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A Kanye West impersonator wore a ‘Jewish Lives Matter’ shirt at NY Fashion Week. Why?
(New York Jewish Week) — The internet was flummoxed over the weekend when a photo made the rounds on social media appearing to show Kanye West walking a New York Fashion Week runway wearing a blue shirt reading “Jewish Lives Matter.”
Could it be that the rapper and fashion designer, who goes by Ye and last fall launched a stream of antisemitic comments, was engaging in teshuvah — Hebrew for repentance — just before the High Holidays begin on Friday?
Don’t hold your breath. The real West appears to be up to his usual antics — crashing a wedding over the weekend in Florence, Italy.
The man wearing the striking blue shirt on the runway Saturday night was actually a West impersonator named Baron Jay Littleton Jr., who goes by “The Kanye Clone” on social media and uses the name Baron Jay in real life.
Jay, who is based in Los Angeles, said it was his idea to wear the “Jewish Lives Matter” shirt while walking at a fashion show at the Conrad New York Downtown hotel in Tribeca for Creators Inc., a social media management company. The show featured the company’s creators and other invited guests.
Originally, Jay said the producers of the show asked him to wear a “White Lives Matter” shirt to recreate West’s viral moment from his own YZY SZN 9 fashion show for his Yeezy collection during last fall’s Paris Fashion Week. That shirt sparked a social media altercation with Sean Combs, the rapper also known as Puff Daddy and Diddy, that touched off West’s stream of antisemitic remarks.
Jay asked to wear a Jewish Lives Matter shirt instead.
Jay’s message, he said, was a literal one: “I wanted to convey a message that Jewish lives matter,” he told the New York Jewish Week. “My intention behind it is that each culture can rally around each other.”
“All ethnicities matter,” he added. “Black lives matter, white lives matter.”
This was Jay’s first time publicly wearing the shirt, which he sells on his website along with other Yeezy-esque apparel and footwear. On the runway, Jay paired the shirt with loose black pants tucked into black leather boots. He also wore black sunglasses and a black baseball cap with the letters ‘YZS’ on the front, a spoof of West’s “YZY” brand.
“I just thought it was a genius concept,” Andrew Bachman, the CEO of Creators, Inc., told the New York Jewish Week.
“I thought, ‘Screw it, it’s good for a viral moment,’” added Bachman, who is Jewish. “Kanye West has made antisemitic marks, so taking someone who looks identical to Kanye West and making that statement is powerful and thought provoking.”
Jay’s appearance as Kanye wasn’t the only part of the fashion show that made waves on the internet. Right after Jay walked, Fred Beyer, a YouTuber known for making outrageous prank videos, crashed the runway. Security tackled Beyer just moments after Jay departed, cutting short his time in the spotlight.
Saturday night’s fashion show was not the first time Jay has imitated West: He told the New York Jewish Week that he has been impersonating the rapper for nearly two decades, since West released his debut album, “The College Dropout,” in 2004.
“People hire me to do bar mitzvahs, birthday parties, corporate events, meet and greets,” Jay said. “Everywhere I go, I’m getting mistaken as Kanye West.” In fact, Jay appeared as a stand-in for West in the music video for Jewish rapper Drake’s 2015 song “Energy.”
The similarities between the two men don’t stop at looks. Both are 46 years old and hail from the Midwest — West from Chicago and Jay from Detroit. “We are like two different dimensions on the same earth,” Jay told the New York Jewish Week, adding that West has never contacted him about his videos and the two have never met.
After West went viral for his antisemitic outburst, he faced swift backlash, losing a lucrative partnership with Adidas and getting banned from Twitter until Elon Musk bought the platform. Jay said that he lost some gigs because venues did not want to associate with the rapper.
When asked for his thoughts on Kanye’s recent words and actions, Jay said, “I would like to create a world where different races are wearing each other’s ‘Lives Matter’ shirts,” he said. “Black people wearing ‘Jewish Lives Matter; Jewish people wearing ‘Black Lives Matter’; Asian people wearing ‘Jewish Lives Matter.’”
Though West has used his massive influence to traffic in conspiracy theories, such as saying that the Holocaust did not happen and that “slavery was a choice,” Jay channels his Kanye-like appearance for causes he cares about. “I feel like because I look like Kanye West, I’m at an advantage to spread the message and to fill in the gaps that Kanye West is not able to fill in,” he said.
His day job is serving as the director of the eponymous Baron Jay Foundation, which he founded in 2002 with the aim of empowering underprivileged youth in the Los Angeles area, where he now lives.
“I really am able to resonate with these kids more and get them to trust me because I look like Kanye,” he said. He said he puts the proceeds he makes doing gigs as Kanye West back into his foundation.
For now, however, Jay is currently still in New York City, where he will perform Monday night in a “Jay-Z & Kanye West Hip-Hop Legends Tribute Show” at the 333 Lounge in Park Slope.
On X, the platform previously called Twitter, a screenshot of the outfit is circulating from user Yaakov Langer, a Jewish podcaster whose tweet incorrectly stated that West is the one who wore the “Jewish Lives Matter” shirt. Users joked that the image seemed slightly off.
“This is Kanye East….” one responded.
“That’s Kanye Ma’arav,” another said, using the Hebrew word for West.
“I wish this was real,” a third said.
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The post A Kanye West impersonator wore a ‘Jewish Lives Matter’ shirt at NY Fashion Week. Why? appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Israel to Send Delegation to Qatar for Gaza Ceasefire Talks
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a news conference in Jerusalem, Sept. 2, 2024. Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg/Pool via REUTERS
Israel has decided to send a delegation to Qatar for talks on a possible Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal, an Israeli official said, reviving hopes of a breakthrough in negotiations to end the almost 21-month war.
Palestinian group Hamas said on Friday it had responded to a US-backed Gaza ceasefire proposal in a “positive spirit,” a few days after US President Donald Trump said Israel had agreed “to the necessary conditions to finalize” a 60-day truce.
The Israeli negotiation delegation will fly to Qatar on Sunday, the Israeli official, who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter, told Reuters.
But in a sign of the potential challenges still facing the two sides, a Palestinian official from a militant group allied with Hamas said concerns remained over humanitarian aid, passage through the Rafah crossing in southern Israel to Egypt and clarity over a timetable for Israeli troop withdrawals.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is due to meet Trump in Washington on Monday, has yet to comment on Trump’s announcement, and in their public statements Hamas and Israel remain far apart.
Netanyahu has repeatedly said Hamas must be disarmed, a position the terrorist group, which is thought to be holding 20 living hostages, has so far refused to discuss.
Israeli media said on Friday that Israel had received and was reviewing Hamas’ response to the ceasefire proposal.
The post Israel to Send Delegation to Qatar for Gaza Ceasefire Talks first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Tucker Carlson Says to Air Interview with President of Iran
Tucker Carlson speaks on July 18, 2024 during the final day of the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Photo: Jasper Colt-USA TODAY via Reuters Connect
US conservative talk show host Tucker Carlson said in an online post on Saturday that he had conducted an interview with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, which would air in the next day or two.
Carlson said the interview was conducted remotely through a translator, and would be published as soon as it was edited, which “should be in a day or two.”
Carlson said he had stuck to simple questions in the interview, such as, “What is your goal? Do you seek war with the United States? Do you seek war with Israel?”
“There are all kinds of questions that I didn’t ask the president of Iran, particularly questions to which I knew I could get an not get an honest answer, such as, ‘was your nuclear program totally disabled by the bombing campaign by the US government a week and a half ago?’” he said.
Carlson also said he had made a third request in the past several months to interview Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who will be visiting Washington next week for talks with US President Donald Trump.
Trump said on Friday he would discuss Iran with Netanyahu at the White House on Monday.
Trump said he believed Tehran’s nuclear program had been set back permanently by recent US strikes that followed Israel’s attacks on the country last month, although Iran could restart it at a different location.
Trump also said Iran had not agreed to inspections of its nuclear program or to give up enriching uranium. He said he would not allow Tehran to resume its nuclear program, adding that Iran did want to meet with him.
Pezeshkian said last month Iran does not intend to develop nuclear weapons but will pursue its right to nuclear energy and research.
The post Tucker Carlson Says to Air Interview with President of Iran first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Hostage Families Reject Partial Gaza Seal, Demand Release of All Hostages
Demonstrators hold signs and pictures of hostages, as relatives and supporters of Israeli hostages kidnapped during the Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas protest demanding the release of all hostages in Tel Aviv, Israel, Feb. 13, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Itai Ron
i24 News – As Israeli leaders weigh the contours of a possible partial ceasefire deal with Hamas, the families of the 50 hostages still held in Gaza issued an impassioned public statement this weekend, condemning any agreement that would return only some of the abductees.
In a powerful message released Saturday, the Families Forum for the Return of Hostages denounced what they call the “beating system” and “cruel selection process,” which, they say, has left families trapped in unbearable uncertainty for 638 days—not knowing whether to hope for reunion or prepare for mourning.
The group warned that a phased or selective deal—rumored to be under discussion—would deepen their suffering and perpetuate injustice. Among the 50 hostages, 22 are believed to be alive, and 28 are presumed dead.
“Every family deserves answers and closure,” the Forum said. “Whether it is a return to embrace or a grave to mourn over—each is sacred.”
They accused the Israeli government of allowing political considerations to prevent a full agreement that could have brought all hostages—living and fallen—home long ago. “It is forbidden to conform to the dictates of Schindler-style lists,” the statement read, invoking a painful historical parallel.
“All of the abductees could have returned for rehabilitation or burial months ago, had the government chosen to act with courage.”
The call for a comprehensive deal comes just as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepares for high-stakes talks in Washington and as indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas are expected to resume in Doha within the next 24 hours, according to regional media reports.
Hamas, for its part, issued a statement Friday confirming its readiness to begin immediate negotiations on the implementation of a ceasefire and hostage release framework.
The Forum emphasized that every day in captivity poses a mortal risk to the living hostages, and for the deceased, a danger of being lost forever. “The horror of selection does not spare any of us,” the statement said. “Enough with the separation and categories that deepen the pain of the families.”
In a planned public address near Begin Gate in Tel Aviv, families are gathering Saturday evening to demand that the Israeli government accept a full-release deal—what they describe as the only “moral and Zionist” path forward.
“We will return. We will avenge,” the Forum concluded. “This is the time to complete the mission.”
As of now, the Israeli government has not formally responded to Hamas’s latest statement.
The post Hostage Families Reject Partial Gaza Seal, Demand Release of All Hostages first appeared on Algemeiner.com.