Matisyahu Releases New Song ‘Ascent’ About Antisemitism With Music Video Filmed in Israel

Jewish reggae singer Matisyahu debuted on Friday a new song about antisemitism and the track’s music video was filmed in Israel following the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks in the Jewish state.

The music video for Ascent features survivors of the Nova Music Festival massacre and was filmed at the site of the festival, which was invaded on Oct. 7 by Hamas terrorists who killed 370 people before taking 44 others as hostages back to the Gaza Strip. Matisyahu also filmed the music video in the neighborhoods in southern Israel where Hamas infiltrated and killed residents before kidnapping others and taking them to Gaza. In total, over 1,200 people were murdered and more than 250 abducted.

The music video additionally features archival footage showcasing various moments in Jewish history.

In the song, Matisyahu raps about the “nation that could never be erased” and fighting “waves of deniers … liars [who] start fires that blaze, but truth is the water that stands in its way.” Ascent is included on Matisyahu’s new EP, titled Hold the Fire.

The musician, who began his music career as a Hassidic Jew and has since left that ultra-Orthodox lifestyle, talked about the inspiration behind Ascent in an interview with Billboard News earlier in March. The One Day singer said the track’s title is a nod to the Hebrew prayer “Song of Ascents,” also known in Hebrew as Shir Hamaalot, and was written in response to a historic surge in antisemitic hate crimes around the world since Oct. 7.

In Ascent, Matisyahu is “calling people out on antisemitic thinking,” he said, adding that he believes the track is going to be “empowering.” He explained that his visit to Israel for the song’s music video gave him hope for the future of the Jewish people.

“For the Jewish people right now, there’s this feeling of isolation, separation, anger, and fear,” the Jerusalem singer told Billboard News. “I was feeling really hopeless about what the future was going to look like for all of us and went to Israel, and it renewed my faith in humanity and God. I left with this feeling of light, and I’ve been trying to take that and put that into the music.”

“I think about the people I met there, the survivors of that festival, the soldiers that I met, the families of the hostages and what they’re going through, and that’s what’s given me the strength to not be quiet about what’s going on right now,” he explained.