I hate to say I told you so. But way back when Madonna was embracing Kabbalah and taking my name as her own, I knew instinctively that Britney–who would have been a Wannabe, had she been a teenager in the 80s–would not be far behind her idol. And then suddenly Brit wore red string bracelets and toted copies of the Zohar (the primary Kabbalah text) poolside, and I was right: If Madge tries it, it’s good enough for Britney.

But now Britney’s gone beyond Madonna in her embrace of faux-alterna-Judaism, by dating Jewish model Isaac Cohen and sporting what tabloids claim is Cohen’s Magen David (star of David) necklace. While Jews everywhere are echoing Kapped’s prayer (“not a Jew, please”), and speculating that the necklace (and her new hair color) indicates an imminent conversion, pop culture historians should point out that we should probably blame Madonna for this, too: Remember her song from “Confessions on a Dance Floor” that might have been about a storied Kabbalist? It was called “Isaac.”

And Britney’s attempt to catch up with Madonna–and maybe find her own spirituality, or self, in the process–continues.