RUTHFULLY YOURS

Such is the state of artistic freedom in post-Oct. 7 America. No matter where you stand regarding the war in Gaza, or any other issue, this heckler’s veto against Matisyahu should trouble you.

“It’s disappointing. It’s frustrating,” Matisyahu told me via Zoom on Sunday. Those feelings, he said, mingle with a sense of abandonment by the hip, progressive circles in which he has always moved.

“I used to feel comfortable going to Portland,” Matisyahu said. “It had all these places that I loved. Now, somehow I find myself looking forward to going to Texas, and the South, you know, where I feel like maybe they don’t like Jews that much but for some reason they like us a little more.”

Just a handful of entertainment-world colleagues, most also Jews, have expressed solidarity with him, he said. One such supporter, “Stranger Things” actor Brett Gelman, has had publicity events for his new book canceled over safety concerns.

Matisyahu, scheduled to play Washington’s 9:30 Club Wednesday, said most protests outside his shows have been peaceful and small. Most venues have taken the position that “we’re not going to get shut down. We’re not going to get bullied,” he said. In Tucson, Matisyahu organized a free show elsewhere in place of the canceled gig.

Still, there has been no transparency as to exactly what threat necessitated his cancellation in Chicago. Matisyahu told me police advised the House of Blues that a crowd of more than 1,000 might assemble outside the venue. The singer offered to help out with 40 contracted security personnel, he said, but Live Nation passed and called off the performance.

Brendan Reilly, a Chicago alderman who represents the area around the House of Blues, said in a statement March 11 that police told his office of “serious concerns regarding security” two days before the event and had discussed potential “violent protests” with Live Nation and House of Blues staff.

The Chicago police, who have plenty of experience with demonstrations related to Gaza since Oct. 7, told me by email the department had “sufficient resources allocated to the planned protests.”

Live Nation, probably the decision-maker, declined to comment, though it’s doubtful it would have canceled unless it felt there was no alternative. (Matisyahu shows at other Live Nation venues have gone on as scheduled during the tour.)

In short, a major performing artist was denied a stage in the third-largest U.S. city, apparently because of threats from political opponents; yet no one in a position of responsibility has publicly owned that decision or even explained it in detail.

At least Reilly acknowledged that he was “disappointed that the threat of a violent protest had this effect.” Santa Fe’s mayor issued a similar statement about the cancellation in his town. The office of Chicago’s mayor, Brandon Johnson, by contrast, did not respond to my request for comment.

The net effect is to leave uncontested the anti-Matisyahu activists’ claims that the venue caved to their “relentless pressure.”