Louis Farrakhan Defends Jay-Z’s ‘Jewish Property’ Lyrics
Image by Getty Images
By Sam Kestenbaum August 3, 2017
Jay-Z rapped on his latest album that “Jewish people own all the property in America,” prompting a backlash and accusations of evoking age-old stereotypes about Jews and money. But Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, who has also been dogged by accusations of anti-Semitism for his own inflammatory remarks, stood by the rapper.
Jay-Z “talked about the Jewish ownership of property. I do not know how that is anti-Semitic,” Farrakhan said in a recent interview, shared on the religious leader’s Facebook page. “The [former Nation of Islam leader] Honorable Elijah Muhammad told us: ‘Study the white man. He is successful.’”
The controversial lyric appeared on a song titled “The Story of O.J.,” off Jay-Z’s new album “4:44.” In the song, Jay-Z appears to admonish black Americans for “throwing away” their money — and advises them to follow the lead of Jews.
“The lyric does seem to play into deep-seated anti-Semitic stereotypes about Jews and money,” a representative of the Anti-Defamation League told Rolling Stone.
Contact Sam Kestenbaum at [email protected] and on Twitter, @skestenbaum
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
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.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Dive In
-
Fast Forward Mosab Abu Toha, Palestinian writer targeted by far-right pro-Israel activists, wins Pulitzer for commentary
-
Fast Forward A Jewish nonprofit may have accidentally caused Michigan to drop charges against pro-Palestinian activists
-
Fast Forward Zohran Mamdani gets photo-ops — and attacks — after meeting with Orthodox voters
-
Fast Forward Israel adopts plan to conquer and occupy Gaza, in a shift for war’s goals
Most Popular
- 1
Fast Forward Why the Antisemitism Awareness Act now has a religious liberty clause to protect ‘Jews killed Jesus’ statements
- 2
News School Israel trip turns ‘terrifying’ for LA students attacked by Israeli teens
- 3
Culture Cardinals are Catholic, not Jewish — so why do they all wear yarmulkes?
- 4
Music After decades of waiting, we’re finally getting a Bob Dylan-Barbra Streisand duet
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward Mosab Abu Toha, Palestinian writer targeted by far-right pro-Israel activists, wins Pulitzer for commentary
-
Fast Forward A Jewish nonprofit may have accidentally caused Michigan to drop charges against pro-Palestinian activists
-
Culture For Christian nationalists, Trump’s pope picture isn’t a joke
-
Opinion Is Israel really going to reoccupy Gaza? Ask Trump
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
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 comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag 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.