Antisemites was offended. Now they’re having enjoyable – The Forward

Julian Casablancas of The Strokes performs at All Points East Festival 2023 at Victoria Park on August 25, 2023 in London, England. Photo by Jim Dyson/Getty Images

By Arno Rosenfeld

April 23, 2026

In a radio interview 16 years in the past, Rick Sanchez of Rick’s List on CNN on the time complained that comic Jon Stewart and different “elite Northeast establishment liberals” had it out for him.

“Yeah, very powerless people,” Sanchez huffed after the host talked about Stewart was Jewish. “Everyone who runs CNN is a lot like Stewart and a lot of people who run the other networks are a lot like Stewart, and to imply that somehow they — the people in this country who are Jewish — are an oppressed minority? Yeah.”

Sanchez had labored himself right into a livid state earlier than sputtering accusations that had been dissected in an prolonged information cycle — pundits debated whether or not “elite Northeast liberal” was an antisemitic dogwhistle. The fallout destroyed his profession.

Things have modified within the years since Sanchez was fired. Rants about Jews have change into extra mainstream and, notably, these espousing these views are much less prone to fulminate than they’re to talk with a bemused irony or detachment.

I used to be struck by this distinction whereas watching a viral clip of Julian Casablancas, lead singer of The Strokes, on Subway Takes, a social media present filmed on public transit. It has tens of millions of followers and sufficient cultural cachet that Kamala Harris and Tim Walz sought appearances throughout their White House run, every searching for to share a clever-enough “hot take” to endear themselves to the present’s large viewers.

Casablancas made his way by way of a sequence of boring takes — sending folks audio messages is unhealthy, trendy automobiles are boring — earlier than he landed on the take that went viral: “American Zionists get the benefits of white-privileged people but talk like they are Black people during slavery.”

What jumped out most in regards to the interview was how gleefully Casablancas constructed as much as what was clearly a rehearsed opinion.

“Why don’t we turn the dial up a little bit,” Kareem Rahma, host of Subway Takes, mentioned early within the dialog.

“A bit?” Casablancas requested with a smirk. “Or all the way?”

He saved his ideas about “American Zionists” till the very finish: “You want the most controversial one? I know you do,” he advised Rahma. “Well, it’s been nice having a career with you.”

Casablancas spoke with none of Sanchez’s venom however somewhat offered himself as gleefully talking fact to energy. It struck me that, the place American antisemitism was offended, as within the rant from Sanchez and comparable tirades by celebrities like Mel Gibson and Kanye West, it has change into nearly enjoyable for the agitators. Where Sanchez really did lose his profession over his feedback, Casablancas can joke in regards to the thought.

It has by no means been extra acceptable to criticize Israel or Zionism.

This is a large victory for Israel’s critics who genuinely care about altering American overseas coverage. But it concurrently poses a conundrum for many who had used their criticism of Israel to sign they held verboten beliefs about our political order — beliefs that might vary from a generic mistrust in “the man” to conspiracy theories about Jewish cabals.

When Casablancas and The Strokes projected a montage of pictures from the destruction of Gaza throughout their efficiency at Coachella earlier this month, they generated a number of headlines however there wasn’t widespread outrage. The show doubtless aligned with the views of many within the younger viewers.

And so those that need consideration, or need to painting themselves as a maverick or outsider, somebody who’s daring sufficient to voice uncomfortable truths, should clarify that their criticism of Israel is about one thing greater than Palestinian human rights.

Casablancas used his platform on Subway Takes to name for a populist political motion to “fight the real billionaire gang agenda villains.” But he hastened to warning towards class warfare, describing one thing extra amorphous. The solely unhealthy billionaires, he clarified, had been those who sought to “deceive people” and owned media shops.

This form of squishy populism, which requires rooting out a malevolent subset of the ruling class, has animated antisemitism for hundreds of years, and Casablancas talked about it instantly earlier than complaining about how privileged and whiny “American Zionists” are.

If Casablancas, who will not be Jewish, had clearly said what gave the impression to be his core contentions — that many Jews don’t acknowledge that they profit from being white and that Israel’s supporters exaggerate the severity of antisemitism — viewers of the lighthearted subway-based discuss present on which he was showing may need puzzled why he was sharing his ideas on Jewish id. Both of these concepts have already been debated advert nauseam by American Jews themselves, so my guess is the clip would have generated a tiny fraction of the controversy wherein pro-Israel influencers assailed Casablancas and progressives together with Hasan Piker rushed to defend him.

That controversy was a function, not a bug. All of Casablancas’ vamping about how controversial and career-ending his feedback had been about to be, and his choice to confer with “American Zionists” when he clearly meant Jews, instructed that the singer wished to offend whereas sustaining a level of believable deniability.

We’ve seen comparable escalations elsewhere.

On the best, this new fashion of antisemitism usually retains a more durable edge. James Fishback, who’s operating within the Republican main for Florida governor, has mocked Byron Donalds, his Black opponent, for supporting Israel: “We will pull him over, check for drugs, and then arrest him for betraying America to Israel.”

And, on the left and apolitical middle there was a proliferation of memes ostensibly supposed to denigrate Israel however usually used to troll Jews or anybody else attempting to boost honest considerations about antisemitism.

When Adam Aleksic, a preferred TikTok creator and linguist, made a video explaining how “goy” had change into an antisemitic dogwhistle — one thing that’s objectively true and unrelated to Israel — his feedback had been flooded with jokes about how he was being paid by Israel or AIPAC: “Bro got the paycheck 😭💀,” “Gee I could really use around $7k right now,” “’big yahu when will I get the check?’ 🥀.”

These impish expressions of antisemitism are extra insidious than the offended outbursts that characterised earlier antisemitism scandals.

Riffs that use coded language are more durable to push again towards, and simpler for audiences to latch onto. Watching Casablancas giggle with Rahma, the charismatic host of Subway Takes, it’s a lot simpler to seek out your self nodding alongside than while you hear Gibson drunkenly rant to a police officer about Jews, or watch Ye speaking about how he’d been drugged by a Jewish physician whereas standing in a car parking zone.

As antisemitism makes its means into widespread tradition with a wink and a nod, I worry that extra individuals are going to need to get in on the joke.

This week we rejoice 129 years of the Forward. We’re pleased with our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re simply as pleased with what we’ve change into right now: A trusted supply of Jewish information and opinion, obtainable digitally to anybody on the planet with out paywalls or subscriptions. 

We’ve helped 5 generations of American Jews make sense of the information and the world round them — and we aren’t slowing down any time quickly.

As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it attainable for us to do that work. Support impartial, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your present in honor of our birthday! 

Support our mission to inform the Jewish story absolutely and pretty.