What is David Bowie’s Jewish connection?
“Aladdin Sane [Belgian]” by Marc Wathieu is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
A. Bowie performed at a concert at Park Hayarkon in Tel Aviv in 1990, during the time of the first Intifada. During the performance, he altered the lyrics of his song, Space Oddity, singing, "Ground Control, we need Salaam. Ground Control, we need Salaam. Love your neighbor and may God bring you Shalom.”
B. In his song, Station to Station, Bowie sings, “Here are we, one magical movement from Kether to Malkuth.” The lyrics reflect Bowie’s interest in Kabbalah, with Kether, “the crown,” representing the divine light, and Malkhuth, “kingship,” representing the nurturing receptacle of that light.
C. Bowie starred in the 1976 movie The Man Who Fell to Earth, about an extraterrestrial (Bowie) who lands on Earth while on a mission to bring water back to his planet, which is suffering from a destructive drought. The movie, written by Paul Mayersberg, was loosely based on the true story of an Israeli spy who was sent by Ben Gurion to Moscow in 1951. The spy, a trained chemist, infiltrated the D. Mendeleev University of Chemical Technology of Russia in order to steal Russian desalination technology. This information was critical to Israel’s survival, where a lack of fresh water was as great a threat to the fledgling state as was the military threat from its Arab neighbors.
D. Bowie, in an interview with the Jerusalem Post when he toured in Israel in 1996, explained that his song Space Oddity was based on his interest in Kabbalah. Said Bowie, “When Major Tom leaves the space capsule and floats away in space, it is for me a representation of the Kabbalistic teaching about the relationship between the Ein Sof, the mysterious infinity, and the finite world which God created. By separating from his earthly tin can, Major Tom is seeking to connect to the eternal God of the universe.”
E. David Bowie was Jewish, and his birth name was David Borowitz. At his bar mitzvah party in 1960, he sang a song, which later morphed into his greatest hit, Space Oddity. The lyrics he sang that day were “Ground Control to Rabbi Baum. Ground Control to Rabbi Baum. Take your prayer book and put your kippah on. Ground Control to Rabbi Baum. Commencing Torah, tallis on. Kiss your tzitzit and may God’s love be with you.”