Tesla CEO and X/Twitter owner Elon Musk called himself “aspirationally Jewish” after visiting the Auschwitz death camp site as part of an antisemitism summit as part of his damage control tour for previous comments that people have called antisemitic.
On Monday, Musk visited the former Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz, where he lit a candle in memory of the millions of Jews murdered in the Holocaust, and then declared himself “aspirationally Jewish,” according to a report by the New York Times.
After his visit, Musk attended a conference on antisemitism, where he said he had been “somewhat naïve” about the dangers posed by anti-Jewish rhetoric, because “in the circles I move in, I see no antisemitism.”
Elon Musk and Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel (Amos Ben-Gershom (GPO))
“Two-thirds of my friends are Jewish,” the Tesla CEO said. “I’m Jewish by association. I’m aspirationally Jewish.”
Musk added that “it blew my mind” to see anti-Israel, pro-Hamas demonstrations on U.S. college campuses, saying, “At elite campuses you are supposed to be enlightened, not sponsoring hate.”
The Auschwitz visit comes after months of allegations that Musk agreed with antisemitic posts on his platform. In an apparent attempt to push back against those allegations, the Tesla CEO has visited Israel, hosted Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a Tesla factory in California, and repeatedly proclaimed that he has no animosity toward Jews.
This wasn’t the first time the X owner had been accused of promoting antisemitic content.
In October, Musk endorsed a pro-Palestinian terror X/Twitter account — that put Israel in quotation marks, arguing there is “no such thing,” and referred to Palestinian terrorists as “resistance fighters” — was a good source for “following the war in real-time.” Musk later deleted his recommendations after pleading with the pro-terror account to “use maximally accurate words.”
The controversy sparked an exodus of advertisers, with Musk saying, “I’m sorry for that post. It was foolish of me. Of the 30,000 it might be literally the worst and dumbest post I’ve ever done.”
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and X/Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.