To Those I’ve Hurt:
Twenty-five years ago, I was in a car accident that broke my jaw and caused injury to the right frontal lobe of my brain. At the time, the focus was on the visible damage—the fracture, the swelling, and the immediate physical trauma. The deeper injury, the one inside my skull, went unnoticed.
Comprehensive scans were not done, neurological exams were limited, and the possibility of a frontal-lobe injury was never raised. It wasn’t properly diagnosed until 2023. That medical oversight caused serious damage to my mental health and led to my bipolar type-1 diagnosis.
Bipolar disorder comes with its own defense system. Denial. When you’re manic, you don’t think you’re sick. You think everyone else is overreacting. You feel like you’re seeing the world more clearly than ever, when in reality you’re losing your grip entirely.
Once people label you as “crazy,” you feel as if you cannot contribute anything meaningful to the world. It’s easy for people to joke and laugh it off when in fact this is a very serious debilitating disease you can die from. According to the World Health Organization and Cambridge University, people with bipolar disorder have a life expectancy that is shortened by ten to fifteen years on average, and a 2x-3x higher all-cause mortality rate than the general population. This is on par with severe heart disease, type 1 diabetes, HIV, and cancer - all lethal and fatal if left untreated.
The scariest thing about this disorder is how persuasive it is when it tells you: You don’t need help. It makes you blind, but convinced you have insight. You feel powerful, certain, unstoppable.
I lost touch with reality. Things got worse the longer I ignored the problem. I said and did things I deeply regret. Some of the people I love the most, I treated the worst. You endured fear, confusion, humiliation, and the exhaustion of trying to have someone who was, at times, unrecognizable. Looking back, I became detached from my true self.
In that fractured state, I gravitated toward the most destructive symbol I could find, the swastika, and even sold T-shirts bearing it. One of the difficult aspects of having bipolar type-1 are the disconnected moments - many of which I still cannot recall - that led to poor judgment and reckless behavior that oftentimes feels like an out-of-body-experience. I regret and am deeply mortified by my actions in that state, and am committed to accountability, treatment, and meaningful change. It does not excuse what I did though. I am not a Nazi or an antisemite. I love Jewish people.
To the black community - which held me down through all of the highs and lows and the darkest of times. The black community is, unquestionably, the foundation of who I am. I am so sorry to have let you down. I love us.
In early 2025, I fell into a four-month long manic episode of psychotic, paranoid and impulsive behavior that destroyed my life. As the situation became increasingly unsustainable, there were times I didn’t want to be here anymore.
Having bipolar disorder is notable state of constant mental illness. When you go into a manic episode, you are ill at that point. When you are not in an episode, you are completely ‘normal’. And that’s when the wreckage from the illness hits the hardest. Hitting rock bottom a few months ago, my wife encouraged me to finally get help.
I have found comfort in Reddit forums of all places. Different people speak of being in manic or depressive episodes of a similar nature. I read their stories and realized that I was not alone. It’s not just me who ruins their entire life once a year despite taking meds every day and being told by the so-called best doctors in the world that I am not bipolar, but merely experiencing “symptoms of autism.”
My words as a leader in my community have global impact and influence. In my mania, I lost complete sight of that.
As I find my new baseline and new center through an effective regime of medication, therapy, exercise, and clean living, I have newfound, much-needed clarity. I am pouring my energy into positive, meaningful art: music, clothing, design, and other new ideas to help the world.
I’m not asking for sympathy, or a free pass, though I aspire to earn your forgiveness. I write today simply to ask for your patience and understanding as I find my way home.”
With love,
Ye
I have been working on my Derechology framework based on Jewish thinking, and I have been spending time examining how repentance works.
This isn't it.
Repentance is not performative and it is not merely an apology. It is a change in one's life, a clear difference of actions. Have we witnessed anything new from Kanye West? For example, when his song "Heil Hitler" was played at the Florida nightclub Vendôme for neo-Nazis, did he issue a public statement distancing himself from his far-Right fans? Not that I could find.
In my framework, I assume that a person's "derech" - their moral and behavioral trajectory - remains constant throughout one's life unless there is a rare case of real teshuva, repentance, that upends one's entire being. That is rare, but it happens. Without any evidence beyond a paid ad, we have nothing indicating that West has truly changed. Which means we must search for a deeper consistent pattern that covers both his antisemitism, this apology, and his other outrageous acts like his disrupting the MTV Video Music Awards in 2009.
So what has Kanye West consistently done? He has pursued attention, fame and money. When the backlash threatens his career or public image, he crafts a new persona, a new justification, a new name, sometimes even a new diagnosis. The pattern is consistent.
That derech fits both the initial harm and the apology. The swastika shirts and the antisemitic remarks didn't appear out of nowhere. They followed the exact pattern: escalate, provoke, dominate headlines. The apology follows the same logic: reposition, reframe, re-enter public legitimacy through a therapeutic lens. This is just a rebranding maneuver wearing the clothing of regret.
And speaking of clothing, at the bottom of the ad it gives his clothing website, Yeezy-Official.com. Needless to say, that site does not host this letter. The ad is a clothing ad disguised as an apology.
Beyond that is the absurdity of Wesr's main point. If someone claims their past behavior was the result of mental illness, and that the illness compromised their judgment, then what makes us believe their current moral clarity is more reliable? The apology claims bipolar disorder made him act destructively. But then it claims that, now that he is stable, his remorse is true. He self-diagnosed using groups on Reddit. Why is his apology any more credible than his infractions? Unless he offers external proof - not just that he feels regret, but that he is acting in sustained alignment with a new moral framework - the apology stands on no firmer ground than his many offenses over the better part of two decades. A full page ad in the Wall Street Journal is significantly less expensive than the Super Bowl ad where West promoted the website that was selling the swastika T-shirt.
Keep in mind that West had claimed to apologize to Jews before, in 2023,. Yet he marketed the swastika shirts and wrote Heil Hitler after that "apology." Also, in
Vanity Fair, West was interviewed about this ad but declined to answer several questions, including where his antisemitic sentiments may have originated from and why, and how he feels about neo-Nazis dancing to “Heil Hitler.” If he really cared about doing the right thing as he claims, he would first face these sorts of questions honestly. After all, not all bipolar or manic people spout antisemitism - most of them don't. So in the end, even his excuses aren't an explanation. It is more likely that his
derech always included antipathy towards Jews.
Without a visible change in behavior, all the therapy-language in the world is just a rebranding strategy. And when that rebranding happens on a Wall Street Journal ad page, in the service of someone who has used outrage to sell for decades, his derech speaks louder than his words.
Wednesday, January 28, 2026
Elder of Ziyon
Maybe Jews of New York should take a page from Abu Sittah's fans and hold a protest outside the Lenfest Center for the Arts on February 10. There is an excellent plaza right in front tailor made for people chanting and holding signs. Call the media ahead of time asking for comments from the Center for Palestine Studies, sponsoring the event, asking them if they support a doctor who praises terrorists and spins antisemitic conspiracy theories. 
Buy 
