As a millennial rabbi, my coming of age has been alongside some of pop culture’s biggest icons. When I was in high school, Kanye West’s music was everywhere. My friends and I rapped to his beats, and I remember some of the first tunes I streamed on the new website, YouTube, included Kanye’s song, Gold Digger.
As an impressionable teenager, for me, Kanye was highly influential. He was a rebel who answered to no one. He would stick up for the little guy. I remember being especially proud of him when he told off George W. Bush, accusing him of not “caring about black people” in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. When Kanye’s star rose even further, and he became a fashion icon, I bought into his brand and supported him, wearing his Yeezy-branded sneakers.
For Jewish fans of Kanye, the past 12 months have been very painful. Kanye has repeatedly tweeted anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, has threatened Jewish people on social media and on talk shows, and has made voicing virulently anti-Semitic opinions about Jewish people mainstream.
Last month, when Kanye went on the InfoWars talk show hosted by Alex Jones, alongside white supremacist Nick Fuentes, he stated that people should “stop dissing the Nazis” and he exalted Adolf Hitler. My grandfather was a Holocaust survivor who lost his entire family, including his parents, siblings and cousins.
Read the article by Gabi Kaltmann in The Australian.