Actor Jamie Foxx causes uproar after being accused of antisemitic social media post

The popular actor and musician Jamie Foxx was blasted for his controversial post to social media last week where he wrote: “They killed this dude name Jesus… What do you think they’ll do to you??!”

The Instagram post included the hashtags #fakefriends #fakelove.

Despite the presence of the hashtags and no previous history of antisemitic comments, the actor was blasted by several Jewish organizations for spreading antisemitic tropes.

European Christianity in the Middle Ages included a common antisemitic claim that Jews, as a whole, were responsible for Christ's death. In the populist preaching before the Crusades, many of the priests who traveled around trying to enlist people to fight used the claim of deicide to justify Crusader attacks and the pillaging of Jews on the way to the Holy Land.

Jewish newsletter 'A Wider Frame,' linked to Foxx’s post to the claim, calling it “horrifically antisemitic.”

Many on social media began to criticize Foxx for his post, which reportedly led him to delete it just a few hours later and issue an apology.

“I want to apologize to the Jewish community and everyone who was offended by my post,” he wrote on Instagram. “I now know my choice of words has caused offense and I'm sorry. That was never my intent.”

“To clarify, I was betrayed by a fake friend and that’s what I meant with ‘they’ not anything more. I only have love in my heart for everyone,” he continued.

However, not everyone was convinced that Foxx wrote an antisemitic message.

Jewish actor David Krumholtz, who appeared in the recently released film, Oppenheimer, reacted to Foxx’s apology by defending him.

“I am Jewish and I thought it was one helluva leap to call it antisemitic. I knew exactly what you meant. Everybody needs to chill,” Krumholtz wrote.

Other people on social media wrote that the use of Judas’ betrayal of Jesus is a common theme to express the deep emotional hurt of betrayal in many Christian communities.

One user expressed this perspective on Twitter, writing: “How did Jamie Foxx’s post read as antisemitic? (Rhetorical question) It’s so easy to think from your own experiences ..but literally as a Black person raised Christian in Texas as well I know for a fact he was talking about friends and followers betraying you not Jews.”

Foxx is a friend of Jewish rapper Drake, and performed for a Bar Mitzvah party in 2017.

Foxx was recently hospitalized following a “medical complication.” The actor has chosen not to publicize the details of his hospitalization, which led to many rumors on social media and in tabloid presses.

In an Instagram video following his release, Foxx praised his family for “protecting” him by not publishing details of his hospitalization.

“I cannot tell you how great it feels to have your family kick in in such a way, and y’all know they kept it airtight, they didn’t let nothing out. They protected me, and that’s what I hope that everyone could have in moments like these.”