“Antisemitism says something about antisemites,” Rabbi Moishy Kalmenson said. “Not us.”
ROCKWALL, Texas — Adidas has joined a number of companies ending their partnerships with the rapper formerly known as Kanye West after he made a series of offensive remarks.
Ye made antisemitic comments in recent interviews and on social media, including a Twitter post that said he would go “death con 3 on Jewish People.”
“Antisemitism says something about antisemites,” Rabbi Moishy Kalmenson of Rockwall told WFAA.
“Not us.”
Moishy said his synagogue is the first ever in Rockwall. People often tell him he’s the first Jew they’ve ever met.
He loves those moments when he can show his community exactly who the Jewish people are.
“Otherwise, you’re relying on social media, maybe? There’s so much room for misinformation,” Moishy said.
Ye has twice as many Twitter followers as there are Jews in the world. He said antisemitic rhetoric always needs to be condemned, but he doesn’t worry too much about Ye’s reach.
“We are a miraculous people, it doesn’t make sense we’re around that we survived all this antisemitism,” he said, referring to decades of discrimination against Jews.
“But the fact is we haven’t just survived, we’ve thrived.”
Moishy told WFAA he encourages North Texas Jews to practice proudly, especially when antisemitism is on the rise.
“The best response to something like that is, hey I’m going to wear my star of David. I’m going to light my Shabbat candles,” he said.
“We don’t retreat. We don’t cower or hide our Judaism in response to attacks like this. We stand tall, we stand proud.”