Rihanna, left, and Kanye West in 2015. (John Shearer/Invision/AP) John Shearer/Invision/AP File
West

Despite a spate of “Ye was right” hate crimes targeting Jews, Rihanna sang one of Kanye West’s songs at the Super Bowl on Sunday.

By United with Israel Staff

During the halftime show at Super Bowl LVII on Sunday, superstar Rihanna sang a Kanye West song called “All the Bright Lights.”

The move raised eyebrows due to the wave of violent hate crimes targeting Jews launched by perpetrators who reference West’s recent antisemitic tirades as the inspiration for their assaults.

Since November, at least 30 antisemitic incidents in the United States have involved perpetrators specifically mentioning West, who has recently taken to calling himself “Ye.” The wave of West-inspired anti-Jewish hate crimes was documented by the Anti-Defamation League in a report released this week.

In January 2023, for example, the New York City Police Department identified a suspect who yelled “Kanye 2024” while attacking a 63-year-old Jewish man in Central Park

The crimes were committed after West appeared on a series of talk shows ranting about Jewish control of the media and Jews ruining his life. West also offered effusive praise for genocidal monster Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime, while paradoxically claiming himself to “be Jew.” West’s latter contention is a reference to the Black Hebrew Israelite (BHI) hate group’s claims that the modern-day Jewish community is composed of imposters, while the “real Jews” are descendants of African slaves living in the U.S.

The BHI conspiracy lacks a shred of evidence in the historical record and the group’s philosophy borrows heavily from Nazi concepts of racial superiority. The group also rejects traditional Judaism.

“Despite the public condemnation of Ye’s antisemitic comments, which included inflammatory tropes about Jewish power and Holocaust denial, the slogan ‘Ye is Right’ began surfacing online in hashtags and antisemitic accounts, references that began appearing in on the ground vandalism and harassment across the U.S.” reported JNS.org this week.

“These incidents—only some of which are perpetrated by known extremists—demonstrate how references to Ye, often paired with swastikas or other antisemitic slurs, have become mainstream shorthand for the hatred of—or a desire to commit violence against the Jewish people,” the states the ADL report.

“The ‘Ye is right’ campaign in which extremists peddle Holocaust denial and praise Adolf Hitler, held its first event at Florida Atlantic University on January 18, followed by one at Florida State University eight days later, with similar subsequent events at the University of Alabama, the University of Florida and the University of Central Florida,” added JNS, citing the ADL report.

Despite the “Ye is right” campaign, Rhianna chose to feature one of the hate-monger’s songs at one of the most-watched televised events of the year, the Super Bowl. This likely means the virulent antisemite will be entitled to royalties for the performance of his song at the halftime show.

While Rhianna has performed in Israel in the past and issued no statements in support of West since he embraced open antisemitism, featuring one of West’s songs amid a wave of hate crimes inspired by the celebrity did not go unnoticed.

Following her performance, the phrase “Kanye West” trended on social media.

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