The swatika shirt that was selling on Yeezy.com. Photo: Screenshot

After celebrities and major Jewish organizations blasted rapper Ye, formerly know as Kanye West, for selling on his Yeezy website shirts emblazoned with a swastika, the online store has shut down as of Tuesday morning.

Ye, 47, used a Super Bowl LIX commercial to direct people to his website Yeezy.com, which since Sunday night was selling only one item — a short sleeve, white t-shirt that features in front a black swastika, a symbol of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi party that is still used by far-right extremists today. There was no description for the shirt on the website except for the letters “HH-01,” which according to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) is code for “Heil Hitler.”

The shirts were being sold for $20 in three different sizes, but by Tuesday morning, the Yeezy.com website was down. “This store is unavailable,” said a message on the homepage. Shopify, the e-commerce platform that the Yeezy website uses to sell its product, released a statement on Tuesday about the shutting down of Ye’s website. The president of Shopify, Harley Finkelstein, is the grandson of Holocaust survivors.

“All merchants are responsible for following the rules of our platform,” Shopify said in a released statement. “This merchant did not engage in authentic commerce practices and violated our terms so we removed them from Shopify.” The company did not specify which of its rules Yeezy.com has violated, but its terms of service note that it will “restrict products or activities that we deem unsafe, inappropriate, or offensive.”

On Monday, music agent Daniel McCartney, from the talent agency 33 & West, also announced in an Instagram Story that “effective immediately,” he is no longer representing Ye “due to his recent harmful and hateful remarks that myself nor 33 & West can stand for.”

The ADL started a call to action, demanding that Fox Sports condemn Ye’s Super Bowl commercial. Meanwhile, StandWithUs, a pro-Israel nonprofit, is calling on the public to pressure Fox Productions to publicly apologize for airing Ye’s advertisement and to donate all proceeds from the ad to Yad Vashem, Israel’s national memorial to the Holocaust. Several other major Jewish organizations — including the Simon Wiesenthal Center and Campaign Against Antisemitism — all denounced Ye’s decision to sell the swastika shirt as well as the rabidly antisemitic comments he posted on X early Friday morning.

American pop singer Charlie Puth, who is Jewish from his mother’s side while his father is of German descent, posted a message on his Instagram story on Monday addressed to Ye, when the swastika shirts were still being sold. “@Ye The message you are sending to the world is incredibly dangerous,” he told the rapper. “Please, man, I beg you to stop. You are selling a T-shirt featuring a Swastika, and MILLIONS of people are influenced by you. Please, I BEG you to stop, PLEASE [sic].”

Photo: Instagram

“Since 1945, the swastika has served as the most significant and notorious of hate symbols,” according to the ADL website. In an Instagram video on Monday, former NFL player Emmanuel Acho criticized Ye for attempting to “desensitize” the mass genocide carried out by Nazis during the Holocaust.

“I once talked to a Holocaust survivor and she told me, ‘Emmanuel, the Holocaust was created by the most brilliant minds; the greatest minds of the time,'” said the former NFL linebacker, who is not Jewish. “And Kanye West has proven to be a musical genius, a musical mind. Do not for a moment become desensitized to what is occurring in our culture. There is no space for racism, sexism, antisemitism, misogyny. And I believe that what Kanye West is currently doing is desensitizing us to one of the greatest forms of hate this world has ever seen. I hope you’re not laughing, because it stopped being funny a long time ago.”

Ye’s Super Bowl commercial was not aired nationally but viewed in the Los Angeles area. He started selling the swastika shirts shortly after posting numerous antisemitic comments on X in which he targeted Jews, and declared “Im [sic] a Nazi,” Im [sic] a racist” and “I love Hitler.” His X account is no longer active as of Sunday.

In an Instagram video, Jewish actor Jonah Platt expressed frustration with how silent the world has been about Ye’s antisemitic actions since Friday morning.

“The lack of condemnation from the general public is deafening,” he said. “Where is the NFL who aired his [Super Bowl] commercial? Where is Fox, where are leading music industry professionals? Where are Kanye’s former collaborators? Where are other big celebrities? Where is everyone? It shouldn’t be okay just because the victims are Jews. The sad truth is that this is yet another stark reminder that in today’s world, Jews don’t count.”

Ye has a history of making antisemitic comments, including glorifying Hitler and the Nazis.

American singer, songwriter, and musician Matthew Koma, who is Jewish, shared in an Instagram post that he is selling a t-shirt that says on front “F—k Ye.” He originally noted that all profits from the shirt would be donated to Backline, a nonprofit that supports mental health care for music industry professionals and their families. Koma, who is married to actress and singer Hillary Duff, originally wrote in the caption of his Instagram post: “I made this shirt because f—k Ye and his antisemitism but also I don’t trust my fellow Jews with money and all Jewish organizations have a questionable history.”

He also told one Jewish social media user in the comments section that he chose to donate all proceeds to Backline and not a Jewish-related organization because he “had a hard time figuring out which [Jewish] charities were legit or didn’t have a questionable history.” His anti-Jewish comments garnered backlash from social media users who noted the similarly between his remarks and Ye’s antisemitic rant on Friday, in which the rapper said he does not trust Jews and claimed, “They always gonna steal.”

Koma responded by saying on Tuesday that all proceeds from the “F—k Ye” shirt will now be given to Blue Card, a nonprofit organization that provides financial assistance to Holocaust survivors in the US.

 

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Update: This story has been updated to include Shopify’s statement on shutting down Ye’s website.