Duke faces scrutiny over event where Seinfeld likened ‘Free Palestine’ to KKK

Comedian Jerry Seinfeld is a familiar — but polarizing — figure at Duke University.

In 2024, several dozen students staged a walkout during his commencement speech over his ties to Israel and the university’s financial ties to companies supporting the Israel-Hamas war.

In a surprise appearance Tuesday introducing a former Israeli hostage at a Duke event, Seinfeld referred to the “Free Palestine” movement as antisemitic and compared its language to that of the Ku Klux Klan, according to reporting from The Duke Chronicle.

“Free Palestine is, to me, just — you’re free to say you don’t like Jews. Just say you don’t like Jews,” Seinfeld said.

“By saying Free Palestine, you’re not admitting what you really think,” he said, The Duke Chronicle reported.

“So it’s actually — compared to the Ku Klux Klan, I’m actually thinking the Klan is actually a little better here because they can come right out and say, ‘We don’t like Blacks, we don’t like Jews.’ OK, that’s honest.”

Seinfeld — who is Jewish and began taking a more public stance related to Israel after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack — is reported to have made those comments at “505 Days: A Journey of Resilience, Faith and Hope,” an event with Omer Shem Tov, who was kidnapped from the Nova music festival during the 2023 attack and spent 505 days in captivity in Gaza. About 1,200 people were killed in the attack and Gaza’s Health Ministry says more than 64,000 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the war, the Associated Press reported.

Duke Students for Justice in Palestine, the Duke Muslim Student Association, Sunrise Duke and Duke Jewish Solidarity Movement shared a written statement saying they were “deeply disturbed” by Seinfeld’s remarks.

“Equating a call for Palestinian freedom with violent white supremacy is not only wholly inaccurate but profoundly offensive. To suggest that ‘Free Palestine’ means hatred reduces a struggle for basic human rights and vilifies students who speak out for justice and dignity. These comments foster a hostile environment for Muslim, Arab, Palestinian, and allied students, leaving many feeling unsafe and unsupported on their own campus,” they said.

An invitation to the event was posted on Duke’s Office for Institutional Equity website, an office that manages nondiscrimination, Title IX and diversity programming.

It was sponsored by Duke’s Center for Jewish Studies, with co-sponsorship from the Provost’s Initiative on the Middle East, the Program in American Grand Strategy, Jewish Life at Duke, Duke Students Supporting Israel, StandWithUS and Duke Israel Public Affairs Committee, according to Duke’s website.

An invitation was also posted by the Chabad Student Group, saying the event was ticketed and open only to Duke students, staff and faculty. Seinfeld’s presence was not publicized in either of these posts.

A Duke spokesperson said in an email to The News & Observer that “the student group Chabad at Duke was the lead organizer of Tuesday’s event and invited the speakers. Jerry Seinfeld requested his appearance not be announced beforehand given Omer Shem Tov’s spiritual journey during captivity was the focus of the event.”

“Other Duke cosponsoring organizations provided logistical support, as they do for many other student events. Duke does not preview the remarks of speakers who are invited to campus, and the invitation of speakers to campus does not imply any endorsement of their remarks,” the spokesperson said.

Duke Students for Justice in Palestine and the other organizations said they were “even more disheartened, albeit unsurprised, to see the Provost’s office sponsoring an event with such hateful commentary, and their immediate abdication of responsibility following Seinfeld’s comments.”

Seinfeld’s remarks came as part of an introduction of Shem Tov and the event’s moderator, state Sen. Sophia Chitlik, a Durham Democrat, the Chronicle reported.

Seinfeld, who studied communications and theater at Queens College, has family ties to Duke. He and his wife, Jessica, are the parents of three Blue Devils. The couple last year co-chaired the Duke Parents Committee and have been spotted around Durham during move-ins, at local restaurants and courtside at men’s basketball games.

This story was originally published September 10, 2025 at 12:08 PM.

Luciana Perez Uribe Guinassi

The News & Observer

Luciana Perez Uribe Guinassi is a politics reporter for the News & Observer. She reports on health care, including mental health and Medicaid expansion, hurricane recovery efforts and lobbying. Luciana previously worked as a Roy W. Howard Fellow at Searchlight New Mexico, an investigative news organization.