Why are some calling Jenna Ortega anti-Semitic?

Wednesday star Jenna Ortega — who achieved tremendous success following her breakthrough role and performance in the Netflix hit series — is being compared to Kanye West for her previous tweets, which were deemed anti-Semitic by an Israeli National Daily.

Snippets from the article in The Times of Israel, authored by Daniel Margolis, is making rounds on Twitter and comparing both the celebrities for their comments, which have been claimed to be aligning with a shared hatred towards the Jews.

Almost everyone is aware of Ye’s quite recent comments, which associated the holocaust with Jewish propaganda. In March 2022, Ortega took to Twitter to create awareness about the hardships of people in certain countries due to political conflicts and ongoing wars.

This was during the Russia-Ukraine war and when President Vladimir Putin faced backlash from various media channels and human rights groups for unleashing acute suffering on the common people of Ukraine.

We must never give up on the people of Ukraine, Yemen, Palestine, Kashmir, Iraq, Syria… the list goes on unfortunately. For anyone who is willing & wanting to contribute any way they can, I want to form a thread with information. Does anyone have resources/links they could add?

— Jenna Ortega (@jennaortega) March 6, 2022

Ortega’s tweet states, “We must never give up on the people of Ukraine, Yemen, Palestine, Kashmir, Iraq, Syria…the list goes on unfortunately.” In the same thread, she tweeted, “Decolonize Palestine.” Both the tweets were responded to with harsh criticisms, with one of the responders calling her ‘anti-Semitic.” Let’s shine some light on the matter.

What was written about Ortega?

Of course, the story didn’t end there. After Ortega’s widespread popularity and recognition following Wednesday and the furor over Kanye West’s statement on the Jews, the matter was brought up by an Israeli online newspaper called The Times of Israel, which criticized them for their respective comments on this particular religious community. On Dec. 14, 2022, Daniel Margolis made a detailed comparison in The Times of Israel. In the opening paragraph of the article, he wrote:

“Who’s more dangerous to the safety of Jewish people, Kanye West or Jenna Ortega? Easy, right? Kanye is an open Jew-hater. He creates tweets that are both incomprehensible and threateningly antisemitic, spews Black Hebrew Israelite and Nation of Islam propaganda, and declares his love for Hitler and the Nazis. He even appeared to cause discomfort for even Alex Jones, the guy who attacked the survivors of the Sandy Hook shooting. Ortega, who plays Wednesday Addams in the current Netflix series, is, according to those who work with her, genuinely nice. While West uses his social media for self-aggrandizement, unhinged rants, declarations that he is a god, and, most troublingly, Jew-hatred, Ortega uses hers to promote her work and humanitarian causes. She seems to genuinely want to help others. And therein lies the problem.”

Decolonize Palestine. https://t.co/MlI5Gpr2QN

— Jenna Ortega (@jennaortega) March 6, 2022

On Dec. 28, Margolis regarded Ortega as the poster child for Hamas, a Sunni-Islamic group in Palestine. This was in response to the “Decolonize Palestine” tweet, which he associated with Hamas’ key ideology. On the subject, he wrote,

“As noted previously, the actress shared a link to the “Decolonize Palestine” website. At first glance, it seemed in keeping with previous social media posts – she’s championed the cause of Planned Parenthood, Ukrainians, the women of Iran, and children in Iraq and Yemen. However, while she supports women rising up against Islamic theocrats in Tehran, the “Decolonize” link was essentially a list of talking points in line with Hamas, an organization funded in large part by Iran and which imposes an Iranian-style theocracy on Gaza. Some of what appears on the site has been disavowed even by the PLO and the Palestinian Authority, which the site calls “subcontractors for Israeli control of Palestine” (as does Hamas).”

How did people react?

The news piece against Ortega created an outage amongst the netizens and many are focusing on the misinterpretation of Ortega’s message. Twitter users have labeled the newspaper and the article as propaganda to silence any form of criticism for unlawful practices. People have personally emphasized the comparison of Ortega’s message with Kanye West’s comments, calling it ludicrous and baseless.

One of the users, @B_Money112687, said, “Comparing Jenna Ortega to Kanye West is like comparing a Freshly Grown Sour Apple to a Durian Fruit. Jenna Ortega is talking about human rights. Kanye West is talking about taking away human rights.”

Another user, @LEIGHSREVlVAL, said, “jenna ortega being compared on the same line as andrew tate and kanye is crazy… like omfg what did this girl do to y’all.” Others have pointed out that their opinions are far from being similar in any aspect and called the claims “made up antisemitism.”

Kanye: “I like Hitler”
Jenna Ortega: “Palestinians deserve to live”

The Times of Israel: pic.twitter.com/CQDVPPST4Y

— Amir (@AmirAminiMD) January 2, 2023

There is another user, @AmirAminiMD, who took to Twitter to simplify the message of Ye and Ortega by highlighting the differences of their views. He differentiated Kanye’s love for Hitler from Ortega advocating the Palestinian’s right to live.

According to the Anti-Defamation League, antisemitic incidents reached an “all-time high” in 2021, and 2022/2023 is on a similar track. This includes assault, harassment, and vandalism. For more information on the dangers of antisemitic rhetoric and what you can do to stop it, see the American Jewish Committee’s Call to Action Against Antisemitism in America.