Matti Caspi says he is moving to Italy to protect his mental health
"I’m taking a break from the chaos in the hope that the situation will be reversed and return to normal and to the routine of the past," Caspi wrote on Facebook.
By HANNAH BROWN
Matti Caspi, one of Israel’s leading musicians, posted a message on his Facebook page on Saturday night announcing that he and his family were leaving the country in order to protect their mental health.The website N12 reported that he has rented an apartment in the Italian city of Florence.In recent months, he has been sharply critical of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, calling him a “dictator” and saying that he felt that the government response to the pandemic was overblown and poorly handled. He has also spoken about how much he misses performing.The text of his Facebook message reads:Hello to my dear audience,In light of the sad situation that the Israeli government has created for its citizens and for culture, my family and I have chosen to disconnect for the sake of our mental health.I’m taking a break from the chaos in the hope that the situation will be reversed and return to normal and to the routine of the past.Right now, I’m writing and creating and trying to enjoy being close to my family, even though it’s not easy and not simple to be so far from my friends, the musicians I work with and my fans. But it’s temporary.Caspi, 70, is an acclaimed singer, songwriter and musician whose music has been hugely popular for decades. He had lived abroad at other times in his career. In the 90s, after he split up with his first wife, he moved to California and remarried. He had been granted a divorce by a rabbinical court in Los Angeles and thought he was legally divorced when he married for the second time. But when he returned to Israel, he discovered that the divorce was not considered legal in Israel and in 2002, he was given a suspended sentence and a fine for bigamy, which angered him.