(Trends Wide) — Officials in the Jacksonville, Florida, area condemned multiple anti-Semitic messages that appeared in public spaces this weekend of Oct. 29, including one at a football stadium, on a freeway overpass and on a downtown building. .
An anti-Semitic message referencing rapper Kanye West was seen scrolling outside TIAA Bank Field in Jacksonville during the Georgia-Florida college football game on Saturday, according to video recorded by a family member of WJXT reporter Vic Micolucci. Trends Wide affiliate.
In the video, the words “Kanye is right about the Jews” can be seen scrolling across the outside of the stadium structure, referring to recent anti-Semitic comments by rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West.
Horrible to see that someone projected an anti-Semitic message on to TIAA Bank Field at the end of the sold-out Georgia-Florida game. A relative sent this to me. It’s in reference to comments Ye (formerly Kanye West) made recently.
This hate has to stop. Period. pic.twitter.com/kBKYUx7hIh
— Vic Micolucci WJXT (@WJXTvic) October 30, 2022
Trends Wide has reached out to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office and TIAA Bank Field for comment.
It is not clear how the message was projected on the wall of the stadium. It’s also unclear how long the message was visible outside the stadium.
In other videos circulating on social media, the same message was also visible in at least one building in Jacksonville on Saturday night.
And on Friday, October 28, the banners could also be seen from an overpass on Interstate 10 in Jacksonville, according to a tweet from a local reporter. They were also mentioned in a statement from Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried.
The banners read “End Jewish Supremacy in America” and “Honk if you know it’s the Jews.”
The language in the messages being scrolled in Jacksonville mirrors the banners a group hung from a freeway overpass in Los Angeles last weekend that appeared to make Nazi salutes.
Several officials condemned the messages in statements Sunday morning.
“The first step is to make sure we don’t normalize this behavior,” Fried said. “Don’t normalize anti-Semitic messages on a highway or anywhere else.”
The Northeast Florida Jewish Federation and Foundation has “condemned and is outraged” at the multiple anti-Semitic events.
“We are turning our outrage into positive action. The Jewish Federation and Foundation has been in communication with the FBI, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office and the St. Johns Sheriff’s Office. We will continue to work with them to ensure the safety of our community,” the group said in a statement.
“The rhetoric we have seen and heard in recent weeks is disconcerting and a scare tactic. However, our greatest concern is that even one person sees this as a call to action and repeats what we witnessed in Pittsburgh exactly four years ago,” the Federation said.
Pittsburgh was the site of the deadliest attack on Jews on American soil, when on the morning of October 27, 2018, a man stormed the Tree of Life synagogue, killing 11 people.
US Representative John Rutherford, whose district includes Jacksonville, said in a statement on Twitter: “There is absolutely no place for this kind of hate in Florida. I continue to support the Jewish community in Jacksonville and across the country.”
