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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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Love Thy Neighbor as Thyself. Really?
JNS.org – If I asked you to name the most famous line in the Bible, what would you answer? While Shema Yisrael (“Hear O’Israel”) might get many votes, I imagine that the winning line would be “love thy neighbor as thyself” (Leviticus 19:18). Some religions refer to it as the Golden Rule, but all would agree that it is fundamental to any moral lifestyle. And it appears this week in our Torah reading, Kedoshim.
This is quite a tall order. Can we be expected to love other people as much as we love ourselves? Surely, this is an idealistic expectation. And yet, the Creator knows us better than we know ourselves. How can His Torah be so unrealistic?
The biblical commentaries offer a variety of explanations. Some, like Rambam (Maimonides), say that the focus should be on our behavior, rather than our feelings. We are expected to try our best or to treat others “as if” we genuinely love them.
Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, in his classic text called the Tanya, argues that the actual feelings of love are, in fact, achievable provided that we focus on a person’s spirituality rather than how they present themselves physically. If we can put the soul over the body, we can do it.
Allow me to share the interpretation of the Ramban (Nachmanides), a 13th-century Torah scholar from Spain. His interpretation of the verses preceding love thy neighbor is classic and powerful, yet simple and straightforward.
“Do not hate your brother in your heart. You shall rebuke him, but do not bear a sin because of him” by embarrassing him in public. “Do not take revenge, and do not bear a grudge against your people. You shall love your fellow as yourself, I am God” (Leviticus 19:17-18).
What is the connection between these verses? Why is revenge and grudge-bearing in the same paragraph as love your fellow as yourself?
A careful reading shows that within these two verses are no less than six biblical commandments. But what is their sequence all about, and what is the connection between them?
The Ramban explains it beautifully, showing how the sequence of verses is deliberate and highlighting the Torah’s profound yet practical advice on how to maintain healthy relationships.
Someone wronged you? Don’t hate him in your heart. Speak to him. Don’t let it fester until it bursts, and makes you bitter and sick.
Instead, talk it out. Confront the person. Of course, do it respectfully. Don’t embarrass anyone in public, so that you don’t bear a sin because of them. But don’t let your hurt eat you up. Communicate!
If you approach the person who wronged you—not with hate in your heart but with respectful reproof—one of two things will happen. Either he or she will apologize and explain their perspective on the matter. Or that it was a misunderstanding and will get sorted out between you. Either way, you will feel happier and healthier.
Then you will not feel the need to take revenge or even to bear a grudge.
Here, says the Ramban, is the connection between these two verses. And if you follow this advice, only then will you be able to observe the commandment to Love Thy Neighbor. If you never tell him why you are upset, another may be completely unaware of his or her wrongdoing, and it will remain as a wound inside you and may never go away.
To sum up: Honest communication is the key to loving people.
Now, tell me the truth. Did you know that not taking revenge is a biblical commandment? In some cultures in Africa, revenge is a mitzvah! I’ve heard radio talk-show hosts invite listeners to share how they took “sweet revenge” on someone, as if it’s some kind of accomplishment.
Furthermore, did you know that bearing a grudge is forbidden by biblical law?
Here in South Africa, people refer to a grudge by its Yiddish name, a faribel. In other countries, people call it a broiges. Whatever the terminology, the Torah states explicitly: “Thou shalt not bear a grudge!” Do not keep a faribel, a broiges or resentment of any kind toward someone you believe wronged you. Talk to that person. Share your feelings honestly. If you do it respectfully and do not demean the other’s dignity, then it can be resolved. Only then will you be able to love your fellow as yourself.
May all our grudges and feelings of resentment toward others be dealt with honestly and respectfully. May all our grudges be resolved as soon as possible. Then we will all be in a much better position to love our neighbors as ourselves.
The post Love Thy Neighbor as Thyself. Really? first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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‘Nonsense’: Huckabee Shoots Down Report Trump to Endorse Palestinian Statehood
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee looks on during the day he visits the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest prayer site, in Jerusalem’s Old City, April 18, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
i24 News – US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee on Saturday dismissed as nonsensical the report that President Donald Trump would endorse Palestinian statehood during his tour to the Persian Gulf this week.
“This report is nonsense,” Huckabee harrumphed on his X account, blasting the Jerusalem Post as needing better sourced reporting. “Israel doesn’t have a better friend than the president of the United States.”
Trump is set to visit Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. The leader’s first trip overseas since he took office comes as Trump seeks the Gulf countries’ support in regional conflicts, including the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and curbing Iran’s advancing nuclear program.
However, reports citing administration insiders claimed that Trump has also set his sights on the ambitious goal of expanding the Abraham Accords. These agreements, initially signed in 2020, normalized relations between Israel and the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan. The accords are widely held to be among the most important achievements of the first Trump administration.
The post ‘Nonsense’: Huckabee Shoots Down Report Trump to Endorse Palestinian Statehood first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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US to Put Military Option Back on Table If No Immediate Progress in Iran Talks
US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy-designate Steve Witkoff gives a speech at the inaugural parade inside Capital One Arena on the inauguration day of Trump’s second presidential term, in Washington, DC, Jan. 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria
i24 News – Unless significant progress is registered in Sunday’s round of nuclear talks with Iran, the US will consider putting the military option back on the table, sources close to US envoy Steve Witkoff told i24NEWS.
American and Iranian representatives voiced optimism after the previous talks that took place in Oman and Rome, saying there was a friendly atmosphere despite the two countries’ decades of enmity.
However the two sides are not believed to have thrashed out the all-important technical details, and basic questions remain.
The source has also underscored the significance of the administration’s choice of Michael Anton, the State Department’s policy planning director, as the lead representative in the nuclear talks’ technical phases.
Anton is “an Iran expert and someone who knows how to cut a deal with Iran,” the source said, saying that the choice reflected Trump’s desire to secure the deal.
The post US to Put Military Option Back on Table If No Immediate Progress in Iran Talks first appeared on Algemeiner.com.