Without a Word, Billy Joel Protests Neo-Nazis

Wears prominent Star of David at concert
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 22, 2017 4:30 PM CDT
Billy Joel Quietly Protests Neo-Nazis
Christie Brinkley offered up a proud Instagram post.   (Christie Brinkley / Instagram)

Without saying a word, Billy Joel protested the rise of white supremacism Monday night at his Madison Square Garden concert. When he returned to the stage for his four-song encore, Joel was wearing yellow Stars of David on both the front and the back of his suit, Newsday reports. The crowd applauded when the main video screen at the concert zoomed in on the symbol. Joel, who lost many relatives in the Holocaust and whose grandfather fled Nazi Germany before ultimately settling in America, said nothing about the Jewish symbol at the concert and declined a request to comment on it afterward, but both ex-wife Christie Brinkley and daughter Alexa Ray Joel posted about it on Instagram.

"And on the day of the Solar Eclipse a yellow star appeared on the jacket of another kind of star with a clinched fist that seemed to be gripping painful, no excruciating, memories of loved ones who wore that star to their death," Brinkley wrote. "Thank you Billy for reminding people what was ...so it may never ever be again." Added their daughter on her own page, "Now, THIS Is How You Do It. THAT'S MY POP!!! Proud Jewish New Yorker Through & Through!!!!! REPRESENT! STAND STRONG!" (More Billy Joel stories.)

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