In case you missed it, artist and producer Ye aka Kanye West has taken out a full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal, saying that he regretted his recent antisemitic behavior.
Not everyone is thrilled with this development, including a not insignificant amount of Jews who think it is too little too late. Even the ADL didn’t sound overly enthusiastic:
I think setting the bar at “not engaging in antisemitic behavior in the future” is rather low in this case – although a start. Kanye West did, after all, apologize in 2023 – before engaging in antisemitic behavior in the future.
Ye did cause a lot of damage with his behavior, so I think true repentance would be trying to undo that damage. This could manifest itself in using his platform to actually fight Jew hatred and dissociate himself from Jew-haters. This includes Milo Yiannopoulos, who reportedly remains a close advisor and who proudly posted a screenshot of West’s full-page ad – yet posted this the day earlier:
He needs to also remove the song Heil Hitler from his catalogue and denounce those who play it.
If you think I am being overly charitable towards Ye, remember I do have some experience with people posting antisemitism subsequently changing their ways. And I am a believer in the Jewish concept of teshuva or repentance. So I wouldn’t instantly dismiss Ye’s latest overtures.
Having said that, teshuva isn’t a press release; it’s sustained action. It’s choosing better allies, calling out the poison he once amplified, and proving over time that this wasn’t just another publicity cycle reset. Until then, skepticism isn’t cruelty, it’s earned.
The door to repentance may be open, but Ye still has to actually walk through it.
