Judaism in Popular culture
In this Section of the website, we will look into one of Biggest artist today who is proudly Jewish. During his early acting career he is known as Aubrey Graham and he was on Degrassi, but now he is known as singularly as "Drake". Drake is a famous Canadian Rapper, Singer, and Actor. Drake had one of his number hits from his second album "Take Care" (2011), which is named HYFR "Hell Yeah F*cking Right". The song and music Video are of complete opposites, then 24 year old drake wanted to have this music video showing his "re-bar Mitzvah"
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The video begins with a young Drake dancing in classic VHS footage from his cousin's bar mitzvah. Then we see the current Drake with a group of white friends outside of Temple Israel in Miami. As Drake raps about a former girlfriend, we are led into a beautifully shot segment where Drake chants from the Torah. With an air of dignity, agabbai (ritual guide) points out the place to read and Drake takes his tzitzit (prayer-shawl fringes), respectfully kisses the Torah and chants.
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it’s all about how he never got the Bar Mitzvah he always wanted so much. “He was too poor as a child to have a proper Bar Mitzvah, an experience which he always wanted to properly re-enact once he had the money to do so.”
Then the video turns to the party. Drake is now surrounded by mainly black friends and he steps up to a table with a cake shaped like a Torah that says "Happy Re-Bar Mitzvah." The cake is surrounded by candles and Drake grabs the scrolls of the Torah cake as if he is lifting it in the synagogue ritual of hagbah (lifting the Torah after it is read). He gleefully crashes the scrolls down, destroying the cake. Next comes the dance party, and here his white and black friends freely inter-mix, lifting Drake on a chair for a hora. |
Sources Derived:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rabbi-daniel-brenner/is-drakes-re-bar-mitzvah-a-mockery-of-judaism_b_1423152.html
http://www.jewishpress.com/news/yoris-daily-news-clips/drake-im-a-proud-young-jewish-boy-and-i-want-my-re-bar-mitzvah/2012/04/18/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rabbi-daniel-brenner/is-drakes-re-bar-mitzvah-a-mockery-of-judaism_b_1423152.html
http://www.jewishpress.com/news/yoris-daily-news-clips/drake-im-a-proud-young-jewish-boy-and-i-want-my-re-bar-mitzvah/2012/04/18/