Holocaust Museum LA invited Kanye West to a private tour. Now it’s target of antisemitic attacks
A Los Angeles-based nonprofit museum that promotes the historical record of the Holocaust has been subject to a wave of antisemitic abuse since it was announced earlier this month that YG was among the artists invited to a private tour of its galleries.
The museum, which is based in the Los Angeles community of Boyle Heights, invited YG to see the Holocaust exhibit after a long silence on its part.
“The response from the group of Holocaust survivors who ran the organization was extraordinary,” museum CEO Michael Ciepley told The Daily Beast. “Their comments were as kind and supportive as you could imagine.”
The invitation sparked a wave of hate mail, death threats and vandalism at the museum and outside it. And the show of support sparked anger among many in Los Angeles’ Jewish community.
“I was not shocked by the Holocaust exhibition,” said Marc Drossin, who chairs the Jewish Federation of Greater LA’s board of directors, in a Saturday interview. “I don’t think that the museum should have invited Kanye West to see the exhibit. There are plenty of other museums who might not invite him.”
Drossin said that he has never had any trouble with the museum in the past and was shocked by the recent actions.
Kanye West is scheduled to perform and perform a special two-and-a-half hour set for Los Angeles’ Grammy Awards Sunday.
The Los Angeles chapter of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, which coordinates museum programming, issued a statement on Friday condemning the display of YG and describing his performance as “a hateful display of anti-Semitism.” The IHHRO is a group of Holocaust survivors and scholars who have worked together to promote learning about the Holocaust.
“Mr. YG should not have been invited to a Holocaust exhibit to be part of the conversation by offering his perspective,” the IHHRO said in a statement. “