Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Anti-Defamation League Defends Jay-Z — Sort Of

Everybody who is anybody (or, at the very least, Amy Schumer’s manager) is talking about whether or not Jay Z’s new album dabbles in anti-semitism with the lyrics “”You wanna know what’s more important than throwin’ away money at a strip club? Credit/ You ever wonder why Jewish people own all the property in America? This how they did it.”

And now, the Anti-Defamation League is joining the debate.

The organization told Rolling Stone, “”We do not believe it was Jay-Z’s intent to promote anti-semitism. On the contrary, we know that Jay-Z is someone who has used his celebrity in the past to speak out responsibly and forcefully against the evils of racism and anti-semitism.”

But the ADL did express concern that the lyrics “could feed into preconceived notions about Jews and alleged Jewish ‘control’ of the banks and finance.”

Good intentions, poor execution. Seems like a fair assessment.

Becky Scott is the editor of The Schmooze. Follow her on Twitter at @arr_scott

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.