The Miami Boys Choir rendition of "Yerushalayim" has been obsessed over by TikTok users and viewed millions of times. And the adoration is not ironic - the viewers latch onto the performance by the boys as heartfelt.
The song "Yerushalayim" itself is, of course, about Jerusalem. It is a quote from Psalms:
So it was inevitable that the usual haters would find out that this was a song about the ancient attachment to Jerusalem - and have second thoughts about how much they love the song.Yerushalayim (Jerusalem)Harim Saviv La (Mountains surround it)V’Hashem Saviv L’amo (And God surrounds His people)Ma’ata v’ad olam (From this time until eternity) (Psalms 125:2).
Sure enough, Emmie, the music magazine of the University of Wisconsin, tweeted how upset they were when they realized what the lyrics were about (which are all over TikTok).
Just learned the Miami Boys Choir are singing about Israel pic.twitter.com/gxmrXmKjKL
— EMMIE Magazine (@EMMIEmagazine) October 8, 2022
This is clearly antisemitic, not "anti-Zionist." If you are upset over Jews singing about Jerusalem - and quoting the Hebrew scriptures, no less - then you are against Judaism itself, not "Zionists." The fact that the University of Wisconsin does not condemn this obvious hate is troubling.
But notice what they say: they are upset that the boys singing "Yerushalayim" are singing about Israel.
Which means that even the antisemites understand, deep down, that Jerusalem is part of Israel.
