Jay-Z lights up (a menorah) backstage
Hip-hop legend pulls a play out of Hannukah’s book, two months early, at inaugural concert
Ilan Ben Zion is an AFP reporter and a former news editor at The Times of Israel.
Hip hop legend Jay-Z inaugurated last week’s opening of Brooklyn’s Barclays Center by lighting a candle on a menorah for each of the eight days of his concert series, adoring fan Amit Wehle wrote on Fuse.tv.
The former Brooklynite reportedly asked his concert producer to get him a Hannukah candelabra. The producer asked his Jewish brother-in-law Amit Wehle, who lives next door to the Barclay Center — and, coincidentally, at Jay-Z’s former “stash spot, 560 State Street” — to bring one over.
Wehle said he gladly gave his brother-in-law a menorah he received as a wedding gift, and “knowing my menorah would be burning bright for Jay-Z, Beyoncé and the band backstage, warmed my heart.”
Jay-Z later came by his old building to film a documentary and thanked Wehle for the use of his menorah. It was not clear what inspired the New York legend to light a menorah in October at the concert, aside from the eight-day connection.
