Fears for 'security of Jews worldwide' in wake of Elon Musk AfD speech

Source: The Guardian

Tue 28 Jan 2025 07.33 EST
Last modified on Tue 28 Jan 2025 07.35 EST


Elon Musk’s remarks to a German far-right party that Germans should not focus on their country’s Nazi past should prompt “deep concern” about “the security of American Jews” and “of Jews worldwide”, a leading US Jewish advocate has told the Guardian. “Speaking as a deeply concerned American Jew,” said Halie Soifer, chief executive of the Jewish Democratic Council of America (JDCA), “I am deeply concerned about the security of American Jews, of Jews worldwide, given our president’s clear alignment with dangerous rightwing extremists.”

Musk, the owner of Tesla, SpaceX and X and the world’s richest person, donated hundreds of millions of dollars to Donald Trump’s campaign and is now a close adviser with an office in the White House complex.

In a video address to the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party on Friday, Musk said it was “good to be proud of German culture, German values, and not to lose that in some sort of multiculturalism that dilutes everything”; said “children should not be guilty of the sins of their parents, let alone their great-grandparents”; and said there was “too much focus on past guilt, and we need to move beyond that”. He also gave two fascist-style salutes last week, during a speech at Trump’s inauguration.

Soifer’s response comes after world leaders marked the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz, in Poland.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jan/28/elon-musk-germany-afd-rally