Adina Feldman, who lives in Israel and is the daughter of a Queens rabbi and social worker, will sing The Star Spangled banner, without musical accompaniment, when visiting President Barack Obama appears at the Jerusalem Convention Center Thursday evening.
Adina Feldman, 50, lives in Har Adar, a Jewish community in Samaria, and also teaches at HebrewUniversity.
She wrote on her Facebook page Monday, “Adina is delighted to announce that she has been invited by the American Embassy to perform” the anthem for the president… Stay tuned for updates on this momentous opportunity.”
Unlike Beyonce, who lipped-sync during President Obama’s second inauguration, Feldman will sing live at the event, which is is billed as the highlight of President Obama’s trip.
She told The New York Daily News Wednesday, “I’m singing a cappella so that would be really hard. I will be living and breathing every single word. Every singer’s nightmare is that you’d forget your text, but when you make the words and feelings your own, there’s no need for the help.
“It is a great honor that merges my two worlds. My life is New York and Israel. I keep thinking about how I want to get the beautiful anthem across. It is so, so meaningful to me.”
Feldman attended Queens College and New York University before moving to Israel and regular appears in Israel, including an annual concert in Tel Aviv on September 11 in memory of those who were murdered in the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.
She lives in the community of Har Adar, on the western edge of Samaria, and travels to New York several times a year to perform, and plans to appear later this year in a two-woman show entitled “The Rabbi’s Girls Present: Songs of Religion and Rebellion.”