VANCOUVER, British Columbia | British music icon Boy George was honored by Vancouver’s Jewish community Wednesday night, two days after an anti-Israel campaign failed to persuade the Pacific National Exhibition to cancel his concert because of his outspoken support for Israel.
Approximately 800 people gathered at Temple Sholom on Sept. 9 for an evening recognizing the Culture Club singer’s support for Jews and Israel following the Hamas-led terrorist attacks of Oct. 7, 2023. During the event, Boy George performed We Will Dance Again, his tribute to those murdered at the Nova music festival, publicly for the first time.
The gathering followed weeks of controversy surrounding his Sept. 7 appearance with Culture Club at the PNE’s Summer Night Concerts.
After Boy George released We Will Dance Again, groups opposed to his support for Israel urged the PNE to remove him from its lineup. The PNE refused and reaffirmed its commitment to artistic freedom and freedom of expression.
The Center for Israel and Jewish Affairs and the Jewish Federation of British Columbia responded with their own public campaign encouraging Canadians to thank the PNE for resisting the cancellation demands.
CIJA said thousands of people contacted the PNE in support of allowing the concert to proceed.
Boy George and Culture Club ultimately performed as scheduled at the PNE on Sept. 7. The PNE’s official schedule confirms the concert took place at the Freedom Mobile Arch.
Jewish Community Turns Controversy Into Tribute
Rather than allowing the cancellation campaign to define Boy George’s Vancouver visit, Jewish community leaders organized a separate event recognizing him for standing publicly with Jews and Israel.
The Sept. 9 gathering was held at Temple Sholom, Western Canada’s largest Jewish congregation, in collaboration with the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver, CIJA, and synagogue volunteers.
All ticket proceeds from the evening were directed to the Jewish Federation of British Columbia’s Combating Antisemitism Fund.
Security surrounding the event was unusually tight.
Organizers discouraged audience members from recording or photographing the performance because of concerns that Boy George’s presence could draw protesters to the synagogue. Vancouver police, private security personnel, and the synagogue’s own security team helped protect the gathering.
Temple Sholom Senior Rabbi Dan Moskovitz later said the location was withheld until shortly before the event, and invitations were circulated carefully within the Jewish community and among allies.
‘We Will Dance Again’
The evening’s emotional center came when Boy George performed We Will Dance Again.
The song was inspired by the Nova music festival massacre, where Hamas-led terrorists murdered hundreds of people and abducted dozens during the Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel.
Boy George told the audience that visiting an exhibition about the Nova massacre profoundly affected him.
“I went to the Nova Exhibit,” he said during a conversation with Moskovitz. “I’ve done festivals in Israel. I’ve done festivals all over the world. So it was like walking into my world.”
He said he met a survivor and told her he intended to write a song about what had happened.
“When I wrote it, it just kind of came,” he said, describing becoming emotional while recording the track.
The Temple Sholom performance marked the first time Boy George had performed the song publicly.
Audience members cheered during the lyric, “I stand with the Jews.”
He also performed the Culture Club classic Karma Chameleon, with Rabbi Moskovitz later describing hundreds of people rising to dance together inside the synagogue.
Support for Israel Despite Pressure
Boy George has repeatedly resisted pressure to distance himself from Israel.
During the Vancouver event, he discussed his history of performing in Israel and said previous attempts by anti-Israel activists to discourage him from visiting the country had failed.
He also emphasized that supporting Israel did not mean hostility toward Palestinians.
“I’m not anti-Palestine. I’m not anti-anyone,” he told the audience.
Boy George announced that he plans to perform in Israel again in November.
His public position has become particularly notable within an entertainment industry where several artists and cultural organizations have faced pressure to boycott Israel.
The Vancouver controversy demonstrated that pressure works directly.
Some groups sought to have his PNE performance removed after the release of We Will Dance Again, while Jewish community organizations mobilized supporters to defend his right to perform.
The PNE ultimately stood by the booking.
Jewish Federation of British Columbia said the episode demonstrated the importance of allies who remain supportive when doing so becomes controversial.
“Our community is strongest when people have the courage to stand by their values, even when it’s not easy,” the federation wrote before the concert.
Honored With a Shofar
The Temple Sholom evening concluded with Boy George receiving an inscribed shofar in recognition of what organizers described as his courageous allyship.
The shofar, traditionally sounded during Rosh Hashanah, was presented just days before the Jewish New Year. Boy George also recited the Shehecheyanu, the Jewish blessing traditionally said on a significant occasion.
Moskovitz described the instrument as an especially appropriate gift for an artist willing to use his voice publicly when many Jews feel increasingly isolated.
“The shofar is a clarion call,” the rabbi wrote afterward. “It is meant to awaken us from complacency and summon us to action.”
No violence, arrests, or significant disruption were reported at either Boy George’s Sept. 7 PNE performance or the Sept. 9 synagogue event.
The episode was therefore not itself an antisemitic incident, but a Jewish community response to a cultural boycott campaign directed at an artist because of his outspoken support for Israel.
What began as an attempt to remove Boy George from a Vancouver stage instead ended with thousands of supporters backing the concert and hundreds of members of the Jewish community welcoming him into a synagogue.
And for the first time in public, the message at the center of the controversy was sung directly to a Jewish audience:
We Will Dance Again.
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