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University of Alabama Investigating Antisemitic Chalk Messages

The University of Alabama says it is investigating anonymous chalk drawings featuring antisemitic messages aimed at members of the Jewish community.

Photos of the drawings were published on social media by Stopantisemitism.org, which said the #YEisRight references and supports rapper Kanye West's recent antisemitic rants on social media.

The advocacy group then claimed the University of Alabama will be the "next target" for controversial antisemite and far-right provocateur Dalton Clodfelter.

This comes after Clodfelter's hate group set up a table at Florida Atlantic last week and generated backlash from the FAU chapter of the Republican Party.

"We condemn these chalkings, which violate our Capstone Creed, our campus culture and our core values," University of Alabama spokesperson Shane Dorrill said in a statement. "Our expectation is that everyone be treated with civility and respect. As soon as we were notified of the chalkings we began removing them, initiated an investigation and organized resources for those impacted and concerned. Public Safety and the Offices of Student Life and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion are fully engaged and providing related support."

Twitter Suspends Holocaust Denier Nick Fuentes One Day After Reinstatement

Far-right political commentator Nick Fuentes had his Twitter account restored by the platform on Tuesday, but he's apparently already been subjected to another suspension.

Fuentes, a Holocaust denier who caused controversy for former President Donald Trump when he joined Kanye West for a dinner with the Republican leader at Mar-a-Lago in November, received a permanent ban from Twitter in 2021. A Twitter spokesperson told Newsweek at the time that the ban was for "repeated violations" of the company's rules.

Fuentes was allowed back on Twitter on Tuesday, and he celebrated the news by posting an image of the cartoon character Patrick Star from the show SpongeBob SquarePants pushing open a set of doors.

The image and the rest of Fuentes' account was not available as of publication time. On Wednesday, a notice was attached to Fuentes' official @NickJFuentes account that stated it had been suspended. No other information has been made available for why Fuentes was again punished by the platform.

News of Fuentes' reinstatement on Tuesday was met with the backlash against Twitter CEO Elon Musk from users of the platform.

Liora Rez, executive director of StopAntisemitism, also denounced the move in a statement provided to Newsweek.

"There is no excuse or reason why someone as antisemitic as Nick Fuentes has been rewarded with exponential reach to spew his bigotry on Twitter," Rez wrote. "Someone who's been known to incite real acts of violence and spread misinformation about a marginalized group of people should never be given a platform, period."

Speculation for why Fuentes was suspended includes that his account was subjected to mass flagging by people angry about his reinstatement. Other Twitter users also reported that he made comments on Twitter Spaces on Tuesday about Adolf Hitler and domestic terrorist Ted Kaczynski, aka the Unabomber.

On his Telegram channel, Fuentes addressed his suspension by encouraging his followers to tweet #FREENICKFUENTES and tag Musk, Ella Irwin (Twitter's head of trust and safety) and Esther Crawford (Twitter's director of product management).

Fuentes asked his fans to "be nice" in their messages to Twitter.

Twitter Unbans White Supremacist and Holocaust Denier Nick Fuentes

White supremacist and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes has been reinstated on Twitter, despite previous repeated violations of the social media platform’s terms of service. The antisemitic activist announced his return by tweeting a reference to the rapper Ye’s antisemitic threat to go “death con 3” on Jewish people.

“First Neo-Nazi Andrew Anglin. Then Holocaust denier Ryan Dawson. Now white supremacist Nick Fuentes is back on Twitter,” tweeted StopAntisemitism in response to Fuentes’ reinstatement. “This isn’t how you curb hate, Elon Musk, this is helping spread it.”

Fuentes gained notoriety in recent months when Ye, aka Kanye West, took him to the Mar-A-Lago resort in November to meet with former President Donald Trump over dinner. According to Ye, Trump was “very impressed” with Fuentes. Jewish organizations and supporters of the former president, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Zionist Organization of America, expressed outrage over the meeting.

“No responsible American, and certainly no former president, should be cavorting with the likes of Nick Fuentes and Kanye West,” tweeted the Trump administration’s former special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism Elan Carr. “To placate antisemitism is to promote antisemitism. President Trump must condemn these dangerous men and their disgusting and un-American views.”

Earlier this month, Fuentes announced on his telegram channel that more than 1,000 students had signed up for a group dubbed “Students for Ye” within the span of two weeks. Fuentes has become an integral part of Ye’s entourage and his informal 2024 presidential campaign, ever since the rapper has been engaged in a months-long attempt to mainstream antisemitism.

“There is no reason why someone as antisemitic as Nick Fuentes has been rewarded with exponential reach to spew his bigotry on Twitter,” Liora Rez, executive director of StopAntisemitism, told JNS. “Someone who’s been known to incite real acts of violence and spread misinformation about a marginalized group of people should never be given a platform, period.”

New Bill Filed to Crack Down on Hate Crimes

Atlantis Police in Palm Beach County arrested 33-year-old Nicholas Bysheim for obstructing a law enforcement officer without violence on Saturday.

Investigators got reports of people in a U-Haul pickup truck tossing antisemitic flyers in the community Saturday. They soon found the truck on South Country Club Drive and saw a man throwing plastic bags with flyers onto people's lawns.

"We can’t stop them from distributing. However, littering is littering. And we wanted to cite him for that. That’s not an arrestable offense. However, when he failed to identify himself so we could issue the citation, that is an arrestable offense," Atlantis Police Chief Robert Mangold told WPBF 25 News.

They soon learned that the suspect is from Maryland. He joined two other people, including the leader of the group Goyim Defense League that weekend.

NGO StopAntisemitism identified the individuals as Nicholas Bysheim and Jon Minadeo. Minadeo is the leader of the white supremacist group, Goyim Defense League (GDL).

"I was concerned that they came into my community; obviously it’s a very quiet, primarily residential community," Mangold said. "We don’t appreciate your hate, don’t want you here."

The flyers that were distributed in Atlantis were the same papers that were tossed in Lake Worth neighborhoods over the weekend.

Investigators say they are also familiar faces behind a similar incident in Boca Raton in early January.

"There was a BOLO (Be on the lookout) put out by Boca Raton PD and GDL...Goyim Defense League...was identified in that BOLO. And those were the same people that we dealt with on this last Saturday evening," Mangold said.

WPBF 25 News reached out to West Palm Beach Police on whether these individuals were also behind the projection of swastikas on the AT&T building in West Palm Beach, and have not yet heard back.

The executive director of the nonprofit, StopAntisemitism, sent WPBF 25 News a statement in part below.

"StopAntisemitism commends the Atlantis Police Department for the arrest of Nicholas Bysheim, member of a dangerous white supremacist group called the Goyim Defense League...Bysheim’s dissemination of antisemitism is threatening and he must be held accountable," Liora Rez responded.

The suspect had been taken to the Palm Beach County jail.

"He was released two hours after we transported him there, on his own recognizance. It’s kind of ironic because in the morning, PBSO (Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office) employees found that this hate literature has been distributed on their vehicles," Mangold said.

And in order to crack down on antisemitic incidents like these, Palm Beach County leaders had a roundtable discussion Tuesday afternoon. Officials gathered to have a conversation on what laws or ordinances can be in place to prevent antisemitic cases from rising.

Palm Beach County Mayor Gregg Weiss announced that Republican State Rep. Mike Caruso introduced new legislation that could make these types of incidents punishable up to third-degree felonies, including broadcasting on people's buildings without permission and anti-littering laws.

"This is an unprecedented level of a slew of antisemitic events that have happened in such a short period of time. But it’s important to note that these are coming from individuals that are not from Palm Beach County," Michael Hoffman, president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Palm Beach County, said. "We feel deeply appreciative that our elected officials and law enforcement are coming out strong in solidarity with the Jewish community to pass this legislation and ordinances to say that no individual has the ability or right to come in and make expressions of hate, to threaten, to intimidate participants and members of the Jewish community."

"These people are not coming from Palm Beach County. They’re coming from outside of Palm Beach County to bring their hate to us. And we are a diverse, peaceful, loving community, welcoming community, but we don’t welcome their hate," Weiss said.

"We’re not going to let them get away so easily. We’re going to work to change the laws, we’re going to work to see what we can do to existing laws, and we’re going to come together as a community," Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg said.

California Professor with History of Pro-Terrorism Comments Honored

Rabab Abdulhadi, a San Francisco State University associate professor with a history of expressing support for terrorist groups, has received the 2022 Jere L. Bacharach Service Award from the Middle East Studies Association.

"I wanted to grow up to be like Leila Khaled. I didn't want to grow up to become a homemaker. I really wanted to be part of the struggle," said Abdulhadi during a 2020 panel discussion streamed on YouTube (28:41 onwards), referring to the Jordan-based Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist notorious for her role in hijacking two civilian airliners in 1969 and 1970.

Abdulhadi has also praised other PFLP terrorists on social media, including Georges Abdallah, Rasmieh Odeh and Shadia Abu Ghazaleh.

In a 2021 post on Facebook, she hailed Odeh and Abu Ghazaleh as "freedom fighters" who "garnered most attention."

Odeh is a Jordan-based anti-Israel activist, convicted by an Israeli court in 1970 for her participation in a 1969 supermarket bombing terrorist attack that killed Israeli college students Leon Kanner and Eddie Joffe. After she was released from an Israeli prison in a prisoner exchange in 1980, Odeh immigrated to the United States, from where she was deported in 2017 for immigration fraud, for failing to declare her terrorism-related conviction in her immigration papers.

Abu Ghazaleh was a 19-year-old PFLP terrorist notorious for crafting explosives used in attacks carried out against Israel. Abu Ghazaleh died in 1968 when a bomb she was preparing for an attack in Tel Aviv detonated in her home.

Abdulhadi is the San Francisco State University's Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas Studies Program's founding director and senior scholar. She is also a founding member of the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel—an organization advocating for the boycott of Israeli academia and cultural organizations in alignment with the goals of the BDS movement. Before joining San Francisco State University, she was the first director of the University of Michigan-Dearborn's Center for Arab American Studies.

Abdulhadi and the San Francisco State University Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diaspora Studies program were the organizers of a 2020 Zoom conference featuring Khaled that Zoom Video Communications canceled out of fears that hosting such an event could be a felony.

In 2020, Abdulhadi wrote on Facebook that she was the faculty adviser for the San Francisco State University chapter of the General Union of Palestinian Students.

Abdulhadi has also made comments accusing pro-Israel and Jewish members of Congress of having dual loyalty to Israel and the U.S.

In August 2019, watchdog StopAntisemitism named Abdulhadi "Antisemite of the Week" for "feeding the minds of the next generation of students and academics with hate, racism and antisemitism."

StopAntisemitism tweeted their outrage over San Francisco University’s invite to Abdulhadi.

"I think we need to go to [then U.S. vice presidential candidate] Kamala Harris and say to her: '... It's not okay that some of our representatives actually have dual Israeli-U.S. passport [sic]. That's not okay! That's not okay!'" Abdulhadi said (44:30) during a 2020 Livestream hosted by Palestinian American comedian and activist Amer Zahr on Facebook.

Speaking of pro-Israel groups, Abdulhadi said during a 2019 interview with Arab Talk, "These groups are bullies...they push around in Congress and they bribe them, and they give them money, they twist their arms and so on, they are used to basically silencing everybody and crushing everybody."

Abdulhadi has also expressed opposition to the presence of Zionists on campus. In 2018, when San Francisco State University President Leslie Wong sent an email to the university community saying: "Zionists are welcome on our campus," Abdulhadi responded with a lengthy condemnation on Facebook.

"I consider the statement below from President Wong, welcoming Zionists to campus, equating Jewishness with Zionism, and giving Hillel ownership of campus Jewishness, to be a declaration of war against Arabs, Muslims, Palestinians and all those who are committed to an indivisible sense of justice on and off campus," wrote Abdulhadi, denouncing Wong's statement as "​​racist, Islamophobic and colonialist."

"I'm waiting for him to say, 'White supremacists are welcome, KKK is welcome..., Neo-Nazis are welcome, homophobes are welcome, misogynists are welcome.' Why stop only at Zionists? Welcome them all. I mean bring the...whole club. Bring everybody who is right-wing and racist, bring them to campus, why only stop at Zionists?" Abdulhadi later said (34:05) of Wong's statement in an interview published on Facebook.

Liora Rez, director of StopAntisemitism, said MESA awarding Abdulhadi its service award, "delegitimizes the organization's mission, though it's not surprising given their recent alignment with the BDS movement.

"Academic freedom, touted by MESA and Abdulhadi, does not extend to indoctrinating students with propaganda from terrorist organizations that they collaborate with, even at schools known for tolerating such conduct, like SFSU," said Rez.

The Middle East Studies Association did not respond to JNS's requests for comment.

Biden’s Undiplomatic Diplomat

This year started with a bang in Brazil’s capital. Jair Bolsonaro’s supporters protested election results by rioting, breaching government buildings, and fighting police, leading to hundreds of arrests. And who is there representing the United States?

It’s the President’s new ambassador, who has made incendiary comments about Jewish and Cuban Americans. She is someone whose confirmation undercuts the president’s pronouncement at last month’s White House Hanukkah party that “silence” about antisemitism “is complicity.”

Elizabeth Frawley Bagley’s ambassadorial nomination stirred controversy after The Washington Free Beacon publicized inflammatory remarks Bagley made as part of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project in 1998.

Bagley charged that the Cuban American National Foundation, a major Cuban-American organization, “played both sides” and that Democrats’ wooing of Cuban-Americans “is not [about voter] numbers, it is like the Jewish factor, it’s money.”

Asked about “the Israeli influence” on the Clinton-Gore campaign, which the interviewer called “one of the big things of any campaign,” Bagley replied, “There is always the influence of the Jewish lobby because there is major money involved.” Bagley asserted that this influence was behind “the usual ‘make Jerusalem the capital of Israel’” campaign promise, which Bagley considered one of the “stupid things” Democrats say.

NGO StopAntisemitism has repeatedly denounced the absurd antisemitic remarks from Ambassador Badgley.

These were not private comments. Nor were they a youthful indiscretion. Sens. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) and Ben Cardin (D-Md.) rightly followed up.

Cardin noted, “The choice of words fit into the traditional tropes of antisemitism,” but oddly added that he expected the former ambassador to Portugal’s “language would have been more guarded than that,” as if veiled antisemitism were acceptable.

Meanwhile, Menendez asked, “Is it a suggestion that one group of Americans don’t have the right to engage in the political process as others do?”

For a diplomat, Bagley’s answers were poor. She told Cardin, “I regret that you would think that it was a problem” and “I certainly didn’t mean anything by it. It was a poor choice of words.”

Still, Biden stood by Bagley, as did all 11 Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, including Cardin and Menendez. Neither senator responded to requests for comment about what won them over. Not one senator objected to Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.)’s request for unanimous consent on the Dec. 14 vote that confirmed Bagley.

Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Associate Dean and Director of Global Social Action for the Simon Wiesenthal Center, commented, “Those sentiments about Jewish control, etc. are toxic. … We all appreciate the White House, starting with speaking in a high-profile way against antisemitism, but words are meaningless when such a nomination was allowed to pass.”

Zionist Organization of America President Morton Klein remarked, “Confirming Jew-hater Bagley’s nomination makes clear Congress and the Biden administration is not serious about fighting the rising scourge of Jew-hatred. … I’m more than disappointed—I’m frightened.”

Liora Rez, executive director of StopAntisemitism, described the Senate’s “voice vote … that denies any accountability” as “discouraging.”

Rabbi Cooper observed that “going forward, we cannot make a dent in the struggle against antisemitism” without bipartisanship and “consequence[s] for bigots.”

Biden’s unwavering loyalty to Bagley, along with the Senate’s confirmation, signals that openly antisemitic statements no longer disqualify nominees for prominent positions of public trust. Such statements no longer require repudiation. Flimsy explanations are sufficient, as partisanship trumps moral guardrails.

By Biden’s own logic, he and every senator who helped confirm Bagley are more than complicit in the rising antisemitism he claims to oppose.

Harvard Offers Fellowship To Activist Previously Rejected For ‘Anti-Israel-Bias’

Douglas Elmendorf, dean of Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, announced Thursday that he was extending an offer of a fellowship to Kenneth Roth, former executive director of Human Rights Watch (HRW), after previously rejecting the proposal over concerns of anti-Israel bias from Roth and HRW, according to The New York Times.

Harvard’s Carr Center for Human Rights Policy initially offered Roth a position in May 2022; however, Elmendorf denied the fellowship later that year due to concerns of “anti-Israel bias,” according to the Nation. On Thursday, Elmendorf reversed his decision to offer Roth a fellowship, calling it an “error,” according to the NYT.

Elmendorf’s initial decision was reportedly impacted by his concerns that HRW had an “anti-Israel bias,” according to the Nation. Roth, a Jew whose family was forced to flee Nazi Germany during World War II, said in a statement on Twitter that he was “thrilled” by the decision but wasn’t satisfied with the dean’s explanation.

“First, [Elmendorf] still has not said anything about the people ‘who matter to him’ whom he said were behind his original veto decision,” Roth noted. “Second, I remain worried about academic freedom.”

Roth seemed to be referring to accusations that Elmendorf had rejected the original proposal due to donor influence, according to the NYT, but Elmendorf pushed back on this in his Thursday announcement.

“Donors do not affect our consideration of academic matters,” Elmendorf stated. “My decision was also not made to limit debate at the Kennedy School about human rights in any country.”

Both Roth and HRW have come under fire from Jewish organizations for promoting the narrative that Israel is an “apartheid state,” and for tweets on Roth’s personal Twitter account, according to the NYT. In 2021, HRW released a report stating that many of Israel’s policies regarding the treatment of Palestinians met the standards of apartheid.

Omar Shakir, the author of the report and HRW’s Israel/Palestine director, recommended Israel “dismantle” systems that “privilege Jewish Israelis.”

Liora Rez, executive director of StopAntisemitism, told the Daily Caller News Foundation that she was “disgusted” by Harvard’s decision.

“Kenneth Roth and Human Rights Watch perpetuate falsities about the Jewish State of Israel creating a dangerous space for Jewish students on the Harvard campus which received a D grade in our 2022 report of Antisemitism on U.S. College & University Campuses,”Rez stated. “Students report that the administration doesn’t take their concerns about safety seriously and this appointment solidifies that concern.”

Roth told the DCNF that his critics were “hardly arbiters of bias.”

“My personal comments on Israel have all been consistent with the organization that I led,” Roth said. “The handful of groups that accuse HRW of ‘bias’ never ever criticize the Israeli government for its human rights violations and only attack people who do criticize Israeli human rights violations.”

One of Roth’s since-deleted tweets stated that the Israeli government’s actions during the Israel-Gaza conflict could be a factor in rising antisemitism in the United Kingdom, according to Forward. UN Watch, a non-governmental organization based in Geneva, Switzerland that monitors the United Nations, published a list of Roth’s concerning tweets regarding Israel in November 2019 and found that 70% of his tweets alleging illegal acts referred to Israel.

Many of those tweets were regarding Israel’s decision to not renew Shakir’s visa because he violated a 2017 law by supporting the BDS movement, according to the NGO Monitor. Roth argued that neither HRW nor Shakir had ever supported the BDS movement, though Shakir, during his time with the Center for Constitutional Rights, signed a letter that directly encouraged support for the Palestinian “BDS call” and accused Israel of “war crimes,” “apartheid” and “ethnic cleansing.”

Despite this, Roth explained to the DCNF that Israel is evaluated by HRW with the same criteria as any other nation.

“Israel is one of 100 countries on whose human rights record Human Rights Watch regularly reports,” Roth noted. “Human Rights Watch uses the same careful, fact-based reporting, and applies the same international human rights and humanitarian law, as in those other countries.”

Elmendorf and Shakir did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

Louis Vuitton Slammed for Hiring ‘Ardent Antisemite’ Bella Hadid for New Campaign

The French luxury fashion house Louis Vuitton is being criticized by Israel advocates for hiring model Bella Hadid to be the face of its new collaboration with famed Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama in light of her past antisemitic and anti-Israel remarks and her participation in a pro-Palestinian rally that called for the destruction of Israel last year.

“It is imperative that influential people be held to account for their deeds and words,” Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, told The Algemeiner. “Ms Hadid has repeatedly been identified with expressing hate promoting messages and inciting comments. LVMH should be particularly sensitive to this and should disassociate from her. Send a message that there will be no more no excuses, no exception. Jew hatred will not be tolerated.”

In 2021, during the conflict between Israel and Hamas forces in the Gaza Strip, Bella participated in a pro-Palestinian demonstration in New York City and joined protesters in chanting “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” The slogan calls for the destruction of the Jewish state in favor of a Palestinian state from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. Hadid shared a photo from the rally on her Instagram page and in the image she was standing next to Waseem Awawdeh, who was arrested days after the protest for allegedly beating up a Jewish man and calling him a “filthy Jew.”

On Instagram she has posted “Free Palestine” messages and also accused Israel in the past of “colonization, ethnic cleansing, military occupation and apartheid over the Palestinian people that has been going on for YEARS!” Bella told Vogue magazine in an interview that the Israeli government is “suppressing people” and previously posted on Instagram about “Palestinian oppression” under Israel. A petition was even launched in 2021 that urged major companies to drop Bella and Gigi as brand ambassadors for inciting antisemitism and spreading “misinformation” about Israel.

Hadid, 26, announced her campaign with Louis Vuitton, her first with the luxury brand, on social media on Sunday. She said that not only is she Kusama’s “biggest fan” and “so intrigued with her story and life….but I connect with her deeply on healing mental struggles through artistic freedom and creation.”

Hadid’s mother is Dutch-born former model Yolanda Hadid, her father is Nazareth-born Jordanian real estate mogul Mohamed Hadid and she is also the sister of model Gigi Hadid.

Liora Rez, executive director of StopAntisemitism.org, told The Algemeiner she is also saddened by Louis Vuitton’s decision to hire an “ardent antisemite” like Bella to be the face of the brand’s new collaboration with Kusama. She added, “Hadid has shown her true colors time and again, sharing her bigoted opinions about Jewish people and Israel with her millions of followers on social media. With so many beautiful faces to choose from, we question the luxury brand’s choice and ask them to rethink who they want representing them.”

Kusama is known for her extensive use of polka dots and her “infinity installations” around the world. Louis Vuitton’s limited bag collection with will feature the artist’s popular polka dot patterns. The campaign was shot by world famous photographer Steven Meisel and also featured other famous models, including Gisele Bundchen, Christy Turlington, Natalia Vodianova, Liya Kebede, Devon Aoki and Karlie Kloss.

Notorious Antisemitic Group Moves to Florida With a Target on DeSantis

The head of GoyimTV, the video platform of the antisemitic group Goyim Defense League (GDL), recently said he's moving his headquarters from the San Francisco Bay Area to Florida.

In his December 6 announcement shared on the Gab social media platform, GDL and GoyimTV founder Jon Minadeo Jr. also said that he was relocating to Florida "to keep the pressure on" Florida Governor Ron DeSantis because of the Republican's support for Israel.

Minadeo founded GDL in 2018, and the group and its associated personalities have gained national attention for spreading antisemitic messages and pushing conspiracy theories on various topics, including COVID-19. In October, Minadeo and other GDL members made headlines when they hung a banner over a Los Angeles highway that read "Kanye is right about the Jews." The stunt came after rapper Kanye West—who legally changed his name to Ye in 2021—posted antisemitic comments on social media.

"My time in this state is over," Minadeo says in a voice-over of the announcement video as he's seen driving a moving truck.

The video also contains antisemitic imagery, clips of Ye and footage of Disney World, alligators and flamingoes. Eventually, the video's theme shifts to DeSantis and shows part of a 2019 news segment on the governor attending a meeting in Israel and praying at Jerusalem's Western Wall.

At the 2019 meeting, DeSantis signed a bill that prohibits antisemitism in Florida's schools. The law defined antisemitism as including "drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis," ″blaming Israel for all interreligious or political tensions," or "requiring behavior of Israel that is not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation," according to the Associated Press.

Liora Rez, executive director of StopAntisemitism, told Newsweek in an emailed statement that DeSantis should be doing more to address antisemitism in Florida, "particularly if GDL is setting up shop there."

"Governor DeSantis must always be among the first to condemn antisemitism in Florida especially since the state boasts one of the largest Jewish populations in the United States," Rez wrote. "But, over the past few months, blatant and frightening antisemitism has surfaced in DeSantis' backyard that have not been met with lackluster response...The lack of proactive and swift condemnation is a disappointment."

Reached for comment by Newsweek, Jeremy Redfern, DeSantis' deputy press secretary, highlighted multiple initiatives the governor has taken for Florida's Jewish community. These include allocating millions of dollars in state funding for professional security at Florida's Jewish Day Schools and helping enact a curriculum that teaches students about the Holocaust.

"Governor DeSantis rejects attempts to scapegoat the Jewish community—it has no place in Florida," Redfern said. "Through legislative proposals, laws and decisive executive action, Governor DeSantis has a proven record of supporting the Jewish community and fighting antisemitism and the Boycott, Divest and Sanctions movement in Florida."

Kanye West Named ‘Antisemite of the Year’ by Watchdog Group

Following Kanye West‘s continual stream of antisemitic rhetoric and hate speech, watchdog group StopAntisemitism has named the rapper “Antisemite of the Year” after thousands of online votes.

“Congratulations to Kanye West, disgraced rapper and fashion mogul, for being voted the 2022 Antisemite of the Year,” the nonprofit wrote in a video shared to Twitter on Sunday (Dec. 11), in which the organization recapped his hateful remarks throughout the past few months. “Mazel Tov Kanye West for propagating the most Jew hatred in 2022 and winning this year’s dishonor.”

“Kanye uses his celebrity platform to push dangerous antisemitic tropes about Jews and power and he refuses to stop,” StopAntisemitism’s Executive Director Liora Rez told TMZ. “His continuous onslaught of bigoted statements has resulted in horrific antisemitic acts perpetrated by white supremacists, Black Hebrew Israelites, and other fringe groups looking to cause Jews harm.”

She continued, “Jew hatred is already out of control in the United States and the last thing we need is a celebrity like Kanye to add fuel to that fire.”

After causing controversy with “White Lives Matter” T-shirts in early October at Paris Fashion Week, West tweeted that he was going to go “death con 3” on Jewish people on Oct. 16. This kicked off a string of hate-speech-filled interviews that alienated his many business partners (Adidas, Gap, CAA and more dropped him). The interviews reached an even more disturbing level when West appeared on Alex Jones’ InfoWars and said “I see good things about Hitler,” among other harmful statements.

Kanye West is Watchdog Group’s 2022 ‘Antisemite of the Year’

Kanye West was “Bound 2” win this notorious award.

The disgraced recording artist, who goes by the name Ye, on Sunday was named 2022’s Antisemite of the Year by the group StopAntisemitism.

West, 45, notched the dubious dishonor for a relentless barrage of “threats of violence, hateful conduct and hate speech” against Jewish people, the group said in a video posted to Twitter.

The watchdog group cited West’s October post about his plan to go “def con 3” on Jews and repeated statements that he was being controlled by Jewish executives.

The backlash forced his fashion industry partners Adidas, Gap and Balenciaga to cut ties with the Yeezy designer, costing him about $2 billion “overnight,” he claimed.

In November, West brought right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos and white supremacist Nick Fuentes to Mar-a-Lago to dine with former President Donald Trump.

Trump claimed West sandbagged him by bringing the uninvited guests and called his once-outspoken supporter a “seriously troubled man.”

Earlier this month, Ye professed his admiration for Jewish genocide mastermind Adolf Hitler in a string of outrageous alt-media interviews and shared photos of the Nazi swastika online before being banished from social media.

“Despite losing the vast majority of his fortune, being booted from social media and ostracized from his social circles, West continued spreading his antisemitism,” the group declared.

West was named Antisemite of the Year after earning more votes from the public than fellow finalists Mohamed Hadid — the father of supermodels Gigi and Bella Hadid — and Jon Minadeo II, who heads the white supremacist group the Goyim Defense League.

West, who has been hospitalized for psychotic episodes in 2016 and 2019, and publicly discussed his struggles with bipolar disorder, has won 24 Grammys and been nominated for Album of the Year 10 times.

As the once-beloved artist’s hateful rants made headlines in November, anti-Semitic hate crimes in New York City surged by 125% during the month, according to the NYPD.

“Kanye uses his celebrity platform to push dangerous antisemitic tropes about Jews and power and he refuses to stop,” said StopAntisemitism Executive Director, Liora Rez, in a statement to The Post.

“His continuous onslaught of bigoted statements has resulted in horrific antisemitic acts perpetrated by white supremacists, Black Hebrew Israelites, and other fringe groups looking to cause Jews harm,” the statement continued.

“Jew hatred is already out of control in the United States and the last thing we need is a celebrity like Kanye to add fuel to that fire.”

Last year’s noxious award went to Ben & Jerry’s executive Anuradha Mitta, who beat out semifinalists pop star Dua Lipa and US Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.).

Kanye West Named Antisemite of the Year by Watchdog Group

Kanye West's continuous hate speech has earned him the title as the biggest Anti-semite of 2022 from a watchdog organization.

On Sunday (Dec. 11), Stop Antisemitism, the "leading non-partisan American based organization fighting antisemitism," announced they named Ye 2022's antisemite of the Year. The news was revealed via the group's Twitter page.

"Congratulations to Kanye West, disgraced rapper and fashion mogul, for being voted 2022 Antisemite of the Year," the group shared via video, which features a photo of Ye and falling confetti.

"Kanye West's threats of violence, hateful conduct and hate speech all led to him winning this year's title," the video, which features a cinematic score, continues.

The video goes on to recount Ye's many anti-Semitic incidents over the last few months including his "death con 3" comments, his interview with Tucker Carlson and his comments during his sit-down with Alex Jones.

"Mazel Tov Kanye West for propagating the most Jew hatred in 2022 and winning this year's dishonor," the video concludes.

Ye has had a wild end to 2022. It started on Oct. 1 when he debuted "White Lives Matter" t-shirts at his Paris fashion show and has devolved to full-on hate speech about Jewish people whenever he gets the opportunity. Last week, during an interview with Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes, Kanye ended the talk by telling Jewish people they should forgive Hitler and the Nazis.

Ye's actions continue to make former allies cut ties with the controversial rapper. Last week, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago rescinded the honorary doctorate degree it awarded Ye in 2015.

Kanye West Named 'Antisemite of the Year' by Watchdog Group

Kanye West may never win another music-related award again, but there's one group that's honoring him with a not-so-flattering title ... "Antisemite of the Year."

After several weeks and nearly 10,000 votes from members online, watchdog group StopAntisemitism has named Ye the most problematic person of 2022 when it comes to the group's mission.

Liora Rez, SA's Executive Director, tells TMZ, "Kanye uses his celebrity platform to push dangerous antisemitic tropes about Jews and power and he refuses to stop. His continuous onslaught of bigoted statements has resulted in horrific antisemitic acts perpetrated by white supremacists, Black Hebrew Israelites, and other fringe groups looking to cause Jews harm."

She continues, "Jew hatred is already out of control in the United States and the last thing we need is a celebrity like Kanye to add fuel to that fire.”

It's not hard to find the evidence backing Kanye's "Antisemite of the Year" victory.

As we reported, it was shortly after he declared he was, "going death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE" when a group was spotted hanging a "Kanye is right about the Jews" sign over an L.A. freeway.

Just a few days after that, Kanye told Piers Morgan he only wished harm on Jewish people who did him wrong in music and business deals.

Finally, it was last week on Alex Jones "Infowars" when Kanye declared he loved Hitler, denied parts of the Holocaust and demanded Nazis get hated on less when things really ramped up.

We know Adidas, Balenciaga and some of Kanye's closest friends have all cut ties ... he even lost an honorary degree.

Hard to imagine his "Antisemite of the Year" honor will disappear any time soon.

Watchdog Group Names Ye ‘Antisemite of the Year’

Watchdog group StopAntisemitism.org named Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, as the group’s “Antisemite of the Year” after he became embroiled in controversy over a string of derogatory comments against Jews.

The group had named Ye and two other figures who made recent antisemitic comments as finalists late last month.

“Kanye West’s threats of violence, hateful conduct, and hate speech all led to him winning this year’s title,” the group said in its announcement.

Ye has faced public backlash for weeks as he repeatedly made comments criticizing Jewish people and falsely claiming they control the media and Hollywood.

Those comments led Ye to lose music and fashion deals with prominent brands, including Adidas.

Since those losses, Ye has appeared multiple times alongside white supremacist Nick Fuentes. 

Earlier this month, Ye praised Nazis and Adolf Hitler during an appearance on Alex Jones’s Infowars.

“Despite losing the vast majority of his fortune, being booted from social media and ostracized from his social circles, West continued spreading his antisemitism,” StopAntisemitism.org said in its announcement.

Ye could not be reached for comment.

Twitter CEO Elon Musk suspended Ye’s Twitter account earlier this month after he tweeted an image of a swastika intertwined with the Star of David.

Kanye West Named 'Antisemite of the Year' by Leading Jewish Rights Group

Disgraced rapper Kanye West has been named "Antisemite of the Year" on Sunday by watchdog organization, StopAntisemitism.

On Twitter, the organization posted a video announcing West's new title. In the video, it chronicles the long list of missteps the rapper, now legally known as "Ye," has made.

"Kanye West's threats of violence, hateful conduct, and hate speech all led him to winning this year's title," the video reads. "On October 8th, West tweeted out a threat to harm Jews, stating "I'm going death con [Defcon] 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE."

The tweet prompted his suspension from the social media platform and led to the rapper losing his most lucrative partnership with Adidas. Twitter CEO Elon Musk later reinstated West's account, but quickly suspended it again after West shared an image of a swastika over the Star of David, a symbol of Judaism, with the caption: "YE24 LOVE EVERYONE."

In response to his ongoing antisemitic rhetoric, West was also dropped by his talent agency, lawyer and ostracized from social circles.

The Twitter video concludes by showing West's interview with Alex Jones earlier this month when he said that he sees "good things about Hitler," adding that he liked him.

During the interview, Jones, an alt-right political figure, even pushed back against West's statements. "I've done a lot of study. I think Hitler was a really bad guy and I repudiate what Hitler did..." he said.

West also received criticism for having dinner with former President Donald Trump and known Holocaust denier and white nationalist Nick Fuentes at Mar-a-Lago in November.

After facing backlash from Republicans and Democrats over the meeting, Trump took to Truth Social to address the dinner and defend himself by saying, "So I help a seriously troubled man, who just happens to be black, Ye (Kanye West), who has been decimated in his business and virtually everything else, and who has always been good to me, by allowing his request for a meeting at Mar-a-Lago, alone, so that I can give him very much needed 'advice.'"

West said he went to Mar-a-Lago to ask Trump to be his vice presidential running mate after announcing his own run for president in 2024.

"He shows up with 3 people, two of which I didn't know, the other a political person who I haven't seen in years," Trump said, who added that he told West he shouldn't "run for office" because it would be "a total waste of time."

Jewish Groups Urge Influencers and Tech Platforms to Stop Hosting Ye Interviews

Jewish and anti-hate organizations are urging social media influencers and tech platforms to stop hosting interviews with Ye, the rapper and artist formerly known as Kanye West, as he’s continued to make antisemitic statements and criticize Jewish people in his recent public appearances. 

Representatives for five Jewish and anti-hate groups including the Anti-Defamation League, the Southern Poverty Law Center, the American Jewish Committee, StopAntisemitism and the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance called on influencers and tech platforms to take responsibility for their part in allowing Ye’s antisemitic statements to spread online.

“Anybody who gives him a platform, you’re basically complicit at this point,” said Liora Rez, executive director of StopAntisemitism. “The only goal of his is to spew hatred and further vilify Jews.”

The statements come after white nationalist Nick Fuentes, who has been working on Ye’s 2024 presidential campaign, livestreamed what he said was a call with Twitch star Adin Ross on Dec. 3, in which the two appeared to discuss a potential interview involving Ye and Ross. Ross, a popular Twitch streamer with 7 million followers, is Jewish and said that he was going to “stand up for the Jews” in the interview.

On Dec. 5, political streamer Hasan Piker said in a Twitch stream that he may participate in the interview. Piker has more than 2 million followers on the popular Amazon-owned streaming platform.

Neither Piker nor Ross responded to a request for comment. A Twitch representative responded by pointing NBC News to its hateful conduct policy, which forbids “behavior that is motivated by hatred, prejudice or intolerance.” The representative noted that if a guest on a Twitch-creator-hosted show broke its policies, it would most likely take down the stream and suspend the show's host.

Rez said that even if Ross planned to challenge Ye, she would be concerned that the interview would stoke antisemitic violence.

“I would hope and we would hope that Aiden Ross’ ratings and follower base are put secondary to the safety of Jews,” she said.

The Anti-Defamation League says that antisemitic violence is increasing and reached an all time high in the U.S. in 2021.

Daniel Kelley, the director of the Anti-Defamation League’s Center for Technology and Society, said that continuing to interview Ye and “even entertaining the idea is damaging in a certain way.”

“When you give an antisemite a megaphone to shout their antisemitism, whether that’s a large mainstream platform where they have a following or whether you’re a streamer who is giving over your audience to them, I think it normalizes antisemitism and it makes it so that Jews are less safe,” Kelley said.

Ross has been silent on the topic of the Ye interview since the call with Fuentes was published. Some online have speculated that the interview was canceled. Kelley said he’d hope that Ross and Piker would speak out if that were the case.

“I think that would be a really powerful statement and it would say something to the audiences that these streamers reach, that is, ‘You know, we thought about it, and by giving a platform to Kanye West we would be amplifying and normalizing antisemitism,’” Kelley said.

Kelley and Rez emphasized that they believed Twitch’s user base, composed largely of young people interested in online gaming, was especially vulnerable to Ye’s antisemitic language. In a survey released last week, the Anti-Defamation League said that 15% of young people between the ages of 10 and 17 reported being exposed to white supremacist ideology while engaged in online gaming in 2022. 

“We are seeing the continued normalization of sort of white supremacist ideas in gaming spaces,” Kelley said. "I think there is a real danger to giving a platform to this kind of conversation in that space."

Susan Corke, director of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Project, supported the idea of removing Ye from platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Twitch, but said that was just a first step.

“It is a whole constellation of issues, and we’ve been tracking how there has been the switch to streaming platforms by the hard right,” Corke said. “They have found that they can make a lot of money off it, and it’s much harder for organizations like ours to track it.”

Holly Huffnagle, the director for combating antisemitism at the American Jewish Committee, said that to effectively deal with antisemitism, platforms, influencers and audiences need to stop giving the attention to people spreading antisemitic ideas.

“We have to have a society-wide response to this problem,” Huffnagle said.

Vote for the Antisemite of the Year 2022 - StopAntisemitism Announces Three Finalists

StopAntisemitism.org, a grassroots watchdog group, has announced the three finalists in its “Antisemite of the Year 2022” contest.

The candidates for the title are rapper Kanye “Ye” West, real estate developer Mohamed Hadid and white supremacist Jon Minadeo II.

During the past year, there were 10 individuals whose antisemitic acts and statements put them in StopAntisemitism.org’s “Antisemite of the Week” postings. Their number was narrowed down to three after thousands cast ballots in the fourth annual contest.

In October, Ye tweeted he would go “death con 3” on “JEWISH PEOPLE;” said that rapper Diddy (Sean Combs) is controlled by Jews; and accused former President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner of brokering the Abraham Accords because of his interest in “making money.”

After his antisemitic on-air and social media statements, Ye lost the majority of his billion-dollar fortune when Adidas, Balenciaga and other companies canceled partnerships with his “Yeezy” brand. Despite numerous chances to apologize, Ye has defended his remarks and continued to make antisemitic remarks.

Hadid, born to a Palestinian family in Nazareth, “spreads his false antisemitic conspiracy theories to millions of followers on his social media platforms,” according to StopAntisemitism.org. Hadid, a Jordanian-American, has also blamed his personal financial issues on the Jewish people.

In an Instagram post in October, the father of two influential supermodels went on an antisemitic rant, comparing Zionists to Adolf Hitler and terrorists.

Minadeo is the leader of the white supremacist group the Goyim Defense League (GDL). He was responsible for hanging a banner over the 405 Freeway in Los Angeles in August, which read, “Kanye is right about the Jews.” He also directed his followers to drop thousands of antisemitic flyers across the U.S., blaming everything from 9/11 to COVID to the war in Ukraine on the Jews.

West is in the lead for the title, according to StopAntisemitism Executive Director Liora Rez, who said that is not surprising as he has been in the headlines throughout the voting process.

“Though these three men promote antisemitism from three different directions, they are equally dangerous,” added Rez to JNS. “Together, they have all been a catastrophe for the well-being of Jewish people in the United States in 2022. There are no Jewish safe spaces. The current state of Jew-hatred is running rampant with no end in sight.”

The voting has taken place online via the website StopAntisemitism.organd has been promoted on social media platforms. Rez said participation has gone up dramatically in the past two years, with thousands voting as soon as voting opened for each round.

Voting for the finalist is open now, and the “winner” of the “Antisemite of the Year 2022” contest will be announced on Dec. 11th.

Dearborn Man Charged in Antisemitic Incident at Michigan Synagogue

A Dearborn man has been charged with two counts of ethnic intimidation in what officials said was an antisemitic attack at a historic Synagogue and preschool for Jewish students in Bloomfield Township.

Hassan Yehia Chokr, 35, was arrested by police after antisemitic and racist threats were made Friday against children, adults and security personnel outside Temple Beth El, Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald said. He made remarks that were both anti-Jewish and anti-Black, said the temple's leader.

“Antisemitic and racist threats or ethnic intimidation of any kind, will not be tolerated in our community, and every such incident will be investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald said Sunday in a statement.

Chokr was taken into custody by Dearborn police, according to a news release from the Oakland County Prosecutor's Office; a Bloomfield Township officer said that happened Saturday morning.

In a news release Sunday, Bloomfield Township police said the department "continues to work in conjunction with local, state, and federal partners and the investigation is ongoing."

Chokr was driving in a white van screaming expletives and derogatory remarks against Jewish people, according to the group StopAntisemitism, based in New York City. The group that combats antisemitism had posted a tweet and photo of the incident that was retweeted hundreds of times. On Sunday, the group said the suspect had visited another synagogue and noted he was making violent threats on his Instagram page.

The temple that was targeted is the oldest Jewish congregation in Michigan, founded in the 19th century in Detroit, historians said.

A review of what Jewish leaders said was the suspect's Instagram account shows that he has made violent and explicit remarks about committing sexual assaults and attacks against Jewish people. In an Instagram post with an antisemitic title, a man also mocks concerns about Jewish children being targeted and referenced the tweet by StopAntisemitism about the Friday incident. The man refers to himself as "freedomfighterhassan" in his Instagram name.

Some Jewish advocates have raised concerns that Bloomfield Township police officers who responded to the incident Friday did not take him into custody and seemed to act in a friendly demeanor toward Chokr.

Adar Rubin, a Jewish community advocate in metro Detroit, posted a video on Twitter that showed an officer telling Chokr: "Do us a favor and don't go back." Chokr then said: "I won't. ... God bless you boys. ... Get the real bad guys."

Asked about the behavior of the officers at the scene shown on the video, Lt. Jason Murphy of the Bloomfield Township police told the Free Press: "There are some concerns about that."

Murphy also provided a news release from Bloomfield Township police that sought to explain the officers' actions.

The incident is the latest case of antisemitism in Oakland County. In October, police arrested an Oxford Township teen after he made antisemitic threats. And last month, someone made antisemitic threats over the phone to the Jewish Community Center of metro Detroit in West Bloomfield, reported WDIV Local 4.

Liora Rez, executive director of StopAntisemitism, said Sunday: “This is the exact type of concern the Jewish community has been on guard about since Kanye and others began spewing their vitriol. A deranged antisemite who has an obsession with Jews and Israel had the audacity to harass Jewish families taking their babies to day care about a political situation happening halfway around the world."

The group also thanked police in metro Detroit "for arresting Hassan Chokr and giving this situation the serious attention it deserves.”