Elon Musk: I’m ‘aspirationally Jewish’
He also claimed, despite evidence to the contrary, that antisemitism has dropped on Twitter since he bought it
Elon Musk, accused by Jewish organizations and rabbis of trafficking in antisemitism on his social media platform, called himself “aspirationally Jewish” in a conversation Thursday on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
While Jewish organizations have charted a rise in antisemitic posts on X since Musk bought it in October 2022, Musk said the number has actually dropped — but did not give specifics. Musk critiqued antisemitism on the left and discussed his conversations with Kanye West — the rapper he welcomed back to the platform despite his spate of antisemitic rants. And when asked to visit Auschwitz by Rabbi Menachem Margolin of the European Jewish Association, Musk, after waffling and saying that he had seen pictures of concentration camps and was well-informed about the Holocaust, later said, “consider it a tentative yes.”
Ben Shapiro hosted the two-hour conversation for his Daily Wire podcast. He and several other well-known Jewish men, including Natan Sharansky and Alan Dershowitz, took turns interviewing Musk, who tried to establish his affinity for Jews at the outset. He said he had gone to a Jewish pre-school and had been to Israel twice. Later in the more than two-hour-long conversation, which was hosted by conservative pundit and social media personality Ben Shapiro, Musk said he surrounds himself with Jews.
“I’m aware of that old sort of trope of like, you know, ‘I have a Jewish friend,’” Musk said. “I don’t have a Jewish friend. I think probably, I have twice as many Jewish friends as non-Jewish friends. That’s why I think I like to think I’m Jewish basically.”
Jews without kids
Musk also said that a number of his Jewish friends have no children, and that he wish they would procreate.
“These are people who are incredibly smart and talented,” he said. “They have a great heart that you want more of them in the world.” He added, in a light-hearted tone, “Just do it for humanity, man.” Population decline is a frequent topic discussed by Musk, who has 10 children, and he claims it is a bigger problem than climate change.
He also called people who don’t approve of having large families “an ingrown toenail of the environmental movement.”
Others on the call included former Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, Natan Sharansky, and Rabbi Avi Lamm. Many on the conversation, which attracted more than 245,000 listeners, criticized the Anti-Defamation League, the most prominent Jewish organization fighting antisemitism. Musk has threaten to sue the ADL earlier this month, blaming it for a $4 billion loss in revenue at X via scaring away advertisers.
The ADL has lambasted X for tolerating antisemitism, and Musk for elevating antisemitic content.
When the conversation was first advertised, some critics asked why ADL chief Jonathan Greenblatt was not included in the discussion and why there was so little diversity in the speakers’ viewpoints. Others pointed out that it included no women.
I’ll be talking with @elonmusk, along with my co-host @arilamm and a panel of esteemed leaders in the Jewish community, where we’ll talk about X, anti-Semitism, and what it all means for free speech. Tune in tomorrow, Thursday 9/28 at 12pm ET! https://t.co/AspCHC1BIt
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) September 27, 2023
The Kanye West issue
Musk also spoke of the “many” conversations he has had with rapper Kanye West, who has changed his legal name to Ye and who has been widely condemned for his antisemitic rants. Musk said he couldn’t figure out where West’s anger was coming from, but said he tried to appeal to his Christianity.
He said he told West that if he believed in Christian values, that he should act according to them. He added, “Can we turn an antisemite into someone who is at least neutral if not pro?”
The ADL and other Jewish groups have seen a surge in hate speech and antisemitism on the platform since Musk decimated its content moderation department last year. Earlier this month, Musk threatened to sue the ADL, blaming it for a $4 billion loss in revenue at X via scaring away advertisers.
Musk met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week in another attempt to show that he is not antisemitic. Earlier this week, more than 100 Jewish leaders called on Apple and Google to remove X from their app stores — effectively making it impossible to install on the majority of cellphones. The group, which blames Elon Musk for enabling antisemitism on the site, is also calling on companies like Disney to stop advertising on X.
Denying antisemitism
Though the speakers on the call
Mira Fox contributed to this report.