'Signs of the monetizing of hate' as anti-Semitism has become a profitable global business

Anti-Semitism, the world’s oldest hatred, has become a profitable global business, spreading anti-Jewish bigotry to millions of consumers around the world. 

A recent example is the Netflix movie You People, which was released in January. Officially a “witty” and “romantic” story, the movie portrays a complex romantic relationship between a black Muslim woman and a Jewish man, focusing on their families’ inability to handle the profound cultural and religious differences between the main characters. 

Critics have blasted the movie for portraying Jews in a stereotypically negative light and condoning, or even perpetuating, anti-Semitism. The movie falsely claims that American Jewish wealth came from the slave trade, for instance. A second example comes via one of the protagonists, who praises Louis Farrakhan, an outspoken anti-Semite who heads the radical Nation of Islam movement in the United States. 

David Baddiel, author of the book Jews Don’t Count, criticized the movie for its anti-Jewish bigotry. 

“The Jewish family are positioned as white, privileged and racist. The Black family just have a stern dad. At the end, there’s much Jewish apologizing for racism. None for anti-Semitism. That word never appears,” said Baddiel. 

However, prejudice towards Jews is not limited to Netflix. Rabbi Abraham Cooper, the dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a global human rights organization, argues that anti-Semitism has become a financially profitable business in the 21st century. 

“We have the signs of the monetizing of hate,” Cooper told The Media Line news agency. “Even by big behemoths like Amazon [which is] selling swastika necklaces and then offering face masks that are used by neo-Nazis as another item people might be interested in buying.”

“There’s a whole ecosystem here,” Cooper said. “You have the people selling and creating the content, you have the sites where it’s sold and you have the companies that handle the payments.”

Anti-Semitism has hit a record high in the United States and continues to climb, with the Anti-Defamation League reporting a year-over-year increase for four out of the past five years. 

New York State Councilman Eric “Ari” Brown recently criticized a mobile polio campaign for being anti-Semitic due to its targeting towns and neighborhoods with large Jewish populations.