President of the World Jewish Congress Ronald Lauder is calling for Kanye West’s music to be removed from streaming services, saying the rapper is “espousing Nazism” and must be deplatformed.
In a letter exclusively obtained by the Post and sent to Apple CEO Tim Cook and Spotify CEO Daniel Ek on Wednesday, Lauder called it “unacceptable that neither Apple Music, nor Spotify have removed Mr. West’s music” as the rapper now known as Ye continues to espouse virulent anti-Semitism.
“Kanye West’s antisemitic tirades go beyond trafficking in conspiracy theories. He is espousing Nazism in its purest, most hateful form, and is perhaps the singular embodiment of the alarming rise of Jew hatred in America,” the billionaire philanthropist wrote.
“As long as his hateful voice is carried on Apple and Spotify’s music streaming platforms, they are in league with those who wish harm to Jews the world over,” he said.
The heir to the Estée Lauder fortune also said that by continuing to host Ye’s on their platforms, the Apple and Spotify are “profiting off of Jewish hate.”
Ye tweeted in October that he planned to go “death con 3” on Jewish people, and professed his love and admiration for Hitler during an interview with alt-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones on his InfoWars show.
“I like Hitler,” Ye said. “There’s a lot of things that I love about Hitler — a lot of things.”
Ye has consistently repeated untrue conspiracy theories about jewish people, continually associated himself with known racists and his behavior has been viewed as normalizing antisemitism.
Shortly after his openly anti-Semitic behavior began, figures posted a banner reading “Kanye was right about the jews” over a Los Angeles freeway and made Nazi salutes at passing motorists. Following that a saboteur projected “Kanye is right about the jews” onto a Florida football stadium, drawing wide condemnation.
Lauder wrote he is “relieved” Adidas ended their partnership with Ye, but thought “their delay in making what should have been a clear-cut decision to rid their halls of such a dangerous voice is unacceptable.”
The NYPD recorded 45 anti-Semitic hate crimes across the five boroughs last month, compared to 20 in November 2021 — representing a whopping 125% spike.
FBI hate crime statistics for 2020, the latest year for which data is available, recorded 683 anti-Jewish incidents, mkaing up 55% of all religious bias crimes that year and far ourweighing the 110 anti-Muslim incidents, 15 anti-Buddhist incidents and 89 anti-Sikh incidents it recorded.
The World Jewish Congress, founded in 1936, calls itself the “diplomatic arm of the Jewish people” and advocates for Jewish people around the world.
