Elon Musk is cosplaying as Jewish. But no Jew would do what he has done

‘I’m Jew-ish,’ Elon Musk said, laughing – likely thinking he was making a clever play on words to mean he was kind of Jewish.

‘Aspirationally Jewish,’ he continued.

For clarification, the billionaire X (formerly Twitter) owner isn’t Jewish at all.

So as soon as I heard Musk’s remarks, I felt furious that he could pretend to be our friend while permitting a tsunami of antisemitism on X, including a post by himself. 

In November last year, the 52-year-old Tesla CEO was accused of horrendous antisemitism by replying to a tweet that claimed Jewish people were engaged in stoking ‘hatred against whites’. 

He responded: ‘You have said the actual truth’.

Musk later apologised, saying it was the ‘worst and dumbest’ post he had ever made.

Less than two months later, the ‘aspirationally Jewish’ remark happened.

It came about after he visited Auschwitz this week with right-wing US political commentator Ben Shapiro, accompanied by a Holocaust survivor. Later, I was in the audience as he was quizzed by Shapiro about how the trip to the Nazi death camp went.

What followed was 45 minutes of backslapping conversation where Musk talked about how there could not have been a Holocaust if social media was around and his connection to Judaism.

‘I grew up around a lot of Jewish people,’ he argued. ‘I went to [a] Hebrew preschool, my name is very Jewish… it’s super Jewish. And then I went to Israel when I was 13. I’m certainly checking the boxes on a lot of things… most of my friends are Jewish – it just worked out that way. Sometimes I forget [and] I think, “Am I Jewish?”’

But being Jewish isn’t about a name or a nursery or a visit to Israel. That feels a little like cosplaying. No Jew would have so happily posted that tweet. 

Rather than listening to him talk about how he feels ‘Jewish by association’, what I really wanted to hear was how the horrendous amount of antisemitism on X was being properly addressed.

As a Jewish woman who has felt antisemitic attacks on X (both from bots that have blue ticks and real people) more than quadruple since October 7 – from people calling me a ‘Zionist c**t’ to threats to hurt me – I did not find Musk’s insistence of his proximity to Jewishness massively comforting.

It was clear to me that he was there to make amends to the community after his antisemitic post on X in November.

But, as far as I was concerned, the closest the billionaire came to talking about it on Monday evening was when he said: ‘Once in a while, I’ll do something dumb. I try to say things which are interesting or funny. If I say something wrong the community will correct me very quickly.’

When you make an error like agreeing with a far-right trope about Jews, an apology like this – which simply passes it off as a joke – does nothing to repair the damage done. 

His comment also came after a particularly difficult time. His stint on stage at The European Jewish Association event followed testimony after testimony from politicians about rising antisemitism across the continent.

Organisers told me that free speech-lover Musk had banned questions from both delegates and journalists so no one was given the chance to really pin down why he’d agreed with that tweet and what he intended to do with all the antisemites on his platform.

Nothing, I imagine.

Later that evening, I had a discussion with a non-Jewish journalist who felt that Musk’s appearance was the Jewish equivalent of ‘pink washing’ – Jew washing – in which bad people virtue signal their support for a marginalised group with a token action. 

He had been given such an easy ride – and the audience had seemingly lapped up his words so it was like all was forgiven.

Musk claims to be an ally. I’d like to see him start acting as one

My colleague, however, felt the idea of being an ‘aspirational Jew’ was antisemitic – even if none of us could figure out what it meant.

Many Philosemites – people with an appreciation of Jewish people – love Jews in an antisemitic way. Their admiration stems from tropes like us being good at business, or that we are strangely clever.  

Did the richest man in the world want to be even richer (my colleague’s interpretation) or did he believe in hard work and family (my interpretation)? I guess it depends on where you stand on what being a Jew is. 

Musk isn’t forgiven, far from it. He needs to do more to gain our trust.

I had my own trip to Auschwitz this morning – there is snow on the ground and this dark forbidding place felt even more horrific than on the two previous occasions I had been there. 

I am still reeling from the attacks of October 7 and how that led to a huge increase of antisemitism – which started before Israel’s retaliatory action.

What happened to the Jews in the Holocaust did, of course, start with words – the kind of words I see being repeated on X and other social media platforms.

Before the interview, it was said that platforms such as X meant evil things such as death camps couldn’t be hidden today, unlike in the 1940s.

But hatred is also spread so much more easily because of social media.

All I could think was that his love of free speech means X is now populated by racists, neo-Nazis and bot factories exercising that free speech by attacking Jews.

The Holocaust also happened because the most powerful people in the world allowed it to. 

Musk claims to be an ally. I’d like to see him start acting as one.

Do you have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing jess.austin@metro.co.uk. 

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