Jamie Foxx has been branded as “antisemitic” after sharing a controversial Instagram post Friday referring to the killing of Jesus Christ — and actress Jennifer Anniston is caught in the crossfire.
The since-deleted post by Foxx, a self-proclaimed Christian, alluded to the Biblical crucifixion of Christ, and has elicited backlash for appearing to promote antisemitic myths that Jewish people were responsible for the death of Jesus.
“They killed this dude name Jesus… what do you think they’ll do to you?” the actor and singer, 55, wrote on the post along with the tags #fakefriends and #fakelove.
Before the post was removed, Aniston appeared to “like” it, sparking outcry from her fans and prompting her to release a statement condoning the “horrifically antisemitic message.”
“This really makes me sick,” she wrote on her Instagram Story late Friday. “I did not ‘like’ this post on purpose or by accident.”
“And more importantly, I want to be clear to my friends and anyone hurt by this showing up in their feeds — I do NOT support any form of antisemitism,” she added. “And I truly don’t tolerate HATE of any kind. Period.”
Aniston did not say how her name came up as a “liker” of Foxx’s post if she didn’t deliberately or accidentally like it. It’s possible that a screenshot of the image had been doctored to include her name.
The Post has reached out to reps for Foxx and Aniston for comment.
Foxx’s post sparked controversy online, as users debated whether his statements were rooted in hate.
“I am a Jewish advocate who fights antisemitism. Jamie Foxx’s post was a horrifically antisemitic message rooted in classic blood libel and anti-Jewish conspiracy theory,” one person tweeted. “He has 16.7 million followers. I’m not waiting on him to further expand.”
“The line ‘they killed Jesus’ has been used to attack Jewish people for centuries,” wrote another person. “I’m guessing Jamie Foxx was referring to Judas, and not ‘the Jews’, but I don’t know why anyone would think it’s a stretch to think it was an antisemitic statement.”
But not everyone decried Foxx’s sentiments — one person argued that the “They Cloned Tyrone” actor was referring to ” fake friends” as it didn’t mention Jewish people at all.
“How did Jamie Foxx’s post read as antisemitic? (Rhetorical question),” the X, formerly known as Twitter, user wrote. “It’s so easy to think from your own experiences ..but literally as a Black person raised Christian in Texas as well I know for a fact he was talking about friends and followers betraying you not Jews.”
Foxx’s remarks follow his months-long stint in the hospital due to an undisclosed medical emergency, which he described as “hellish” in a video posted last month.
“I went through something I thought I would never, ever go through,” Foxx said at the time.
“I know a lot of people were waiting or wanting to hear an update, but to be honest with you, I didn’t want you to see me like that, man,” he continued, adding that he wanted his fans to see him “laughing, having a good time, partying, cracking a joke, doing a movie or television show.”
“I didn’t want you to see me with tubes running out of me and trying to figure out if I was going to make it through,” he said.