Comedian, actress and talk-show host Chelsea Handler shared on her Instagram page on Sunday a video that she called “powerful,” featuring National of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, who has an extensive history of making anti-Jewish remarks.
In the past, some of them have included “I’m anti-termite,” referring to Jews as pests, and that Adolf Hitler was “a very great man.”
The video shows Farrakhan taking questions from the audience during an appearance in 1990 on “The Phil Donahue Show.”
“I learned a lot from watching this powerful video,” wrote Handler on her Instagram page.
Despite Farrakhan’s history of anti-Semitic and other bigoted remarks, Handler defended the criticism she received, countering that “Hitler was responsible for killing millions of lives. Farrakhan is just responsible for his own promotion of anti-Semitic beliefs. They are very different.”
The Simon Wiesenthal Center slammed Handler for sharing the video.
“@chelseahandler what exactly were you + other Americans supposed to learn from a leader who is a life-long anti-Semite who called Hitler a great man who refers to Jews as insects who spews hatred of LGBTQ people, whose Research Group luridly links Israel to deadly Coronavirus?” tweeted SWC.
@chelseahandler what exactly were you + other Americans supposed to learn from a leader who is a life-long anti-Semite who called Hitler a great man who refers to Jews as insects who spews hatred of LGBTQ people, whose Research Group luridly links Israel to deadly Coronavirus? pic.twitter.com/8Uq6gChWSV
— Simon Wiesenthal Center (@simonwiesenthal) June 15, 2020
