Phoenix-area rabbis sign letter condemning Elon Musk, antisemitism on X

Two Phoenix-area rabbis are among prominent Jewish community members from across the country who recently signed a letter denouncing what they argue is Elon Musk’s embrace of antisemitism on his social media platform, X, formerly known as Twitter.

Published Tuesday, the X Out Hate letter calls for Amazon, Apple and Disney to pull their ads from X, and for Apple and Google to remove the platform from their app stores.

As of Friday evening, 159 had signed the letter, which deems Musk’s actions on X as contributing to the spread of antisemitic discourse on the popular platform. The letter highlights his criticism of leading Jewish civil rights organization the Anti-Defamation League and his unbanning of notorious antisemites.

“As leaders of all backgrounds, current and former leaders of Jewish organizations, artists, and activists from all over the country, we have watched in horror as a new stage in antisemitic discourse has spread like wildfire on one of America’s largest social media networks. All of this has been facilitated and enabled by its owner: Elon Musk,” reads the letter.

“If something does not change, we know what will happen: hate speech and radicalization are always the precursor to violence,” the letter continues.

'Culture of hate'

Rabbi Andy Green, of Scottsdale’s Congregation Or Zion, was the letter’s 50th signer. Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz, president and dean of the Scottsdale-based nonprofit Valley Beit Midrash, also signed the letter and gathered signatures from others. As of Friday, nearly half of the letter’s signers hold the title of rabbi.

“Elon Musk has allowed antisemitic voices and these very serious conspiracy theorists to flourish and to share their awful and hateful ideas and ideologies with relative impunity since taking over the platform,” Green said in a Wednesday afternoon interview with The Arizona Republic.

Green has asked his congregation to join him in abandoning the social media platform.

“We need to really put a check on this guy. I think it's a terrifying culture of hate that he's unleashing,” Yanklowitz said in a Thursday afternoon interview with The Republic. “Words of hate — tweets of hate — lead to acts of hate. We know that does not end well for Jews and for other minorities — LGBT folks, Latinos, Black folks.”

The letter was conceived by Elad Nehorai, a former Orthodox Jew who graduated from Arizona State University in 2007 and works in marketing. Nehorai has closely followed extremist trends in high tech. He penned an essay in early June for the Jewish publication Forward, where he wrote Musk was “the most dangerous antisemite in America, and possibly the most dangerous antisemite in American history.”

Nehorai, however, felt it was urgent to expand the conversation, and thus the signature-collecting on this letter, he told The Republic on Thursday afternoon.

“I could tell Jews were getting extremely nervous about (Musk on X). And I really wanted to help give them a voice to not just be speaking for myself because I knew other people felt this way, so I drafted this letter,” Nehorai said, adding the signers span different branches within Judaism and are from across the political spectrum.

When reached by email, X did not respond to a request for comment on the letter.

'Scapegoating' the Anti-Defamation League

The letter states antisemitic discourse has doubled on X. According to data released March 15 by the human rights nonprofit Institute for Strategic Dialogue and the CASM Technology company, the volume of antisemitic posts in English on the platform had more than doubled since Musk took over in late October 2022.

The ADL and the Center for Countering Digital Hate, an organization focusing on human rights and civil liberties online, found antisemitic posts referring to Jews and Judaism had shot up 61% in the two weeks that followed Musk assuming ownership, the New York Times reported on Dec. 2.

Across the U.S. in 2022, the ADL found there were 3,697 antisemitic incidents — a 36% increase from the year before. This is the highest number recorded by the ADL since it began tracking these incidents in 1979, the organization noted.

This year, Arizona has seen 11 incidents of antisemitism and 19 incidents of white supremacist propaganda, according to the ADL.

The letter mentions Musk liking and replying to an X post sharing the #BanTheADL hashtag, which was started by white supremacist and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes.

“ADL has tried very hard to strangle X/Twitter,” Musk said in a Sept. 1 post. He later asked his approximately 150 million followers on Sept. 2 whether there should be a poll regarding the claims made by a far-right Dutch commentator about the credibility of the long-running organization.

“To be super clear, I’m pro free speech, but against anti-Semitism of any kind,” Musk on Sept. 4 would post on X.

The letter’s statement reads: “We are alarmed by his targeting of the ADL: not because of our views of the organization (we represent a wide range of views, including some who fundamentally oppose the ADL as well as staunch supporters), but because of the way he has used the organization as a very clear stand in for an antisemitic representation of Jewish power.”

On Sept. 5, the ADL released a statement that read in part: “This urgent matter is the safety of the Jewish people in the face of increasing, intensifying antisemitism. Musk is engaging with and elevating these antisemites at a time when ADL is tracking a surge of bomb threats and swatting attacks of synagogues and Jewish institutions, dramatic levels of antisemitic propaganda being littered throughout Jewish and non-Jewish residential communities, and extremists marching openly through the streets in Nazi gear.”

In his barrage of X posting, Musk suggested suing the ADL on defamation grounds.

Rabbi Green said Musk’s comments were “scapegoating” the ADL and that he was not taking responsibility for the loss in advertising revenue X has incurred since he became owner.

“(Musk) uses the ADL to represent Jewish power. And even if you don't believe that, the extremists definitely interpreted it that way,” Nehorai said.

'Vicious antisemites'

Musk’s Twitter in December disbanded the Trust & Safety Council, a voluntary advisory group of civil and human rights organizations set up years before to address hate speech, child exploitation and other issues on the platform.

The letter condemns Musk for reinstating the banned accounts of "vicious antisemites" like Andrew Anglin, the founder of the United States’ largest neo-Nazi publication, The Daily Stormer, and conspiracy theorist David Icke.

The letter also argues Musk’s engagement on X has linked Soros with the Rothschilds, the ultra-wealthy Jewish Western European family that is often a target of antisemitic conspiracy theories.

In a May 15 post, Musk compared Soros, a Holocaust survivor, with X-Men comic book character Magneto, who is depicted as a Holocaust survivor and a supervillain bent on destroying non-mutant humans. Musk responded to a user defending Soros as being well-intentioned by posting, “You assume they are good intentions. They are not. He wants to erode the very fabric of civilization. Soros hates humanity.”

Nehorai said posting conspiracy theories about Soros is “the early stages of absorbing or spreading antisemitism.”

Reach breaking news reporter Jose R. Gonzalez at jose.gonzalez@gannett.com or on X, formerly Twitter @jrgzztx.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Phoenix-area rabbis sign letter condemning Elon Musk, antisemitism on X