Mandy Patinkin moved by Israel, peace for ‘Being Alive’ concert tour

Mandy Patinkin has done thousands of interviews over the span of his four-decade, highly acclaimed career.

But he was considering canceling this one.

“It’s hard to talk about entertainment and selling a concert and asking people to come in the midst of what we’re all dealing with,” he said, referencing the ambush Hamas attacks on Israel that killed more than a thousand people and subsequent Israeli strikes on Gaza.

He and his family wrote on Instagram, “Our hearts are broken. We cannot imagine what it is to live with terror on our doorstep, and the combination of grief and pain and fear and rage when families are callously murdered or taken hostage. For millennia, our people have had to flee and to live with terror.”

They continued: “It’s not lost on us that the victims of war are every person on either side who simply long for a home and for the sense of safety and belonging that all of us long for. War asks us to dehumanize the other, so what we’re focusing on is the humanity of every woman, man and child who didn’t ask for this, who didn’t do this, who will not grow old to see their grandchildren grow up, as we are able to see ours. We stand for peace, and believe it is the only path by which we will ever get out of this.”