Jewish Legislative Caucus Calls for Adidas to Drop Kanye, Also Citing Founder’s Nazi Ties

Today, the leaders of the California Legislative Jewish Caucus condemned Kanye West’s spreading of antisemitism and specifically called upon sportswear manufacturer Adidas to sever their business ties with the recording artist.  

Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel (D-Woodland Hills), the chair of the Jewish caucus and Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), the vice chair spoke to reporters at a Zoom press conference with Teresa Drenick, the deputy regional director of the Central Pacific Region at the Anti-Defamation League.

“We’re here today because of a series of reprehensible statements and social media posts and comments by Kanye West, now known as Ye, that have directly attacked the Jewish community and have threatened harm in the most unambiguous terms against the Jewish community,” Gabriel said. “We’re here because words have consequences. And what we have seen is that these comments, these antisemitic vitriolic comments by Kanye West have emboldend other extremists. And when we saw this in a very profound and visceral way here in Los Angeles, where extremists held a put up a banner over the 405 Freeway, one of the busiest thoroughfares in Southern California and also through appalling antisemitic propaganda that was up in Jewish and neighborhoods.” 

On October 8th, Kanye made comments on his now suspended Twitter account that he wanted to go “death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE” — an erroneous reference to the U.S. Military’s five levels of readiness for action on a threat, “defense readiness condition” or DEFCON. DEFCON 5 is the normal or lowest state of readiness and DEFCON 1 is the highest state of readiness, with an armed response imminent. 

The recording artist made a convoluted apology on Piers Morgan’s TalkTV show on October 19. But in an episode of the “Drink Champs” podcast (that has now since been deleted), Kanye boasted, “I can say anti-Semitic things, and Adidas can’t drop me. Now what?

Kanye’s words have emboldened hate groups to use his prominence and vitriol to their cause. This was on clear display on Saturday, October 22 in Los Angeles when a hate group demonstrated on a 405 Freeway overpass with Nazi salutes and banners that read “Kanye is right about the Jews.” 

Gabriel also spoke of text messages he has received from constituents with photos of antisemetic flyers that were dropped in Jewish neighborhoods. 

“We have seen a dramatic escalation in antisemitism following these reprehensible comments by Kanye,” Gabriel said. “And he is one of the most prominent individuals on the planet. Thirty-one million followers on Twitter, 18 million followers on Instagram. And so we are here today, because we have a very simple message: Adidas and any other company needs to end their commercial relationship with Kanye West. And that anyone who continues to do business with him is a party to his antisemitism and a party to his calls for violence against Jews. And this is a moment for people to unequivocally show where they stand.”

It was also brought up that Adidas’ founders, brothers Adolf and Rudolf Dassler, were members of the Nazi party. 

“We believe that [Adidas has] a special responsibility, having a founder who is a member of the Nazi party,” Gabriel said. “We believe this company has a special responsibility to be extra aggressive in condemning hate and antisemitism, and extra sensitive about making sure that they are doing everything that they can to combat incitement to violence, because they should know better than anybody the terrible consequences of the failure to do that.”

Kanye’s partnership with Adidas dates back to 2013.

State Senator Wiener commended French fashion designer Balenciaga for severing ties with Kanye.

“There’s no gray area here,” Wiener said. “There is no scenario in which a company, Adidas or otherwise, should be working with Kanye, paying money to Kanye, using Kanye to represent their product when he is literally calling for the killing of Jews. We have seen violence against Jews throughout history and recently, people walking into synagogues in San Diego County or in Pittsburgh and mass murdering Jews including senior citizens. We’ve seen violence in Europe, we’ve seen it in South America. And it’s going to continue unless and until people and corporations stand up and say ‘No more, and there will be consequences for doing this.’”

ADL’s Drenick underscored how Kanye’s words are “proof positive that hate breeds more hate and words really do matter.”

“We know that right now there’s a growing list of celebrities who have denounced [Kanye’s] rhetoric, but it’s shocking, shocking that certain companies continue to profit from his name, from his clothing, from his products, while at the same time completely ignoring his hate filled rants,” Drenick said. 

Drenick urged people to go to the ADL website to sign a petition urging Adidas to drop their partnership with Kanye.

Gabriel spoke about the uptick of hate groups “coming out of the shadows.”

“And part of what we understand is that words often precipitate violence,” Gabriel said. “And that’s not just true in the Jewish experience. We saw that, for example, with hate and violence directed against our [Asian and Pacific Islander] community, which has been a terrible problem here in the state of California. So we know that words often precipitate action, and that’s why we feel that this is the moment, not when there’s another terrible act of violence, not when there’s, G-d forbid, another shooting at a synagogue or at a Jewish community center. Now is the time for people to take action.”