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Comedian Jerry Seinfeld faces pro-Palestinian backlash for commentary at Duke University
Nearly a half-dozen Jewish-American groups have decided not to wade into the latest controversy surrounding comedian and television star Jerry Seinfeld at Duke University.
“Free Palestine is, to me, just – you’re free to say you don’t like Jews. Just say you don’t like Jews,” Seinfeld reportedly said at an impromptu appearance at a Sept. 9 event on campus featuring Omer Shem Tov, a former Israeli hostage abducted during the Hamas terrorist attack in October 2023.
“By saying Free Palestine, you’re not admitting what you really think,” Seinfeld said. “So it’s actually – compared to the Ku Klux Klan, I’m actually thinking the Klan is actually a little better here because they can come right out and say, ‘We don’t like Blacks, we don’t like Jews.’ Okay, that’s honest.”
The American Jewish Committee, Jewish Federations of North America, American Jewish Press Association, Jewish Voices for Peace, and MY JACOB, a Jewish civil rights organization, all did not respond to requests for comment from The College Fix.
Tanyanika Davis, director of media relations for the American Jewish World Service, told The Fix: “We have no comment on the matter.”
UNC Hillel’s social media pages do not have a statement published on the controversy, which made international headlines.
Tov was kidnapped by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, the inceptive date of the Israeli-Hamas war. Seinfeld, who is Jewish, has become a prominent and outspoken supporter of Israel since then, and visited Israel in December 2023 and met with hostages’ families.
Seinfeld’s pro-Israeli views have sparked controversy among both pro-Palestinian and pacifist activists. In May 2024, several dozen pro-Palestinian students walked out at the start of his commencement speech at Duke University chanting “Disclose, divest — we will not stop, we will not rest” and “Free, free, free Palestine.”
Despite this, Seinfeld has remained a blunt but influential ally of the Israeli and Jewish communities.
For instance, in 2022, attending the Radio City Music Hall for “Saturday Night Live’s” 50th-anniversary celebration, Seinfeld replied to an activist requesting a photograph, “I don’t care about Palestine,” as reported by the Independent.
One prominent supporter of Israel’s right to exist, syndicated columnist Debra Saunders, flagged in a recent piece a Palestinian-American student who told reporters she felt unsafe after Seinfeld’s comments.
“I’ll bet [Israeli hostage] Shem Tov would have been thrilled to feel as unsafe as the Duke student when he was held captive for 505 days,” syndicated columnist Debra Saunders wrote. “The Seinfeld at Duke story … provides yet another example of the banality of the pro-Palestinian movement in the United States.”
But Duke University’s Students for Justice in Palestine spoke out about the September incident, stating group members are “deeply disturbed” by Seinfeld’s comments.
“Equating a call for Palestinian freedom with violent white supremacy is not only wholly inaccurate but profoundly offensive. To suggest that ‘Free Palestine’ means hatred reduces a struggle for basic human rights and vilifies students who speak out for justice and dignity,” read a statement posted to the Duke SJP Instagram page.
After Seinfeld’s comment, Duke issued a statement distancing itself from the uproar.
“Universities are places where diverse perspectives on difficult and sensitive subjects are explored in a safe and respectful environment. Duke does not preview nor approve the remarks of outside speakers, and their presence on campus should not be understood as an endorsement of their views,” according to a campus spokesperson.
The comedian’s message did gain some fans, however.
“I did not expect that Jerry Seinfeld would be the show business Jew who vigilantly defends The Tribe. But while other celebrity Hebrews cower Seinfeld is fearless. Truly the real deal,” wrote one popular pro-Jewish activist on X.
MORE: Pro-Palestinian students walk out on Seinfeld commencement speech at Duke
