In Popular AI Video, Jewish Celebs Reject Kanye West’s Antisemitism

February 12, 2025 JTA

An AI-generated version of Jerry Seinfeld appears in a celebrity-studded video rejecting Kanye West's antisemitism. (Screenshot)

By Phillisa Cramer

A video released on social media on Tuesday, Feb. 11, shows a wide array of Jewish celebrities — including Steven Spielberg, Adam Sandler, Scarlett Johansson, Jack Black and Woody Allen — wearing a T-shirt with a raised middle finger and the word “KANYE,” a rejection of the rapper Kanye West’s antisemitism.

The video resembles any number of public service announcements created by Jewish advocates, but with one catch: None of the celebrities consented to participating.

That’s because the video was made with generative AI, an emerging technology that instantly creates lifelike animation, opening new frontiers for creativity while raising ethical questions about what can be rendered and how such products should be labeled.

Released on Instagram by Ori Bejerano, an Israeli generative AI entrepreneur, the video spread rapidly on Tuesday, riding a wave of anger at West and frustration over his persistence as a presence in the public sphere despite a years-long record of antisemitism.

Over the past week, West posted a string of antisemitic tweets, then paid for a Super Bowl ad directing viewers to a website that sold just one product: a $20 T-shirt with a swastika on it.

Over a techno version of “Hava Nagila,” about two dozen celebrities appear in the video. Each wears a shirt — perfectly form-fitting, thanks to AI — that echoes the swastika design in its simplicity, except it shows a raised middle finger with a Star of David inside it, above the word “KANYE.”

Then the celebrities fade out and text appears: “Enough is Enough. Join the Fight Against Antisemitism.”

Bejerano’s caption, written in Hebrew, lists reasons why West’s antics are offensive and calls for social networks to stop amplifying antisemitism and allowing people like West to “spread their poison.” (After his antisemitic X spree, West thanked owner Elon Musk for “allowing me to vent.”)

The post does not endorse any specific organization’s efforts to fight antisemitism, though it tags the accounts of several pro-Israel influencers and organizations, including StandWithUs, Noa Tishby and the Combat Antisemitism Movement. It also does not label the video as AI-generated, though Bejerano’s Instagram handle is “oribejerano_ai.”

Some of the celebrities, such as David Schwimmer, have been vocal in opposing antisemitism. Others, including Sandler, who ends the video by offering his own obscene gesture, have not been outspoken on the issue since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel unleashed a wave of antisemitism around the world.

At least one celebrity shown in the video, Johansson, has previously sued to block the use of her AI-generated likeness.

There were signs that at least some of the celebrities spoofed in the video might be on board with it. Jessica Seinfeld, the cookbook author and wife of comedian Jerry Seinfeld, who is shown pointing to his shirt and smiling, liked the video on Instagram.

Also included in the video are Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel, the 1960s-era music duo, together again for the first time in more than a decade; the rapper Drake, who this week stood at the center of a different Super Bowl controversy; Schwimmer’s “Friends” co-star Lisa Kudrow; and Sam Altman, the AI entrepreneur who is currently tangling with Musk.

Bejerano’s numerous previous AI videos have poked fun at Israel’s far-right ministers and offered up an Israeli version of “The Simpsons.” And a different Israeli AI entrepreneur recently used the technology to imagine peace in the Middle East.

Philissa Cramer is the editor in chief of the JTA global Jewish media source.