Kanye West has seemingly had a change of heart about Jewish people, thanks to the acting skills of Jonah Hill in a movie that might surprise some fans.
Late Friday night (March 24), Ye took to Instagram to share a promotional photo from the film 21 Jump Street, explaining how Hill’s turn as Schmidt in the 2012 remake of the ’80s television series led him to revisit his controversial stance.
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“Watching Jonah Hill in 21 Jump street made me like Jewish people again,” West wrote. “No one should take anger against one or two individuals and transform that into hatred towards millions of innocent people.”
However, Ye also implied that the backlash spawned by his antisemitic outbursts was misplaced to begin with, writing, “No Christian can be labeled antisemite knowing Jesus is Jew,” before closing out with, “Thank you Jonah Hill I love you.”
Media coverage on Kanye West in 2023 has been a far departure from the headlines he made late last year, which largely centered around a number of antisemitic comments he made both on social media and during interviews.
In December, Ye was named “Antisemite Of The Year” by the American non-profit watchdog group StopAntisemitism.org. The group made the announcement in a video congratulating Ye for “propagating the most Jew hatred in 2022.”
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The clip cited examples of Kanye West’s offences including his infamous “death con 3” tweet that led to his first Twitter suspension, and highlighted interviews as examples of Ye “referencing antisemitic tropes of Jewish greed and obsessions of money.”
StopAntisemitism.org also used a publicly shared text conversation with Diddy as proof of West “falsely insinuating Jews control Hollywood and the media.”
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Ye had been criticized for weeks over his repeated antisemitic remarks, and, just ahead of the StopAntisemitism.org called out, had doubled down on his love of the bigoted German mass murderer Adolf Hitler during an interview with Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes in Los Angeles.
The comments came shortly after Ye praised Hitler and Nazis in a separate interview with far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who, in November, was ordered to pay hundreds of millions of dollars for promoting false claims about the Sandy Hook mass shooting.
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While the post made in homage to Jonah Hill and 21 Jump Street is the only image on Ye’s IG feed, the controversial rap mogul returned to the social media platform on March 5, almost three months after his account was suspended for posting a new song addressing his antisemitic controversy.
Ye was previously kicked off the ‘Gram three separate times in 2022 for violating the company’s policies, ranging from attacking Trevor Noah to making antisemitic comments.
The Yeezy founder’s first post back was a picture of a slender runway model wearing a gray slim-fitting outfit and bright red glasses.
The photo was taken from Balenciaga’s Winter 2023 fashion show in Paris and was posted on the brand’s Instagram page hours earlier.
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“Look 44, Winter 23,” read the caption. “Round Shoulder Long Sleeve Turtleneck, Low-Waist Fitted Pants, Biker Boot, Speed Cat Sunglasses.”
In his own post, Kanye called on his 18 million followers for help with coming up with a clever caption, asking them to: “Write a caption…”
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“Yeezy back !!!!!” YG responded in the comments section, while former collaborator GLC added: “Sakiya Red!” U.K. rapper Stefflon Don asked Ye: “Where the hell you been at ?” before joking: “When its the time of the month but he still wanna taste.”
Considering Balenciaga was one of several companies that cut ties with Kanye following his antisemitic tirades and embrace of white supremacy last year, it’s unclear if his Instagram post came in support of the French fashion house or was intended to mock their latest collection.
