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Hugo's Voyage - "A Friend Like You" - Official Music Video

Hugo's Voyage - "Don't Wanna Live Without Your Love" - Official Music Video

Voyage - "Who's Crying Now" (Live at Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom)

Voyage - "Only The Young" (Live at Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom)

Voyage - "Stone in Love" (Live at Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom)

Voyage - Promo Video

Voyage - Journey Tribute Band - "Lights"

Voyage - Journey Tribute Band - "Mother, Father"

Voyage - Journey Tribute Band - "Send Her My Love"

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VOYAGE - The Ultimate Journey Tribute Band

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VOYAGE has been hailed by fans and critics alike as the #1 JOURNEY tribute band in the world, performing JOURNEY's music with chilling accuracy! Since 2005, VOYAGE has dominated America with more sold out shows than any other tribute.  Singer Hugo, is an absolute dead ringer for Steve Perry, both visually and vocally. He continues to stun fans with his miraculous resemblance, exact mannerisms and identical voice to Steve. Fans agree that VOYAGE delivers the closest experience to the original Steve Perry fronted lineup.  The band also features world class musicians; Robby Hoffman, Greg Smith, Lance Millard and Dana Spellman, who along with Hugo have brought the show to critical acclaim through the many sold out shows as well as private and corporate events throughout America.  VOYAGE takes you back to the '80's era when the timeless music of JOURNEY ruled the airwaves. The talent of these five guys together has brought the meaning of TRIBUTE to a whole new level. See it to believe it!

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Friday, March 22, 2024 8:00 PM

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Eurovision marks 50 years since Abba’s win with ‘Abba-tar’ appearance

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The Eurovision Song Contest has marked 50 years since Abba’s signature win with an appearance from the Swedish group’s Voyage avatars.

The live concert, located at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park , London , features younger “Abba-tars” of the quartet, performing songs from their back catalogue with a live 10-piece band.

The evening’s hosts, Petra Mede and actress Malin Akerman , announced Eurovision would be heading to London before digital versions of the famous foursome appeared on screen.

Mede said: “They (Abba) didn’t just win the competition – they conquered the entire planet, leaving a legacy of hit songs that would live on forever.

“And 50 years later, they are as relevant and popular as ever.”

The Abba-tars reflected on their win, with Bjorn Ulvaeus saying: “I remember the UK jury and what they thought about us – they gave us zero points.”

The Swedish pop supergroup won the competition with their smash hit Waterloo on April 6 1974 at Brighton Dome’s Concert Hall.

This year’s annual music contest took place in Sweden after Loreen won last year’s contest in Liverpool with her song Tattoo.

Following the avatar’s appearance, Charlotte Perrelli, Carola and Conchita Wurst, who are all past contestants from Eurovision, took to the stage to sing Waterloo.

Some fans who had hoped Abba would take to the stage in Malmo for a live performance on Saturday night expressed their disappointment.

“I really thought I was going to see Abba,” wrote one on X, formerly Twitter.

Another wrote: “The Abba no show at #Eurovision is the biggest pop culture let down since bad Star Wars films.”

Switzerland’s Nemo tops Eurovision jury vote

Eurovision acts call for ‘love and peace’ as they finish performing

Graham Norton says ‘it’s been quite an eventful Eurovision’ as final takes place

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A Musical Journey Into Great Rock History

  voyage  , voyage is a group of experienced and talented musicians dedicated to delivering the best “classic arena rock” from the 70’s and 80’s  voyage has been exceeding audience expectations for more than a decade by performing crowd-pleasing classic hits from one of the greatest eras in rock & roll history, since 2000, voyage has been entertaining crowds throughout the chicagoland area with their high-energy, non-stop barrage of classic rock that’s guaranteed to start a party and bring back memories in addition to performing at countless chicagoland summer festivals, “taste of chicago” and navy pier, over the years voyage has been selected to warm up for many classic rock bands such as night ranger, blue oyster cult, ufo, lou gramm of foreigner, foghat, bachman turner, queensryche, jim peterik and the “ides of march”, the guess who, jimi sohn’s of the “shadows of the night” and others., as tv/radio personality jonathon brandmeier once said, “ i just want to say for the record, there’s no doubt about it…voyage rocks ”.

Jerry Seinfeld announced for Freeman Arts. Other stars revealed for Delaware this summer

If you thought heavy-hitters like George Thorogood , Cole Swindell or Patti LaBelle coming to Selbyville for the Freeman Arts Pavilion this summer was impressive enough — you haven't seen anything yet.  

Freeman Arts just revealed comedy legend Jerry Seinfeld — star of the Netflix Pop-Tart comedy "Unfrosted" that drops Friday, May 3 (with Jim Gaffigan and Melissa McCarthy) — plus country star Tyler Hubbard , and several other notable performers as part of the Selbyville venue's new wave of shows for its summer concert series.  

Tickets for these newly announced shows go on sale to the public Thursday, May 2, and Friday, May 3, at freemanarts.org . On-sale times will vary throughout the day and interested attendees should check individual event pages for exact times.  

Jerry Seinfeld, more stars announced for Freeman Arts Pavilion

• The Super '70s Concert Experience Featuring Super Trans Am on Friday, June 28 
• The Disco Biscuits on Thursday, July 11 
• The Bacon Brothers on Sunday, July 21  
• Jerry Seinfeld on Thursday, July 25  
• Tyler Hubbard on Sunday, July 28 
• Global Groove, a Journey Through Hip Hop's Evolution on Thursday, Aug. 1  
• Voyage — Celebrating the Music of Journey on Friday, Aug. 2 
• SOJA on Sunday, Aug. 4  
• Air Supply on Tuesday, Aug. 6 
• Dark Star Orchestra on Saturday, Aug. 17  
• Old Crow Medicine Show on Sunday, Aug. 18  
• The Broken Hearts: A Tribute To Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers on Friday, Aug. 23 

Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle.

Hot summer concerts: 12 hot Delaware concerts to see this summer, from rock and rap legends to country & more

George Thorogood, Patti LaBelle, more: First wave of Freeman Arts performers

• ADA Twist, Scientist & Friends  on Friday, May 31 
• Kashmir featuring Jean Violet  — The Spirit of Led Zeppelin Live on Saturday, June 1
• Patti LaBelle and Gladys Knight  on Thursday, June 6 
• Eaglemania  — The World's Greatest Eagles Tribute Band on Saturday, June 8 
• Almost Queen: A Tribute to Queen  on Friday, June 21 
• George Thorogood & The Destroyers  on Saturday, June 22  
• Michael Franti & Spearhead  with special guests Trevor Hall & Bombargo on Wednesday, June 26 
• 287th Army Band : "The Governor's Own" on Friday, July 5 
• UB40: Red Red Wine Tour  on Sunday, July 7  
• Justin Hayward and Christopher Cross  on Wednesday, July 10 
• Rain: A Tribute to the Beatles  on Friday, July 12  
• Fitz and the Tantrums: Good Nights Tour  on Sunday, July 14 
• Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue  on Monday, July 15  
• Joe Bonamassa  on Wednesday, July 17 
• Rumours: The Ultimate Fleetwood Mac Tribute Show  on Wednesday, July 24  
• The Greatest Love of All — A Tribute To Whitney Houston Starring Belinda Davids  on Saturday, Aug. 3  
• Cole Swindell  on Thursday, Aug. 15
• Melissa Etheridge and Indigo Girls  on Tuesday, Aug. 27. 

Q&A: George Thorogood previews summer Delaware return; Camden show with John Fogerty

Alabama, REO Speedwagon, Gin Blossoms, more: Second wave of Freeman Arts Pavilion performers

• Locals Under the Lights on June 7;  
• The 19th Street Band on June 14;  
• Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra on June 15;  
• Elevate Vocal Arts presents Afro Beats on June 19  
• Back to the Eighties Show with Jesse’s Girl on June 29  
• Face 2 Face: Tribute to Elton John & Billy Joel on July 3  
• Lee Brice on July 6  
• ¡Movimiento! A night of Latin Rhythms with 123 Andrés on July 13  
• Leslie Odom, Jr. on July 19 
• Yachtley Crew on July 20 
• Tartan Terrors on July 26 
• REO Speedwagon on July 29 
• Grace Potter on Aug. 7 
• Alabama on Aug. 8 
• The Concert: A Tribute to ABBA on Aug. 9 
• Preservation Hall Jazz Band on Aug. 10 
• Arts & Jazz Festival on Aug. 14
• Go Go Gadjet on Aug. 21 
• Gin Blossoms and Toad The Wet Sprocket with special guest Vertical Horizon on Aug. 22 
• First State Ballet on Aug. 29 
• Little Feat on Aug. 30 
• Changes In Latitudes: America's Premiere Jimmy Buffett Tribute Show on Aug. 31 
• Bruce in the USA: The World's #1 Tribute to Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band on Sept. 6. 

Huge Broadway shows for Delaware: Broadway in Wilmington announces 2024-25 season

Freeman Arts Pavilion (31806 Lake View Drive, near Selbyville).

For more info, visit freemanarts.org or (302) 436-3015. 

If you have an interesting story idea, email lifestyle reporter  Andre Lamar  at  [email protected] . Consider signing up for his weekly newsletter, DO Delaware, at  delawareonline.com/newsletters . 

Why did Abba break up and which members of the band were married?

Swedish pop band Abba had some huge hits and was made up of two married couples - we take a look back at the band's tumultuous history ahead of Eurovision 2024 in Sweden

• 18:00, 11 MAY 2024

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Swedish pop band Abba shot to fame in the 1970s and is now one of the most well-known bands in the world. They are loved for their hits such as Waterloo, Mamma Mia, SOS and Money, Money, Money to name a few.

Winning Eurovision for the first time for Sweden in 1974 with their popular song Waterloo helped skyrocket them into further fame and now Eurovision is back in Sweden. After Loreen won the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest with her catchy song Tattoo, the 2024 competition is being held in Malmo, Sweden.

The Eurovision grand final will take place on Saturday, May 11 with live coverage starting at 8pm on BBC One. Ahead of Eurovision returning to Sweden, we take a look back at the band's tumultuous history.

READ MORE: Olly Alexander provides Eurovision update after being left 'quite stressed' and shares 'heartbreak'

READ NEXT: Who is Eurovision UK entry Olly Alexander? Famous ex, acting success and reason he left Years and Years

Which band members were married in Abba?

Abba was made up of two married couples, who had already met each other and were together when the band formed in 1972, Agnetha Faltskog and Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. Agnetha fell in love with Bjorn at 19, after meeting him in a cafe.

They were married in 1971, four years before Abba won Eurovision. They had two children together and divorced in 1980. One of Abba's hit songs The Winner Takes It All was written during their divorce.

Benny and Anni-Frid were together from 1969 to 1980, marrying in 1978. They officially divorced in 1981 and had no children together. Want less ads? Download WalesOnline’s Premium app on Apple or Android .

Why did Abba split up?

It was after both couples split up that Abba decided to go their separate ways, as the fun was lost from performing and recording together. The band has continued to say they never officially split up.

The Standard reports that Bjorn said: "We ended and for creative reasons. We ended because we felt the energy was running out in the studio because we didn’t have as much fun in the studio as we did this time.

"And that’s why we said, ‘Let’s go on a break’. And we never said, ‘This is it. We’ve split and we’ll never reunite again’. We never said that."

The band went on to reunite in 2021, releasing a new studio album and they also launched Abba Voyage, a virtual concert of the band in London. For the latest TV & Showbiz news, sign up to our newsletter

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It's 50 years since Abba won the Eurovision Song Contest — and you can still see their concert in London

• Voyage put Abba back on stage when the show opened in London in May 2022.
• The technology behind the show almost makes you believe the four band members really are on stage.
• I can totally see why other artists are thinking about creating their own Voyage-style shows too.

Taylor Swift has set records with her latest tour, but there's only one act with their very own venue — Abba.

Yes, the Swedish popsters who split up in 1982 and took about four decades to decide to make a new album, have the Abba Arena in London. It might be in a forgotten corner of the park in east London, which hosted the Olympic Games in 2012 — but nevertheless it's the band's name over the door.

The 3,000-capacity venue is home to Abba Voyage, which put the foursome back on stage when it opened in May 2022. It's not actually them on stage, however, but "Abbatars" — yes, that's what they're called — consisting of AR versions of Agnetha, Benny, Bjorn, and Anni-frid (aka Frida).

The group shot to fame after winning the Eurovision Song Contest way back in 1974 with "Waterloo," — and artists including Conchita Wurst are set to pay tribute to Abba during this year's grand final on Saturday night being held in Malmo, Sweden.

Full disclosure: I'm an Abba fan. They're the first band I liked as a kid, and the first album I bought with my own money. But even if you're not, you're going to know a lot of their songs, especially if you've seen one of the "Mamma Mia" movies or the musical.

The arena is divided into a standing area that probably holds about half the audience, with tiered seating behind. Knowing that the "performers" are the 21st-century equivalent of smoke and mirrors (or high-tech projections if you prefer) leaves the audience desperate to see just how convincing the illusion is.

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And despite my inherent bias, I can honestly say that Voyage is a live experience unlike anything I've ever seen in my, erm, many years of going to gigs.

The Abbatars are really convincing. Not in a "squint a bit and hope for the best" kind of way, but good enough to persuade a semi-gullible friend it really is the four members of Abba up there, looking just like they did in 1979. OK, a tiny bit of suspension of disbelief is required, but like I said, the effect is way better than you might expect.

In the 90-odd minutes of the show, there are "costume changes," banter from each band member in between certain songs, and even in-jokes about the somewhat existential nature of the "performance." The whole experience is certainly helped by the incredible strength of Abba's back catalog, which, to my mind at least, contains some of the best pop songs ever recorded ("Dancing Queen," "SOS," "Knowing Me, Knowing You.")

Further, the producers (who include Benny's son Ludvig) made some smart decisions. The vocals are on tape, but there's a very tight live 10-piece band, and three backup vocalists who also take center stage for one track, "Does Your Mother Know." (That also allowed the song in which Bjorn originally sings "but girl you're only a child" to be included in the set list.)

The energy dips a little when they perform two downtempo songs from the "Voyage" album released last year, which is a bit of a letdown after a discotastic run that includes "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)." But not every track can be a banger, I suppose.

It's hard to convey exactly what the Voyage experience is like, but it's mainly a deeply weird mix of time travel and technology crossed with amazing pop. Whatever magic dust has been sprinkled, it really works.

The sound and lighting effects are superb, and there's judicious use of animation, which means the Abbatars are not on stage for the entire show. This helps maintain the illusion. The band does look slightly less real on the giant high-definition video screens on either side of the stage, though.

Another disclosure: I've seen Voyage twice. I think I enjoyed it more the second time because I was less focused on trying to figure out how everything worked and instead focused on the enduring brilliance of Abba's music.

It's also been a business masterstroke. Although developing the technology and venue cost £140 million (about $175 million), millions of tickets have been sold, and the show is raking in more than $2 million a week, Bloomberg reported .

Voyage is booking until January 2025 and may eventually come to cities too. Being able to appear in several places at once is, of course, the beauty of the technology behind the show.

It's no surprise that other acts want to follow suit, even if it involves the tedious process of greenscreen motion capture. Per Sundin, CEO of lead Voyage investor Pophouse Entertainment , told Bloomberg in 2023: "We already have been talking to some artists that really want to do this."

I can totally see why the idea appeals to some performers, particularly those at the wrong end of their careers. It beats actually having to perform night after night, after all.

So, if you missed out on seeing Taylor Swift perform, would a Voyage-type experience be better than seeing her concert film ? I think the answer for many fans is going to be a resounding yes.

It also means that bands can keep performing for their fans, regardless of whether their members are still with us. Thank you for the music, indeed.

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Switzerland’s Nemo Wins the Eurovision Song Contest, Breaks Trophy (and Thumb)

By K.J. Yossman

K.J. Yossman

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Switzerland has won the Eurovision Song Contest .

Swiss entry Nemo stormed the contest with the song “The Code,” walking away with 591 points — a combination of a jury vote and public vote.

But during Nemo’s victory performance at the end of the four-hour show the singer accidentally dropped the microphone-shaped glass trophy, injuring their thumb in the process.

“I didn’t just break ‘The Code’ I also broke the trophy,” said Nemo during the press conference after the show, where their hand was wrapped in a bandage. “I broke my thumb as well. But I got a new [trophy] so I technically have two now.”

Popular on Variety

Croatian entry Baby Lasagna came in second with 547 points during the 2024 contest followed by Ukraine’s Alyona Alyona and Jerry Heil with 453, France’s Slimane with 445 and Israel’s Eden Golan with 375.

The U.K., represented by singer and “It’s a Sin” actor Olly Alexander, finished in 18th place, receiving 46 points from the judges and zero points from the public.

Croatia won the most public votes — receiving 337 points from viewers at home — followed by Israel, who were awarded 323 and Ukraine, who garnered 307.

This year’s contest took place in Malmo, Sweden, hosted by Swedish comedian Petra Mede and actor Malin Akerman.

25 countries performed during the grand final. Originally there were set to be 26 competitors but the Dutch entry, Joost Klein, was disqualified at the last minute after a Swedish crew member complained about his behavior backstage. The Swedish police are reportedly investigating.

Other historic Swedish acts who did make a live appearance were Björn Skifs singing his big hit “Hooked on a Feeling” — which hit No. 1 in the U.S. 50 years ago before getting a second lease of life in 2016’s “Guardians of the Galaxy” — and Alcazar, who have competed a number of times to be Sweden’s Eurovision entry over the past decades but never made it through. Sweden’s 2023 winner Loreen also returned to perform. Meanwhile Victoria, the Crown Princess of Sweden, opened the show with a pre-recorded VT filmed at her royal residence.

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At The New School, an anti-Zionist campus rabbi is ‘not so radical,’ students say

( New York Jewish Week ) — The seder at The New School on the first night of Passover was in many ways quite traditional. Matzah, haroset and bitter herbs were arrayed on a seder plate used by students sharing the holiday meal together.

But in other ways, the seder lived up to the century-old university’s longtime reputation as a hotbed of radical politics. The seder plate included both olives and strawberries for Palestinian rights. At the end of the meal, attendees adapted the traditional concluding words to say, “Next year in free Jerusalem” — a reference to the oppression that its participants say Palestinians face from Israel.

The seder was one of dozens organized by anti-Zionist Jewish students on college campuses this Passover, as part of a sweeping pro-Palestinian protest movement that has spiraled out from Columbia University, about seven miles north of The New School in Manhattan. As at Columbia, police broke up The New School’s encampment, arresting 43 people last week .

Now, faculty members have created an encampment of their own, marking a first in the movement and vowing not to turn in grades until the students’ demands for divestment from Israel are met.

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What distinguishes the New School seder — and its faculty encampment — is that both have the support of the school’s Jewish religious leader, who identifies as an anti-Zionist.

“I am deeply moved that so many [New School] students have joined the Gaza solidarity encampment,” Louisa Solomon, an alumna with decades of anti-Zionist activism under her belt, told the New York Jewish Week. “We are witnessing a multiracial, multifaith global movement for liberation and our students at TNS represent a vibrant piece of it, demanding their tuition dollars stop supporting genocide.”

Solomon, a student at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, became The New School’s on-campus rabbi last fall — the first in the school’s history. Solomon arrived on campus just before the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas that launched the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and spurred anti-Israel protests worldwide, including at colleges and universities.

“It often feels to me like what happened after Oct. 7 is that the center fell out,” Solomon told the New York Jewish Week. “Cracks and divides in the Jewish community are longstanding. But the inflammation and passion and pain around them is more pronounced after Oct. 7. And that’s true at The New School, I think, as it is elsewhere.”

Solomon stands out because most campus rabbis are affiliated with either Hillel International or the Chabad Hasidic movement, both of which support Israel. Many at schools with encampments have focused on supporting and advocating for Jewish undergraduates who have been disquieted, and at times targeted and harassed, by the protests. Like most rabbis, they reject the notion that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

Solomon, by contrast, was one of about 300 people arrested at the anti-Zionist Jewish Voice for Peace’s “emergency seder in the streets” to protest U.S. support for the Israeli military on the second night of Passover. It was not her first time facing arrest for pro-Palestinian activism since Oct. 7. She is a member of the group Rabbis for Ceasefire.

“As I met with Jewish students at the TNS Gaza solidarity encampment preparing for Shabbat services to be held there, I was struck by how much of their pain and fear comes not from the sources mainstream media suggests, but from Jewish communities,” Solomon said. “Jewish parents, camps and synagogues are in many cases condemning these courageous students, questioning their Judaism, kicking them out.”

Her work on campus, where she was hired part-time primarily to serve the non-Zionist Jewish Culture Club, has centered on supporting students who are participating in the protests. The club was created as an alternative to Hillel, which has a small presence and no dedicated staff on campus. (The seven-college Hillel consortium serving the school also does not employ a rabbi.)

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Solomon’s support for the club has benefited students who are involved, they told the New York Jewish Week.

“As a Jewish student, the Jewish Culture Club has been a very safe space for me, especially meeting with Louisa and meeting with other students at these events,” said Stella, who has been active in the New School’s encampment. (She asked to be identified by a nickname and that her last name not be used because the administration had threatened to suspend students involved in the protest.)

Stella, a first year at The New School, said the Jewish Culture Club and guidance from Rabbi Louisa Solomon have provided a “safe space” for her on campus. (Jackie Hajdenberg)

Although not explicitly anti-Zionist at its inception, since Oct. 7 the Jewish Culture Club has trended that way. It condemned a Hillel trip to Israel that students at other city colleges took last fall. And it joined Students for Justice in Palestine in protesting when Hillel (which had just absorbed a pro-Israel advocacy group) invited an Israel Defense Forces soldier to speak about his Oct. 7 experience. It also held a Shabbat service in the encampment.

The divide between Hillel and the Jewish Culture Club has been deepening, according to a recent report in The New School’s student newspaper. The paper reported that the pro-Israel advocacy group had messaged the Jewish Culture Club to collaborate on an event but had not gotten a response. Solomon, meanwhile, said she has tried to set up a meeting with the Hillel president but did not hear back.

The New York Jewish Week was unable to reach Hillel’s student president at The New School, and the director of the CUNY/Baruch Hillel consortium did not respond to requests for comment.

But some Hillel-affiliated students have taken notice of Solomon’s presence. Henry Shane, a Jewish junior who is on the Hillel student board, said last month that he was avoiding campus entirely because of the encampment. Occasionally, Shane attends New York University’s Conservative minyan, which is run through that school’s own Hillel. He still keeps in touch with his hometown rabbi in California, too. But he said he doesn’t feel like he has pastoral support from his own university.

“It’s really unfortunate that The New School has a rabbinic intern who has made clear on her social media platform where she stands,” Shane told the New York Jewish Week. “She does attend many of these demonstrations at The New School and I think that has also really defined who she is for many students.”

Meanwhile, at Columbia, Jewish student pro-Palestinian protesters said they craved the kind of rabbinic support Solomon offers. Shay Lev, a sophomore active in Jewish Voice for Peace and that school’s encampment, said it was “so cool” to hear about a rabbi who was supporting anti-Zionist Jewish students. (Like Stella, Shay Lev — the student’s first and middle names — declined to be identified by their full name because of fear of retribution.)

“I’ve had so many people come to me being, like, ‘I haven’t gone to a seder, I didn’t come to a Shabbat dinner for years, because I haven’t felt welcome in Jewish spaces.’ And then they come to JVP services, and they pray for the first time in years,” Shay Lev said. “And yeah, I would really appreciate an actual qualified rabbi doing it, so I don’t have to, because you know, I’m a 20-year-old without any rabbinical training.”

Founded in 1919, The New School, which enrolls approximately 7,200 undergraduates and is located in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village, has a long history of radical activism. “Dissenting opinions, radical ideas, and progressive solutions have always had a home at The New School,” the school’s website boasts.

It also notes a handful of past students who were drawn to the school’s mission, including former Israeli President Shimon Peres while he worked for Israel’s Defense Ministry in the 1950s. Political theorist and Jewish refugee Hannah Arendt, who was critical of Zionism but not opposed to it, was a professor of social research there in the 1960s and ’70s.

Solomon graduated in 2005, having majored in cultural studies with a concentration in race, ethnicity and postcolonial studies. As a student, she was also an activist involved in Jews for Racial and Economic Justice and a predecessor to Jewish Voice for Peace, called Jews Against the Occupation.

In 2002, Solomon was one of four Jewish activists ejected after interrupting a talk by former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak at the Pierre Hotel in Manhattan to protest Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories. “Fortunately, we weren’t arrested in the end, and I think we got our point across,” she said on the progressive radio show “Democracy Now” at the time.

Solomon grew up in a home with parents who were political activists in the 1960s and 1970s — she recalls a shelf in her home full of books by Black Panthers and a now-out-of-print anthology of Palestinian poetry. Although she says she always felt religious, she didn’t have much of a formal religious education. She did not apply to rabbinical school until she was pregnant with her second child, now 4.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Louisa Rachel Solomon (@louieludwig)

In her current role, she has protested Israel since the earliest days of the war. On Oct. 8, she posted a photo of herself with her child in a sukkah, celebrating the holiday that was ending as news of the Hamas attack and its steep toll was still emerging.

“Judaism can be liberatory and Judaism can be an instrument of oppression,” she posted on Instagram . “Judaism is not Zionism and my kids will not be taught that their Jewishness requires loyalty to Israel, insularity, or valuing Jewish life more than non-Jewish life.”

She credits her time at The New School with awakening her as a Jewish activist.

“Jewishness for me was very connected to social justice activism as a young person,” she said. “I made Jewish friends at The New School and found that many of us were queer, many of us were far to the left of the established Jewish communities we’d had access to before. And we got connected to Jewish activism.”

After graduating, Solomon’s activism receded somewhat as she embarked on both a professional and musical career. She worked first at UJA-Federation of New York, which has a long history of supporting Israel, and then at the publishing house Simon and Schuster for many years while also touring with her band The Shondes , whose Yiddish name means “shame.”

But she was never shy about her opposition to Israel, and in 2014, the Washington, D.C., Jewish federation canceled The Shondes’ headlining role at a music festival over Solomon’s support for the movement to boycott Israel .

Solomon said at the time that she and her bandmates had engaged in activism together as New School students and that she felt they were making an impact on Jewish fans who supported Israel.

“Since the band formed in 2006, we haven’t had as much time for that kind of activism,” she told Tablet . “A lot of it has happened through the band’s shows, and trying to do events with Hillels has brought forth opportunities to talk about the issue with Zionists.”

Jonathan Sarna, a prominent Jewish historian and professor at Brandeis University, said Solomon’s appointment reflects two trends: a growing shortage of non-Orthodox rabbis to fill open positions, and rising anti-Israel sentiment among younger Jews.

“A couple of years ago, there was a rabbinical student declaration [about Israel] that really angered many, many leaders of the Jewish community because of the virulent-seeming one-sidedness, as they saw it, of the documents,” he said, referring to a 2021 petition by dozens of rabbinical students accusing Israel of apartheid . “There was this question, ‘Will young rabbis be able to lead the community?’ Now we are seeing that that is coming forward.”

Sarna, who disparaged Jewish participation in the encampments, lamented the idea of a campus rabbi who ideologically overlaps with only some Jewish students on campus. “Part of your obligation is to say, ‘I’m available to the whole spectrum of Jews,’ just like in a family,” he said.

Solomon said that she does aim to serve “any and all students,” including non-Jewish students, who seek her guidance. She says she would be happy to meet with Hillel’s leaders or anyone else, no matter their beliefs about Israel.

“It’s definitely a source of great sadness to me if anyone feels unable to approach me in a rabbinic capacity because of disagreements they have with my political views,” she said. “I know what that feels like, to be a person who can’t seek out support from a rabbi, because that rabbi has alienated me — certainly an experience many of us have had.”

Critics and allies of Solomon agree on at least one thing: In light of the seismic shifts transforming the American Jewish world since Oct. 7, the idea of an anti-Zionist campus rabbi is no longer as surprising as it once was.

“There’s that old saying that Jews have a difficult time agreeing on things,” Stella said. “There’s so much diversity in Jewish culture, so I don’t think the idea of an anti-Zionist rabbi is so radical.”

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