Candace Owens claims Jews controlled slave trade, promotes infamous antisemitic book

Influential political commentator Candace Owens continued her recent spate of unfounded claims against Jews and Israel, this time falsely accusing Jews of organizing the transatlantic slave trade and fueling racial tensions between African Americans and white Americans in Saturday's episode of her podcast.

She also urged her followers to read Der Talmudjude (The Talmud Jew), an infamous 19th-century antisemitic book by German author August Rohling that grossly misrepresents the content of the Jewish Talmud.

Owens promoted the antisemitic book during her Saturday YouTube show, where she attacked Daily Wire co-founder Ben Shapiro. 

"You have absolutely no values that exist outside of the Talmud. You describe yourself as a Talmudic Jew. And I've learned what's in that Talmud," Owens claimed while holding an English-language copy of the book. 

Relations between Owens and Shapiro have been tense since Owens was dismissed from Shapiro's media company, Daily Wire, in 2024 amid allegations of antisemitism. Owens, however, accused Shapiro of stealing interview guests and advancing “legal abuse” against her.

On Saturday, Owens further claimed that Jews like Shapiro act like “contract lords and that people are not allowed to violate contracts or you will ruin them for years.”

"And I encourage other people at home to learn what is in that Talmud so that you know what Ben thinks of you because he doesn't just hate me, he hates you, too, white men. He hates all black people. If he's following the rules of the Talmud, I mean when I say hate, they think that we're animals, that they have a right to own us, that they have a right to make us worship them, that they have a right to lie to us, that they have a right to sue us and take everything that we have, that they have a right to deceive us," Owens told her followers. 

The Nazi publicist Julius Streicher promoted the book Der Talmudjude in the 1930s. Streicher also drew on Rohling’s antisemitic arguments in his propaganda newspaper Der Stürmer, which played an instrumental role in the Nazi demonization of Jews prior to the Holocaust.

Owens has accused Jews of manipulating different groups into fighting each other. 

"I implore you to wake up to these people who believe that they are contract lords. I challenge black Americans to wake up to your true history because your quarrel is not with white men," Owens claimed. 

"Wake up to who publishes these books and keeps us warring with one another. Christians versus Christians, right? Christians versus Muslims. Wake up and learn the true history of slavery because that wasn't exactly a white man's sport. Jewish people were the ones who were trading with us. Jewish people were in control of the slave trade. They've buried a lot of it, but it's there, and you can find it."

Owens has a history of spreading antisemitic conspiracy theories. Very few Jews even lived in North America during the time of the British-led slave trade from Africa. The vast majority of Jewish Americans hail from Eastern European Jewish immigrants who arrived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. 

Owens responded during her show to comments from supporters by accusing Shapiro of being a member of the "synagogue of Satan," claiming that Shapiro orchestrated "lies, bullying, getting people to write articles, smearing, libeling."

Owens has also accused Israel, the Jews, and specifically, Shapiro, of being behind the assassination of the pro-Israel media personality Charlie Kirk. 

"That is what I am sensing, that he knows something about Erica Kirk. And every time he speaks, I grow more certain that Israel might be involved with 9/10 (Kirk assassination)," Owens claimed. 

Earlier this month, New Zealand banned Owens from entering the country due to her history of antisemitic statements.