Iran’s Attack on Israel
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Why are so many people wishing this woman would drop dead?
Emily Austin receives countless direct messages on Instagram wishing her death. People call her corrupt and tell her the world would be better off if Hitler had succeeded.
Her crime?
She’s proudly Jewish online.
The college senior has a whopping 991,000 followers on Instagram and 4.7 million likes on TikTok. She’s a media consultant for the Permanent Mission of Israel to the United Nations, an ambassador for Puma and a college sports reporter who wears a prominent Star of David necklace during interviews.
This past summer, Austin visited the White House and posted a picture of herself in the Oval Office titled, “Your first Woman, Jewish, President.”
After Kanye West’s antisemitic tirade on Alex Jones’ show, she posted, “These last few months have been a crazy time for the world in general, but more personally as a Jew. Free speech is a beautiful thing -- it’s our right. Just because you CAN say something, doesn’t mean you SHOULD. I will always use my voice to speak for what’s right.”
Austin wasn’t always so vocal about her Jewish background online. But once she saw the rise of antisemitism, she realized she could use her voice to make a difference.
“I noticed so many people online and even around me just had this misconception of what a Jew is,” she said. “People would know and love me, and be so taken aback that I was Jewish. They would say remarks like ‘Oh, that’s why you’re so smart,’ which I guess is a compliment. But I was really bothered by the ‘the Jews’ narrative going around. I really try to break the ‘us vs. them’ narrative and find common denominators amongst everyone despite religious observance and beliefs.”
People brush off antisemitism as “free speech,” even though hate towards other minorities is never tolerated.
The 21-year-old influencer believes that not enough people are speaking up online about antisemitism. She also thinks that people brush off antisemitism as “free speech,” even though hate towards other minorities is never tolerated.
“They think Jews are an exception to the rule because despite the Holocaust being less than 100 years ago, we don’t have that victim label,” she said. “They think it’s okay to slander us.”
What Austin has learned is that if the Jewish people don’t speak up, we won’t have any allies speaking up, either.
“What people say online reflects what they think,” she said. “If people are slandering the Jewish people and we aren’t standing up for ourselves, no one else will do it for us.”
Austin, who hails from Long Island, grew up in a Modern Orthodox home and kept kosher.
“I remember once in Pre-K, I ate non-kosher chicken nuggets one day because a lunch aid told me they were kosher, but they weren’t,” she said. “[When I found out], I cried so hard they sent me to the school psychologist.”
Austin’s family was also stringent about Shabbat.
“I was never allowed to go out Friday nights because of Shabbat, and I never understood why until I got a little older,” she said. “Now, I value it and embrace it as opposed to hating it growing up because I felt like I missed out.”
Austin doesn’t only embrace Shabbat – she also turns to God to keep her grounded, no matter what she’s going through.
“It brings me the comfort daily that there’s a higher power,” she said. “When things are both good and bad I know I have someone to turn to. It motivates me and gives me a strong backbone.”
During Covid, Austin’s school, Hofstra, closed for two months, and suddenly she didn’t have much to do. Instead of binging on TV, she decided to use her connections to some Knicks players and start interviewing them on Instagram Live. From there, her social media blew up and she got professional broadcasting gigs at MTV and Sports Illustrated. She either does one-on-one interviews or broadcasts from the sidelines at sports games.
Austin currently spends her time shuffling between New York, Los Angeles, and Miami, and she posts about going to the United Nations. “Women’s rights are human rights,” she recently wrote from UN headquarters.
Along with continuing to speak up about her Jewish identity, Austin, who is set to graduate next year, wants to have a successful sports show of her own one day. And, since she has such a huge following, she wants to make an impact and do her part to bring about peace.
“I hope to keep using my platform to educate my audience and beyond on how important it is to build more bridges and to engage in dialogue with people who are different than you,” she said. “It’s the only way to win.”
kol hakavod!