Public Reaction

X · June 2019

“John Cusack says he didn’t at first realise that the image was anti-Semitic. My, it’s a troublesome old blind spot for progressives, isn’t it?”

David Baddiel

Writer. Publicly questioned how the antisemitic nature of the 2019 image could have gone unnoticed.

X · June 18, 2019

“Cusack, you RT an antisemitic conspiracy theory that caused the genocide of millions of Jews, add ‘follow the money’ & defended ur RT. U apologized, but have U really learned? Will U now read up on antisemitism, its history, language, mechanisms, & pass on that knowledge?”

Yitzhak Santis

Publicly challenged Cusack over sharing an antisemitic conspiracy theory and called attention to the history and mechanisms of antisemitism.

X · June 2019

“How does a bot ‘get you to write “follow the money” after sharing an overtly anti-Semitic image?”

Elad Nehorai

Highlighted Cusack’s personal addition — “Follow the money” — while discussing the attempt to blame the post on a bot.

X · June 18, 2019

“Yeah, an antisemitic bot gets all of the anti-Israel and anti-Zionist crowd...”

Hen Mazzig

Publicly reacted to the 2019 post and the explanation that followed.

X · June 2019

“John Cusack tweeted something blatantly anti-Semitic, thinking it was just anti-Israel.”

Yair Rosenberg

Journalist. Argued that a celebrity could share anti-Jewish material while believing it was only political criticism of Israel.

X · January 2024

StopAntisemitism named John Cusack its “Antisemite of the Week” and published a collection of posts it said demonstrated a continuing record of antisemitism — including material on Hamas, October 7, Israel and Zionism, explicitly connected to the 2019 “Follow the money” post.

StopAntisemitism

Watchdog organization. Cusack called the list “complete lies.” The organization said it “unequivocally stands by its decision.”

The Times of Israel reported that the organization spotlighted Cusack for sharing posts denying that Hamas raped women during the October 7 attack, for describing Hamas as a charitable organization, and for accusing Israel of helping create Hamas.

The Times of Israel

News report on the 2024 campaign and Cusack’s rejection of the accusations.

Bluesky · July 2025

Mike Masnick, a Bluesky board member and founder of Techdirt, condemned Cusack’s conspiracy graphic. Coverage quoted him describing the post as antisemitic and noting that Cusack doubled down on the claim that Epstein was a Mossad operation after the original image was removed.

Mike Masnick

Techdirt founder; Bluesky board member.

History professor Angus Johnston of the City University of New York called the graphic “straight-up antisemitism.” Deadline reported that each photo in the diagram contained the Star of David and that Epstein and Maxwell were labeled Mossad agents — claims the reporting described as unsubstantiated.

Angus Johnston

Historian, CUNY. Quoted in coverage of the Bluesky post.

Algemeiner reported that Cusack deleted a Bluesky posting linking Jeffrey Epstein with Jews and Israel after pushback, and placed the 2025 graphic in a line with the 2019 meme and the 2024 StopAntisemitism campaign.

Algemeiner

News report on the deletion and the Jewish-symbol visual language of the graphic.