Thousands of people thronged New York’s Madison Square Garden on Sunday night for a concert by the popular Israeli singer Ishay Ribo and broke into a spontaneous chant of “Bring them home!” on behalf of the hostages still being held in Gaza.
A crowd of 15,000 attended Ribo’s second performance at the iconic venue in as many years; he became the first Israeli musician to ever perform there last September during a similar pre-holiday tour.
Some 101 hostages are still being held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip nearly a year after they were abducted during the terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7.
Ribo also hosted fellow Israeli artists Idan Raichel and Eviatar Banai for several songs at the concert, including traditional Jewish prayer hymns.
One of Israel’s most internationally successful singers, the 35-year-old father of five immigrated to Israel from France when he was 8.
Ribo had a religious upbringing in Israel’s biblical heartland, studied in a yeshivah and sang in a rabbinical choir during the last six months of his military service.
Popular among secular and religious audiences, he has released four studio albums, two of which have been certified gold and one which went platinum.
