An electronic antisemitic message appeared at TIAA Bank Field at the end of the Georgia-Florida game Saturday night, according to a video shared by a television reporter.
The hate message came as similar messages appeared on signs elsewhere in Jacksonville Friday and Saturday.
The message “Kanye was right about the jews” was projected onto TIAA Bank Field’s videoboard. It referred to Ye, the artist formerly known as Kanye West, who posted hate speech attacking Jews on social media earlier in the week.
Other hate messages reported in Jacksonville included banners hoisted on an Interstate 10 overpass on Jacksonville’s Westside and on the Arlington Expressway and a message projected on the outside of a downtown building. A similar message was reported on a Los Angeles freeway a week ago.
The Jewish Federation & Foundation of Northeast Florida condemned the “antisemitic rhetoric and messages of Jewish hatred here in our city.”
Jennifer Plotkin, board president and Mariam Feist, chief executive officer, expressed outrage in a statement Sunday morning.
The federation “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 in ensuring the safety and security of our community,” they said.
The organization, they said, is “harnessing our outrage to bring action to our community” and was initiating the “Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) to build alliances and relationships with our elected officials, faith leaders, and public school superintendents to educate, inform, and ensure that our Jewish community has a strong voice in combatting intentional (and unintentional) antisemitism.”
Elected officials, political candidates and leaders from both parties and others also denounced the messages in separate statements late Saturday and Sunday.
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