Surge of anti-Jewish vitriol from celebrities stokes fears of normalising hate

A surge of anti-Jewish vitriol, spread by a world-famous rapper, an NBA star and other prominent people, is stoking fears that public figures are normalising hate and ramping up the risk of violence in a country already experiencing a sharp increase in anti-Semitism.

Leaders of the Jewish community in the US and extremism experts have been alarmed to see celebrities with massive followings spew anti-Semitic tropes in a way that has been taboo for decades. Some said it hearkens back to a darker time in America when powerful people routinely spread conspiracy theories about Jews with impunity.

Former US President Donald Trump hosted a Holocaust-denying white supremacist at Mar-a-Lago. The rapper Kanye West expressed love for Adolf Hitler in an interview. Basketball star Kyrie Irving appeared to promote an anti-Semitic film on social media. Neo-Nazi trolls are clamouring to return to Twitter as new CEO Elon Musk grants “amnesty” to suspended accounts.

“These are not fringe outliers sending emails from their parents garage or idiots no one has ever heard of. When influential mainstream cultural, political and even sports icons normalise hate speech, everyone needs to be very concerned,” said Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber, a leader in South Florida’s Jewish community.

Northwestern University history professor Peter Hayes, who specialises in Nazi Germany and the Holocaust, said normalising anti-Semitism is a “real possibility” when there is a “public discussion of things that used to be beneath contempt.”

“I’m very concerned about it,” Hayes said. “It’s one of the many ways in which America has to get a grip and stop toying with concepts and ideas that are potentially murderous.”

Trump hosted West – the rapper who now wants to be known Ye – and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes for dinner at his Florida home on November 22.