Image by Twitter

By Ari Feldman June 10, 2020

The rapper Ice Cube courted controversy on Twitter Wednesday after tweeting out a series of memes linking Judaism to occult worship and implying that modern-day Jews are not descended from ancient Israelites.

Related story: We need to talk about Ice Cube’s anti-Semitism allegations

Ice Cube has tweeted hundreds of images and messages in support of the protests against systemic racism and racism in policing over the past week. But on Wednesday, without warning, several of those tweets, posted within minutes of one another, seemed to target Jews.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

One showed an image of Egyptian hieroglyphics supposedly depicting Hebrew slaves and the words “Clearly they are a black people.” The meme may be a reference to the idea, shared among some members of the Hebrew Israelite religion, that black people — not present-day Jews — are the true descendants of biblical Israelites.

Image by Twitter

Another tweet depicted a black cube inside a star of David, above images of sculptures of black cubes in cities around the world. The “black cube of Saturn” is, evidently, a reference to occult worship.

Image by Twitter

Image by Twitter

The tweets came two days after Ice Cube tweeted an image of a mural that critics have called anti-Semitic. The mural, which was removed from a London wall in 2012 over complaints of anti-Semitism, depicts men with prominent noses sitting around a monopoly board resting on the backs of black people.

The tweets provoked a strong backlash, with some commenting that Ice Cube was jeopardizing his role as a voice of protest against systemic racism by posting the memes.

Sorry @icecube, lost all respect for you now. Was willing to give you benefit of the doubt, but no more. You cannot claim to fight racism, by employing #Antisemitism! It also only demeans the memory of #GeorgeFloyd. Shame on you!

— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) June 10, 2020

It is impossible to take you seriously with regards to social justice or,.. anything when you post anti-Semitic imagery. What the fuck are you doing?

— roxane gay (@rgay) June 10, 2020

It’s not at all clear whether Ice Cube believes in the views implied by the memes he posted.

Ari Feldman is a staff writer at the Forward. Contact him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @aefeldman

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.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’re near the end of our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we have a very ambitious goal of $127,000 by April 21.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a Passover gift today!

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Make a Passover Gift Today!

$90 $180

$360

Other amount