“This is the first time I have been caught in such a storm, I had no intention of creating a provocation,” said the singer Yuval Dayan in an interview she gave to the ‘Weekend News’ on News 12 – for the first time since the storm caused by not shaking hands with US President Joe Biden . “I got into the car, suddenly I see, my phone is full of messages and questions.”
According to her, the process of conversion about two years ago also began to protect her from the pressures and her exposure as a successful singer.
Regarding the criticism hurled at her, she said: “My conclusion from this incident is that those who chose to generate the hard energy are simply people who are keyboard criminals. You should know that this is violence for everything.”
In retrospect, would you shake the president’s hand? asks interviewer Jonathan Rieger.
“No”.
Because?
“Because this is not the discussion at all. The debate is when we, as the State of Israel, lost it. When did we lose the ability to accommodate a person who thinks differently than us? I’m not saying I agree. I’m not saying to agree at all, but I’m saying to accommodate. When it comes to violent and aggressive discourse, I think this is a very, very significant warning light for all of us.”
She added: “In my language, to express respect to a man who is not my husband, who will come with God’s help, is like this, with a bow. This is my language. And when the president extended his hand to me, I was very excited. I was very, very, very excited. And there I didn’t feel the collision.
“There it was clear to me that what I was going to do as a human being – you know, I’m already a 27-year-old woman, I have experience in quite a few situations of social dynamics, and this situation was really pleasant for me and it went through a terrible part. I mean, as soon as I did that, the president got even more excited. He got even more excited. I got off the stage, I met all the senior officials of the State of Israel, none of them told me… I didn’t get that face.”
Is there a musical change in your conversion?
“No”.
is nothing?
“Klezmers and things and what not”, she laughs.
What actually confuses the people who have seen you? They see you singing with Ran Denker, a man, and you stand next to him. You perform with male musicians. You don’t pay attention to…
“Keeping touch with me, as far as I’m concerned, my musicians, the guys I meet on dates, all the senior officials of the State of Israel, I keep touch with all of them. This is who I am. Keeping touch with me, this is the most private point I’m going to open now, comes from two places: from a religious place and from an emotional place.
“No one knows what it’s like to be exposed to so many people from the age of 16 and a half. My way, which I have developed for myself over the years to keep myself clean in this thing, with a protective wall of values and worldviews that keep me focused in the situation, are mine. In the end, my choices and my body are mine.”
Why do you feel you have to protect yourself so much in such a kind of wall?
“I really really believe that any relationship that does not have a limit can end up in a bad situation. to a devastating situation”.
The public shaming shook her, and after a few sleepless nights, Yuval decided to go back to that moment that caused the storm and understand whether she whitewashed the president’s face in public.
“I said to myself, ‘Yuval, if that’s really how they all talk and care about the president’s honor, what do you care to check?’ I was calm with myself but I said ‘I pick up the phone to the president’s house, I tell them – ‘Let’s try to find out and find out what was really there, if the president of the United States is really sitting in the White House now and really thinks I shook his world with this handshake.’
And this is how it unfolded: “I really got in touch with the American ambassador, he called me and spoke to me in English, and I was a little stressed. And I asked him: ‘Tell me, did you feel something wrong on stage?’ He laughed. I just burst out laughing on the phone. And when he laughed I started to cry. Because I told him ‘Listen… I’m going through something difficult here and I need you to help me. I need you to find out first hand with the president if I hurt his feelings. even a little.
“He tells me, ‘It was the highlight of his visit, but I’m ready to check.’ We checked, I received a video of a response, and the whole situation turned upside down”, she recalls.
In the reaction video, Ambassador Tom Neides said: “I want to convey a message to you, Yuval. The president greatly appreciated what you did, and your loyalty to your religious values.”
There is women’s singing and there is keeping a touch. They are two different things. I want to see you perform. Will I be able to see you perform in ten years?
“You can come see me whenever you want.”
Continue to perform in front of men?
“I never said I stopped performing in front of men.”