and, again, I am not religious and I have no issues with atheists, the opposite, my brother is an atheist and my best friends is also but I am disappointed by our generation changing in this way…ok…maybe I’m just getting old.”
He signed off by saying “Anyone who took offense to this post, I will apologize to him next Yom Kippur.”