Madonna sings at Tel Aviv conference

Actress Demi Moore and husband, Ashton Kutcher, also attend the Kabbalah conference.

madonna 224.88 (photo credit: Courtesy)
madonna 224.88
(photo credit: Courtesy)
Clapping and singing, pop music star Madonna joined in a Kabbalah conference on Friday in Tel Aviv to celebrate Rosh Hashana. Madonna was singing Jewish songs with the crowd of hundreds at the David Intercontinental Hotel where the conference on Jewish mysticism was being held. At one point she pressed another participant, apparently a friend of hers, up to the front where he danced excitedly, making her and the crowd giggle and clap enthusiastically. The 49-year-old diva was wearing a black jacket with elbow-length sleeves held at the waist with a belt with a large buckle. She also donned a baseball-type hat plaid in red and black with her hair in a ponytail. Madonna arrived in Israel Wednesday night, on a private visit to the Holy Land. The singer did not speak to the media and the conference was closed to TV cameras. The actress Demi Moore and her husband, Ashton Kutcher, were also attending the conference in Tel Aviv, and were seen out on the city streets Thursday night. The celebrity was raised a Roman Catholic, but she has become a follower of Jewish mysticism in recent years, raising the ire of many Orthodox Jews who see the adoption of Kabbalah by non-Jewish pop figures as an abomination. The singer has taken the Hebrew name Esther, and has been seen wearing a red thread on her wrist to ward off the evil eye. During her visit she plans to visit sites sacred to Kabbalists. Madonna paid a visit to Israel three years ago, on another Kabbalah-centered trip. Her first visit to Israel came in 1993, when she performed in a concert unrelated to Kabbalah in Tel Aviv's Hayarkon park. with Jpost.com Staff