By admin 
Kanye West has held a meeting with a rabbi and apologised for his anti-Semitic remarks.
The rapper, who now goes by Ye, met up with with a prominent New York rabbi called Yoshiyahu Yosef Pinto on Tuesday (November 4), and addressed the anti-Semitic tirades he has launched on social media over the past few years.
In footage of the meeting which has since been shared online, the rapper is seen holding hands with Pinto and apologising – blaming his bipolar disorder for his past comments.
“I feel really blessed to be able to sit here with you today and just take accountability,” he is heard telling the rabbi (as per The Independent). “I was dealing with some various issues of bipolar, so it would take the ideas I had and have me take them to an extreme where I would forget about the protection of the people around me or myself.”
“So I wanted to come and take accountability,” he added. “Sometimes people aren’t that knowledgeable about bipolar and the cause, or what causes it, and the way you act when you have this disease.”
The rabbi, through a translator, then called West a “very good man” and embraced him. Pinto would then share a statement online reading: “A person is not defined by his mistakes, but by the way he chooses to correct them. This is the true strength of man: The ability to return, to learn, and to build bridges of love and peace.”
He also added that he hoped the conversation would “serve as an example to the world of the power of faith and reconciliation.”
The Independent highlights that Pinto is a prominent figure among celebrities in Israel, and also has ties to Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. It also reports that he was convicted of bribery in Israel and served a year in prison in 2015.
West has been banned from X/Twitter and Instagram multiple times over his anti-Semitic comments, which violate their policies on hate speech.
Earlier this year he also began selling a white T-shirt with a large swastika on the chest, listed as “HH-01” on his website – possibly a reference to the “Heil Hitler” chant. Shopify then went on to shut down West’s Yeezy website, and he would later take to X to acknowledge the move – “No one seems to wanna produce me wittle t shirt” – and verbally attack the Jewish community, claiming he had the idea for the shirt for years.
In 2023, a documentary saw the rapper say that he believed Jewish people were working together to “hold him back”, and in 2022, he provoked widespread backlash after he told Jewish people to “forgive Hitler”, and then compared porn to the Holocaust.
“Jewish people can’t tell me who I can love and who I can’t love. You can’t force your pain on everyone else. Jewish people, forgive Hitler today,” he told far-right commentator Gavin McInnes at the time.
That same year Ye took part in an interview with NewsNation host Chris Cuomo, and said that he “doesn’t believe” in the term anti-Semitism. Criticism for the comments came from many including Piers Morgan, who held an interview with the rapper and said that he didn’t “think you understand the pain you’ve been causing with some of these comments.”
West would retaliate by calling the TV host a “Karen”.
In October 2022, Twitter locked the rapper’s account after he tweeted: “I’m a bit sleepy tonight but when I wake up I’m going death con 3 [sic] On JEWISH PEOPLE. The funny thing is I actually can’t be Anti Semitic because black people are actually Jew also. You guys have toyed with me and tried to black ball anyone whoever opposes your agenda.”
In a follow-up tweet, West posted: “Who you think created cancel culture?”
Several key figures in the entertainment industry shared their disapproval of West’s anti-Semitic comments. Among them was Jewish actress and comedian Sarah Silverman, who tweeted: “Kanye threatened the Jews yesterday on twitter and it’s not even trending. Why do mostly only Jews speak up against Jewish hate? The silence is so loud.”
Others to hit out at the comments made by Ye included Jamie Lee Curtis, legendary voice actor John DiMaggio, Diane Warren, and Bleachers frontman Jack Antonoff who dubbed West “a little bitch”.
After the widespread condemnation of his tweets, West would then go on to say that he wanted to “hug every Jewish person,” and explained that he was jealous of several aspects of Jewish culture.
Kanye threatened the Jews yesterday on twitter and it’s not even trending. Why do mostly only Jews speak up against Jewish hate? The silence is so loud
— Sarah Silverman (@SarahKSilverman) October 9, 2022
“I’m envious of how they don’t abort their children,” he began. “I’m envious of how they don’t shoot each other in the streets and then rap about it. I’m envious of how their families stay together. I’m envious that they turn their phones off on Friday nights and the family comes together. I’m envious of how they do business together. And I want that for the darker Jews, I want that for Black people. We need that.”
He went on to say that he was trying to be more conscious of the ways he expresses his opinions.
“I feel that my words demand more sensitivity for the frequency that I’m operating at and the amount of people that I’m communicating to. And I take that responsibility right now.”
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