Who is singer Gil Ofarim?

On Tuesday evening, German rock musician Gil Ofarim posted a video on his Instagram account. It was recorded outside the Westin hotel in the eastern city of Leipzig.

"I am speechless, I don't know what to say," states Ofarim in the clip. He goes on with an emotional account of how he had been standing in line to check in at the hotel, but was constantly ignored and finally told to remove his Star of David pendant if he wanted to be served.

Ofarim's video has caused considerable stir in Germany and even abroad.

The singer's accusations against the hotel's staff come at a time when several representatives of the Jewish community have warned of increasing antisemitism in the country.

According to the police, the hotel employee's description of the incident does not correspond to the musician's, and he has meanwhile filed a complaint for defamation.

Since a pop star was at the center of the incident, that  also contributed to additional media attention. 

So who is Ofarim?

From a musician family

Gil Doron Reichstadt Ofarim is a German singer and songwriter. He was born on August 13, 1982,  and is the son of the Israeli musician Abi Ofarim, who performed with his first wife, Esther, during the 1950s and 1960s. The couple gained international renown for their folk songs and chansons.

Ofarim's childhood and teenage years in Munich were relatively calm, but he realized later on that his life was somewhat different than that of his peers. "I went to the Jewish elementary school there. For me it was normal that a Bavarian policeman with a machine gun was standing in front of the kindergarten," he said in a 2020 interview with German press agency dpa. 

Ofarim, who sings in German and English, shot to fame in 1997, when Bravo magazine spotted him in a Munich underground station and wrote about him. The article landed him a contract with the recording label BMG.

His first single, "Round 'n' Round (It Goes)," was released around the same time, when Ofarim was just 15 years old, and his debut album Here I am, which came out in 1998, was an international success.

The pop star featured in the top-10 singles charts in Asia and as one of Canada's top-10 singers, alongside Justin Timberlake and the Backstreet Boys.

In the early 2000s, Ofarim founded the band "Zoo Army" together with his brother, Tal, and in 2008 created another rock band called "Acht."

In the following years, he shared the stage with American rock band Bon Jovi and German pop icon Nena.

The artist also featured on television in the past decade, including as a contestant in the reality show Let's Dance in 2017, which he won with his teammate, Ekaterina Leonova.

On an emotional journey

In 2019, Ofarim participated in the TV show Voice of Germany and reached the quarterfinals. He has also featured as an actor in the fairy tale, Das Wasser des Lebens (The Water of Life), the mystery series Armans Geheimnis (Arman's secret) and several others.

Early last year the singer released a new album, Alles auf Hoffnung (Everything on Hope), which his website describes as the singer's "emotional logbook."

"I have written innumerable pieces for this album and have let out all that is happening within me," the singer says of his artistic process on his website. "I talk about personal things like taking leave of people you love, of separations, of my responsibility and that of others and of never losing your belief in yourself," he adds.

Earlier this year, the singer released a book, Freiheit in mir (Freedom within me), in which he looks back on "40 years of fantastic successes and magical moments full of love and happiness, but also setbacks, disappointments, doubt and deep sorrow," according to the book's publisher, Droemer Knaur.

Ofarim's book, according to the publisher, "takes us on a journey through the thickets of emotions and experiences, and teaches us to never stand still even when we don't always know where the road leads to." Like his album Alles auf Hoffnung, the book is also a means for him to inspire and motivate others, Ofarim says.