Daily Wire personality Candace Owens endorsed a centuries-old conspiracy theory about Jewish rabbis drinking the blood of Christians on X last week.
Owens has emerged as an outspoken critic of Israel — and then later the Jewish people — in the aftermath of the October 7 terrorist attack. In November, she mistakenly claimed that Muslims in the Israeli capital of Jerusalem are confined to the Muslim Quarter and then feuded with her Jewish colleague Ben Shapiro over the war between Israel and Hamas.
“You cannot serve both God and money,” declared Owens in what was widely viewed as an anti-Semitic shot at Shapiro.
More recently, Owens has blamed rising levels of anti-Semitism on “political Jews” and suggested that there was a “small ring of specific people” in Hollywood and potentially Washington, D.C. who are “using the fact that they are Jewish to shield themselves from any criticism.”
“All of us Black, Spanish, Jewish, Chinese, Japanese, all Americans should want answers because this appears to be something that is quite sinister,” she concluded.
But it appears that Owens has taken her theorizing about the Jewish people to an deeper level still.
In a post on X last Wednesday, celebrity Rabbi Shmuley Boteach accused Owens of being an “arch antisemite” who “is inciting her Jew-hating followers to threaten to murder Jews and especialky [sic] me.”
“I have received untold numbers of messages like these from Candace’s Jew-hating fans. Candace Owens and @officialbenshapiro will be responsible for any acts of violence against Jews incited by Candace and the @dailywire,” declared Boteach, who also shared a direct message he received from someone threatening to knock him “the fuck out” and “spit in your face.”
“I will catch you jew boi. Ima knock you the fuck out. Ima watch you cry like a bitch,” read the message.
Boteach — who was also the subject of Owens’s “small ring” rant — received countless replies mocking him for his post, including one that Owens evidently found particularly compelling.
“It says February 20th, Rabbi. Are you drunk on Christian blood again?” asked a use with the handle @christ_gnosis.
It says February 20th, Rabbi. Are you drunk on Christian blood again?
— Christ Gnosis ⳩ (@christ_gnosis) March 14, 2024
Owens, evidently charmed by the user’s advancement of the wild anti-Semitic conspiracy theory, liked the post.
According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the theory endorsed by Owens is the the original “blood libel” or “false allegation that Jews murder Christians – especially Christian children – to use their blood for ritual purposes, such as an ingredient in the baking of Passover matzah.”
“Scholars have documented about 100 blood libels that took place from the twelfth to sixteenth centuries. Many of them resulted in massacres of Jews,” notes the ADL.
Owens also liked a post that read, “You’re making it too easy for people to hate Jews.”
Amidst Shapiro and Owens’s feud this fall, Daily Wire CEO Jeremy Boreing insisted that the company “would not fire Candace” because she “is paid to give her opinion.”
“Unless those opinions run afoul of the law or she violates the terms of her contract in some way, her job is secure and she is welcome at Daily Wire,” said Boreing.
The Daily Wire did not answer a request for comment.