Dancing with Hitler

Something unfathomable recently unfolded in a crowded Miami Beach nightclub. Videos surfaced showing a group of controversial figures, including Nick Fuentes, Andrew Tate, and others, arriving at the venue blasting Kanye West’s antisemitic song “Heil Hitler.” Inside the club, they requested the DJ play the same song. The DJ agreed.

Members of the group and others in the crowd were filmed singing along and dancing to lyrics praising Hitler and Nazi imagery. Some cheered, others stood by. What should have been met with immediate outrage became a spectacle of moral collapse.

This was a celebration of hatred, genocide, and an ideology responsible for the systematic murder of six million Jews and millions of others.

This was a celebration of hatred, genocide, and an ideology responsible for the systematic murder of six million Jews and millions of others.

The nightclub has since issued statements attempting to distance itself from what occurred. Political leaders have rightly condemned the incident. But statements after the fact do not address the deeper question: how did this become possible in the first place? How did people feel comfortable dancing to words that glorify mass murder? And how did others watch without protest?

This incident should not only disturb Jews. It should alarm every American who cares about the moral direction of this country. When Nazi glorification can be repackaged as provocation or “edginess,” something far deeper is eroding. This is an assault on the values that sustain a society built on human dignity, moral accountability, and the rejection of evil as acceptable discourse.

Would society tolerate a nightclub blasting a song celebrating racism against Black Americans? Would people be permitted to sing and dance to lyrics glorifying lynching or white supremacy? Would anyone defend a venue that encouraged chants calling for the destruction of Muslims, Asians, or any other minority group?

Of course not. Such incidents would be condemned immediately and unequivocally. The perpetrators would be ostracized, not excused. They would be marginalized, not invited onto mainstream platforms and podcasts.

And yet when it comes to Jews, the rules too often change. The outrage softens, the excuses multiply and the silence grows louder. That silence is dangerous.

We must confront voices of hate and demand accountability from individuals, institutions, and platforms that enable them. But this moment also calls for honest self-reflection. As we challenge others for their indifference, we should ask ourselves: are there areas where we have grown numb? In speaking about fellow Jews who are different than us or about individuals and groups among non-Jews, is there language we have tolerated that we should have rejected? What lines have we allowed to blur?

Judaism does not permit moral neutrality, neither toward others nor toward ourselves. “Those who love God must hate evil,” says the Psalmist (Psalm 97). Love of God is measured through moral clarity. It requires rejecting evil wherever it appears, especially when it becomes fashionable or normalized.

We must remain maladjusted to antisemitism no matter how common it becomes or how cleverly it is repackaged. We must demand that our leaders, institutions, and fellow Americans refuse to grant it a social foothold.

When people chant Nazi slogans or sing songs praising Hitler, they are not expressing an opinion; they are endorsing annihilation. That is not speech that deserves a platform. It is poison that must be rejected. Silence in the face of such evil is acquiescence. A crowd that dances or stands idly by while Nazi chants echo has crossed from passivity into participation.

There is a growing practice on prominent podcasts and media platforms to invite extremists under the guise of balance or debate. But platforms confer legitimacy. Presenting explicit hatred as one side of a conversation is itself a moral failure. Some ideas must remain on the fringes because they violate the basic dignity of human life. Antisemitism is one of them.

If we love God, we must hate evil. And we must never allow our society to dance while it plays the soundtrack of hate.