Kanye West apologises to Jews for his antisemitic behaviour – again

Kanye West has taken out a full-page advertisement in the Wall Street Journal, saying “I am not a Nazi or antisemite. I love Jewish people” and attributing his behaviour in early 2025 to bipolar disorder.

In the ad, West said that “In early 2025, I fell into a four-month long manic episode of psychotic, paranoid and impulsive behaviour that destroyed my life.”

The best-selling rapper and producer also said: “I regret and am deeply mortified by my actions in that state, and am committed to accountability, treatment, and meaningful change. It does not excuse what I did though.”

West described how “In that fractured state, I gravitated toward the most destructive symbol I could find, the swastika, and even sold T-shirts bearing it.” He did not mention other examples of the behaviour he engaged in last year, which included regular online rants targeting Jewish people, as well as releasing a song called “Heil Hitler”. Nor did he mention that his antisemitic behaviour predated 2025, with similar outbursts having taken place in late 2022, at which time he associated with far right white supremacist, Nick Fuentes. In 2023 West published a similar apology to the Jewish community, saying he was “committed to making amends and promoting unity.”

In his latest apology, West linked his behaviour to a car accident he had been in 25 years ago, which he wrote “caused injury to the right frontal lobe” of his brain, but which he said was not properly diagnosed at the time, causing serious damage to his mental health.

In November 2025 West was videoed meeting with Rabbi Yoshiyahu Yosef Pinto, a strictly orthodox rabbi in New York, where the music creator expressed “profound remorse” for his past actions.

Responding to West’s latest ad, the Anti Defamation League (ADL), America’s foremost organisation combating antisemitism, said that the artist’s “apology to the Jewish people is long overdue and doesn’t automatically undo his long history of antisemitism – the antisemitic ‘Heil Hitler’ song he created, the hundreds of tweets, the swastikas and myriad Holocaust references – and all of the feelings of hurt and betrayal it caused.

“The truest apology would be for him to not engage in antisemitic behaviour in the future. We wish him well on the road to recovery.”