Short answer: Yes. Leonard Cohen, the Canadian singer-songwriter and a Kohen by birth, was a lifelong, publicly declared supporter of Israel. In October 1973, in the middle of the Yom Kippur War, he flew to Israel unbidden and spent weeks performing for Israeli troops, including on the Sinai front. He said in a 1974 interview that he would "be there" in any crisis facing Israel, and in 2009 he refused a Palestinian-led boycott campaign, performed a sold-out show in Tel Aviv anyway, and gave the roughly $3 million in proceeds to an Israeli-Palestinian reconciliation fund. Cohen died in 2016, so this is the settled historical record. As of August 2026 the record stands as it did at his death, though Cohen himself resisted framing his Yom Kippur tour as one-sided, later saying he wrote "Lover, Lover, Lover" for Egyptian and Israeli soldiers alike.
What Leonard Cohen has actually said and done
October 1973: When the Yom Kippur War broke out, Cohen was living quietly on the Greek island of Hydra and had largely withdrawn from performing. He flew to Israel on his own initiative and spent the following weeks touring the front lines, including near the Suez Canal, singing for Israeli soldiers between and during combat operations. He went by his Hebrew birth name, Eliezer, with the musicians who traveled with him, according to the Times of Israel.
1974: In an interview published in ZigZag Magazine, Cohen made his position explicit: "I've never disguised the fact that I'm Jewish, and in any crisis in Israel I would be there. I am committed to the survival of the Jewish people." The quote is documented by Ynetnews.
April to September 2009: Ahead of a planned concert near Tel Aviv, the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, joined by more than 100 signatories organized through the British group BRICUP, publicly pressed Cohen to cancel the show.
September 24, 2009: Cohen declined to cancel. He performed to a sold-out crowd of roughly 50,000 people at Ramat Gan Stadium, telling the audience the show was, in his words, a plea for reconciliation. Tickets had sold out in under 12 hours, as reported by Haaretz.
September 2009: Net proceeds from that concert, about $3 million, went to the Fund for Reconciliation, Tolerance and Peace, which made grants to joint Israeli-Palestinian peace organizations, including the Parents Circle-Families Forum, a group of bereaved families from both sides of the conflict. Details of the fund are covered in the Leonard Cohen Files and the Jerusalem Post.
November 7 to 10, 2016: Cohen died in Los Angeles at age 82 on November 7, 2016; his death was confirmed publicly by his label on November 10. Israeli leaders, including then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Reuven Rivlin, mourned him publicly as a devoted friend of the Jewish people and of Israel, per Ynetnews.
The deeper story behind the headlines
Cohen's connection to Israel and Jewish identity ran deeper than any single concert or quote. He was born into a prominent Montreal Jewish family: his great-grandfather held rabbinic ordination, his great-great-uncle Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Cohen was regarded as Canada's unofficial chief rabbi, and his grandfather founded Canada's first Jewish newspaper and served as president of the Canadian Jewish Congress. As a Kohen, a descendant of the priestly line of Aaron, that identity stayed central to how Cohen understood himself throughout his life. His gravestone is inscribed in Hebrew with his birth name, Eliezer ben Nissan HaKohen.
His most concrete act of support came in October 1973, when he set aside his retreat from public life and toured Israel's front lines during the Yom Kippur War, an episode later chronicled in journalist Matti Friedman's book "Who by Fire." That trip also informed the song "Lover, Lover, Lover."
Cohen's public statements framed his position around Jewish peoplehood and survival rather than any single Israeli government or policy. He also was not silent about the toll of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. When boycott organizers pressured him to cancel his 2009 Tel Aviv concert, he did neither of the easy things: he did not cancel, and he did not stay quiet about the conflict's human cost. He performed, and he directed the proceeds toward a joint Israeli-Palestinian bereaved-families fund. That combination, playing through boycott pressure while funding reconciliation work, is the clearest evidence of where he stood: firmly supportive of Israel's existence and the Jewish people's security, while engaged with the toll the conflict took on people on both sides.
The bottom line
Leonard Cohen supported Israel throughout his life. He flew into a war zone in 1973 to perform for Israeli troops, publicly declared his commitment to the Jewish people's survival, and in 2009 refused a boycott campaign to perform in Tel Aviv, steering the proceeds into Israeli-Palestinian reconciliation work. He died in November 2016, so this is a settled historical record rather than an ongoing stance.
Carry that same pride
Cohen never hid that he was Jewish, and he never hesitated to show up for Israel. Our Star of David jewelry collection is built for people who feel the same way: pieces meant to be worn daily as a quiet, permanent statement of who you are and where you stand.
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Last updated August 2026. We update these profiles as the record changes.
