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Famed Italian Tenor Andrea Bocelli Visits Western Wall Following Concert in Tel Aviv
by Shiryn Ghermezian
Italian operatic tenor Andrea Bocelli at the Western Wall in Jerusalem on June 9, 2022. Photo: Screenshot/TheKotel.org.
Legendary Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli made a stop at the Western Wall in Jerusalem on Thursday, a day after performing in front of more than 20,000 people at a concert in Tel Aviv.
The award-winning singer visited Jerusalem’s Old City with his family and friends, according to the Western Wall’s official website. He also met with the rabbi of the Western Wall and holy sites, Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, as well as the director of the Western Wall Heritage Foundation, Mordechai Eliav, “who showed him findings from the Second Temple period that had been uncovered in the Western Wall Tunnels.” Bocelli additionally visited the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and other sites in Jerusalem.
The “Con Te Partirò” singer, who has been blind since the age of 12, uploaded onto his Facebook page two posts that include photos from his visit to Jerusalem as well as a video from his concert in Tel Aviv. In both posts, his staff wrote in the captions, “We stand for PEACE. Any political comment will be deleted.”
Bocelli’s concert at Tel Aviv’s Bloomfield Stadium on Wednesday night alongside the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and the Gary Bertini Israeli Choir was his first performance in Israel in 11 years. Israeli pop singer Shiri Maimon sang with Bocelli “The Prayer” duet he originally recorded with Celine Dion, and he also performed on stage alongside his son Matteo and his youngest daughter Virginia, who sang Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.”
The audience included former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, film director Quentin Tarantino and former US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, according to The Jerusalem Post. Bocelli reportedly told Netanyahu that while he currently resides in Tuscany, Italy, if he could move anywhere in the world, it would be Israel.
