Does Paul Simon Support Israel?

Zach Mandel Feb 27, 2025 4 min read

Short answer: As of July 2026, Paul Simon's relationship with Israel is real but mixed, and it has shifted. He was raised in a Jewish family, has written songs steeped in Jerusalem and Jewish liturgy, performed in Israel several times, and in 2011 played Ramat Gan Stadium despite a BDS letter urging him to cancel, which counts as defying the cultural boycott. But in December 2025 he was one of more than 200 public figures who signed an open letter calling for the release of Marwan Barghouti, a Palestinian convicted over deadly terror attacks, and he has made no public statement of support for Israel since the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack. So he is culturally and spiritually connected to Jewish identity and Jerusalem, has a history of not boycotting Israel, yet his most recent political action ran against Israeli sentiment.

What Paul Simon has actually said and done

October 13, 1941: Paul Simon is born into a Jewish family in Newark, New Jersey, and raised in the Kew Gardens Hills section of Queens. He would later describe his Jewishness as a cultural sensibility he was comfortable in rather than a religion he chose to practice (Religion News Service).
October 25, 1975: Simon releases Silent Eyes on the album Still Crazy After All These Years, a solemn paean to Jerusalem ("Silent eyes / Watching Jerusalem / Make her bed of stones"), an early sign of his lyrical attachment to the city (Paul Simon Official Site).
July 1978: Simon performs in Israel for the first time, with concerts around Caesarea, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, backed by gospel singer Jessy Dixon. He would return in 1983 (Setlist.fm).
July 21, 2011: Simon plays Ramat Gan Stadium, his first Israel show in nearly three decades, after a public BDS open letter had urged him to cancel. He greeted the press with "Shalom" and offered a brief on-stage prayer for peace, effectively declining the cultural boycott (The Jerusalem Post; the boycott campaign that named him is documented at boycottisrael.info).
May 19, 2023: Simon releases Seven Psalms, an acoustic song cycle that is widely read as echoing the seven daily psalms of Jewish morning prayer and returns repeatedly to spiritual, Jerusalem-tinged imagery, widely read as the most overtly religious work of his career (Variety).
December 3, 2025: Simon is listed among more than 200 cultural figures (alongside Sting, Mark Ruffalo, Ian McKellen and Annie Lennox) signing an open letter urging the UN and world governments to seek the release of Marwan Barghouti, a Palestinian serving five life sentences over deadly terror attacks (The Times of Israel; The Jerusalem Post).
December 10, 2025: The Barghouti letter draws pointed criticism in Israel, with a Jerusalem Post opinion piece rejecting the Barghouti-as-Mandela framing and faulting Simon for signing while never publicly supporting Israel or condemning the October 7, 2023 attack (The Jerusalem Post).

Jewish roots, Jerusalem in the songs, and a boycott that cut both ways

Paul Simon (born October 13, 1941) was raised in a Jewish family in Queens and named for a grandfather born in Galicia. He describes his Jewish identity as cultural rather than religious, a sensibility he grew up comfortable in more than a faith he practices. That thread runs right through his music: Silent Eyes (1975) is an explicit lament for Jerusalem, the song Hearts and Bones references "one and one-half wandering Jews," and the 2023 album Seven Psalms is widely read as echoing the seven psalms of Jewish morning prayer and threaded with longing for Jerusalem. On the ground, Simon has a clear history of not boycotting Israel: he performed there in 1978 and 1983, and in 2011 he went ahead with a Ramat Gan Stadium concert despite a Palestinian-led BDS open letter that named him and demanded he cancel. The complicating, and more recent, fact is political rather than cultural: in December 2025 Simon added his name to a 200-plus-signatory open letter calling for the release of Marwan Barghouti, whom Israel convicted over attacks that killed civilians. Israeli commentators noted that Simon, unlike a general anti-Israel activist, has real ties to the country, yet has stayed publicly silent on the October 7, 2023 Hamas massacre while lending his name to the Barghouti campaign. The boycott conversation around Simon therefore cuts both ways: BDS activists have long targeted him for playing Israel, while pro-Israel voices now criticize him over the Barghouti letter.

The bottom line

Paul Simon is not a boycotter of Israel, and he carries a deep, lifelong cultural and spiritual connection to Jewish identity and Jerusalem, expressed in his music and in his choice to perform in Israel (including defying a 2011 BDS campaign). He is not, however, a public advocate for the State of Israel, and his most recent public political act, signing the December 2025 letter to free Marwan Barghouti while staying silent on the October 7 attack, landed on the other side and drew real criticism in Israel. The accurate answer is nuanced: warm personal and artistic ties to Jewish heritage and to Israel as a place, but no clear political support for Israel, and one recent gesture that ran against it.

Support Israel directly

Public figures can be a study in mixed signals. Your own stand does not have to be. If reading Paul Simon's record leaves you wanting to put something plainer into the world, our Support Israel collection gathers apparel and gifts, from Israeli flag tees to Am Yisrael Chai designs, that say where you stand without a footnote. Every purchase backs Israeli-made products and the people behind them.

Last updated July 2026. We update these profiles as the record changes.