In keeping with pop legend Britney Spears’ penchant for posting seemingly random images on her social media, the star posted a photo of a group of Hasidic men playing chess over the weekend with the caption, “I like the beard !!!”
While it was unclear whether Spears posted the photo because of the Hasidic subjects or in keeping with her newfound interest in chess, the singer also tagged a Chabad-adjacent account, COLLive, which posts about Chabad engagements and cultural events.
The unexpected post drew a flurry of discussion on social media, including from Jewish comedian Eitan Levine who raised the question: “Does Britney Spears have a Chabad fetish?”
“Britney Spears shared a picture of Chabad Chassidim playing chess to her 41 million instagram followers,” tweeted Dovid Bashevkin, the director of education for NCSY, the youth movement of the Orthodox Union. “Appreciate you @britneyspears — the Jewish People could use some positivity!”
The post was far from the pop singer’s first time showing interest in Jewish culture.
In 2003, Spears wrote in a post on her website that she had first been introduced to Kabbalah, a famous form of Jewish mysticism, by fellow pop star Madonna. While the singer later said she had stopped practicing Kabbalah in 2006, she posted a photo of her new Hebrew neck tattoo in 2021 that used a rare name for God usually used in Kabbalistic texts.
In 2017, the star was also mobbed by a large group of fans after she visited the Western Wall in Jerusalem ahead of a concert in Tel Aviv.
Spears is also not the only non-Jewish celebrity to express an interest in the Chabad-Lubavitch movement. In 2019, on the 25th anniversary of the death of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, supermodel Naomi Campbell posted a photo of herself praying at the Ohel, the rebbe’s resting place, calling him an “inspirational leader, scholar, and teacher.”
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