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American Singer Matthew Koma Raises Roughly $18K for Holocaust Survivors With Anti-Kanye West Shirt
One style of the “F—k Ye” shirt that Matthew Koma is selling. Photo: Screenshot
American musician Matthew Koma has helped raise roughly $18,000 to aid Holocaust survivors with the sale of shirts that directly respond to the decision of Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, to sell shirts featuring a Nazi swastika.
Koma, who is Jewish and the husband of American singer and actress Hilary Duff, began selling the “F—k Ye” white t-shirts on Tuesday, and all proceeds are being donated to Blue Card, a nonprofit organization that provides direct financial assistance to needy Holocaust survivors living in America. The shirts feature the anti-Ye message on the front and sell for $20. They are sold two ways — with the profanity spelled out in full or with asterisks.
Masha Pearl, executive director of Blue Card, told TMZ that although final sale numbers have not been tallied yet, the charity’s website has already received around $18,000 in donations because of Koma’s help drawing awareness to the organization. Koma is also matching the donations being given to Blue Card, Pearl told TMZ. He added that because of all the publicity, more Holocaust survivors have also reached out to the charity for help, including with trauma assistance and emotional support.
“We are so grateful to Matthew Koma and Hilary Duff for quickly springing into action and realizing that this is not OK and that they have to do something, and utilizing fashion to get the word out there,” she said. “They learned about Blue Card on their own, reached out and had quickly created the t-shirts and had spread this on social media — both Matthew and Hillary … It’s a way for people to feel that they’re doing something positive and not just innocently standing by.”
There are about 40,000 Holocaust survivors living in the US, Pearl said. Among the survivors that Blue Card assists, three-quarters are over the age of 78, according to its website. Nearly 70 percent of the Holocaust survivors that the charity aids live alone, and many of them struggle to afford necessities such food and health care. More than half of them also live 200 percent below the federal poverty line, with an income of less than $24,980 annually.
Koma began selling the “F–K Ye” shirts after the rapper went on a rabid antisemitic rant on X – during which he called himself a Nazi and racist – and then proceeded to sell on Yeezy.com a white t-shirt emblazoned with a black swastika, a symbol of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi party that is also used by far-right extremists. The “Flashing Lights” singer also aired a commercial during Super Bowl LIX on Sunday night that drew attention to Yeezy.com and the shirt, which was being sold online until Tuesday morning, when Ye’s website was shut down.
Commenting on Ye’s recent antisemitic behavior, Pearl said: “I don’t want to attack him personally. When I denounced his actions, I don’t denounce him as a person. I can’t speak to his mental health. But I do see is someone who is exhibiting very hateful and very dangerous behavior that has serious ramifications.”
“I don’t even want to say this rap artist’s name because I think so much of what he does is for shock value and attention,” she added. “And this is such a dangerous rhetoric that is being spread, which has enormous ramifications. This is promoting Nazism and atrocities of millions of people being murdered, including children, and this is something that is completely unacceptable and should be denounced in every which shape and form.”
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US Moves Patriot Missile Batteries from South Korea to Middle East
A Patriot missile battery. Photo: IDF.
i24 News – American Patriot missile defense batteries will be moved from South Korea to the Middle East, according to reports in Asian media on Friday, amid speculation over a potential military action against Iran’s nuclear program and escalating bombardments of Iran-backed jihadists in Yemen.
US President Donald Trump threatened Iran on Sunday with bombing and secondary tariffs if Tehran did not come to an agreement with Washington over its nuclear program, and the United States has moved additional warplanes into the region.
Washington and Seoul have reportedly recently agreed on the “monthslong” partial deployment of the Patriot Advanced Capability-3, in what is understood to be the first known case involving the relocation of United States Forces Korea (USFK) assets to the Middle East.
Iran in recent years has largely dropped the pretense of enriching uranium for a civilian atomic energy program, as it’s reportedly teetering on the nuclear precipice. Israel believes that a nuclear Iran represents a grave existential threat, consistent with the exterminationist antisemitism of the Islamic Republic’s anti-Israel rhetoric.
After the election of Trump, a known Iran hawk, the likelihood of an U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities has increased precipitously.
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Report: Iranian Plot to Assassinate Azerbaijani Rabbi Foiled
The Azerbaijani capital of Baku. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.
i24 News – Iran enlisted the services of a Georgian drug trafficker to carry out an assassination of a prominent Azerbaijani rabbi, the Washington Post reported Saturday, citing security officials.
The plot to murder Rabbi Shneor Segal, foiled by the State Security Service of Azerbaijan in early January, also involved a plan to attack a Jewish education center, the officials said.
The plot was set in motion by an officer with Iran’s Quds Force, who met with Georgian criminal Agil Aslanov, handing him a photo of Segal and detailed instructions on how to murder him, the officials cited by WaPo said. Aslanov’s fee for the foiled hit was $200,000.
The State Security Service said the two men “worked to collect information about a member of a religious community, and sent the location of his residence and workplace to a representative of a foreign special service agency via the appropriate mobile phone application.”
Iran is known to be behind multiple plots against Israeli and Jewish targets, many of which have been foiled by Israeli and foreign security services.
However a recent plot saw three citizens of Uzbekistan murder an Israeli rabbi in the United Arab Emirates on Iranian orders. The three were sentenced to death earlier this week for the murder of Zvi Kogan in November.
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Netanyahu to Depart for Washington on Sunday Directly from Hungary to Meet with Trump
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the Prime Minister’s office in Jerusalem, Feb. 16, 2025. Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg/Pool via REUTERS
i24 News – Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will depart to Washington DC on Sunday directly from Hungary—where he is presently on an official visit—to meet with US President Donald Trump, i24NEWS learned on Saturday from an Israeli source.
The visit comes following a phone conversation between the leaders on Friday, and a call with State Secretary Marco Rubio a short while ago.
As a result, the planned visit to Washington of Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz will be postponed once again.
Topics of discussion between the two leaders are expected to include the possible military action against Iran’s nuclear facilities, the Gaza war and the future of the war-ravaged Palestinian enclave, the US bombing campaign against Iran-backed Houthi jihadists in Yemen, and the recent imposition of tariffs on Israeli products.
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