Prof who called Jewish Temples “Synagogues of Satan” Has Been Fired
"The real irony here is that I’m actually the victim of antisemitism. Go figure" he posted to Instagram.
A professor at the prestigious Berklee College of Music — often compared to The Juilliard School in Manhattan — has been fired after years of antisemitic comments have surfaced, with the African American professor now surprisingly claiming that he himself is the victim of antisemitism.
Berklee College of Music has fired their Brass Department Chair, Nicholas Payton, only months after promoting him to the position. While the school says it cannot comment on “personnel matters” to explain any details, it did confirm that Payton had been terminated.
Payton, 51, considers himself a “social activist” in music. His unique commentaries on Black music, such as arguing that “jazz” is a slur and referring to it as #BlackAfricanMusic (BAM) has earned the outspoken musician spots on a number of podcasts and nearly 50,000 followers on Instagram.

But in a recent online spat with another musician, it arose that Payton had a history of making and endorsing antisemitic comments, which Berklee College initially addressed with Payton back in 2022. As I reported last month, it was reported that Payton had endorsed the saying that Jews are “vile predators” among other things, as you’ll see below.
According to Peter Himmelman’s research, Payton said in 2020 that Jews were “vile predators” and blamed them for the Transatlantic Slave Trade. He suggested the majority of slave owners in America were Jewish, which does not seem to have any factual basis.
“Jewish slave dealers operated in every place slavery existed” he repeated.
Elsewhere, Payton called Jewish worship temples “a synagogue of Satan.”
“All these so-called Jews mad, because how dare I make them face the facts of their sordid past and present... Expose how Jewish people have exploited us. Apologize for it and atone and do better” he has said.
He also blamed Jews for their “control” of the media.
“Amazing how Jews always have a ‘negligible’ role in every historic horror that they’ve been irrefutably associated with... but Jews, magically, are clean as a whistle! INCREDIBLE!”
“They still control a large portion of the media and entertainment industry. And I maintain their history in the music business has often been oppressive.”
“Is it all Jews? No. It’s never all of anybody, but while we are assessing oppressive forces, it’s important to note.” He also posted a video that referenced Jews being “obsessed with blood”, according to WBUR.
This culminated in a petition against him, garnering over 5,000 signatures.
The petition reads:
“Mr. Payton has made numerous public statements, over the course of years, that promote antisemitic conspiracy theories and hate speech,” says Adam Taylor Young, a Jewish young adult who created the petition.
Young goes on to argue that Payton’s remarks have not been “subtle, implied, or context-dependent. They are explicit and repeated, and they were published in plain view on his social media accounts.
“Despite this, Berklee appointed him to a leadership role that gives him influence over students and curriculum,” the petition added.
Ironically, after getting fired, Payton took to Instagram to profess his innocence, claiming that he is actually a victim of antisemitism (let’s be clear: Payton is a African American man who does not appear to claim to be Jewish or practice Judiasm).
Six days ago, he feigned ignorance that any of his comments were antisemitic.
“@EliseStefanik… can you tell me what I said is antisemitic?... the real irony here is that I’m actually the victim of antisemitism. go figure.”
He also posted:“i was a great teacher. i was a great chair and enjoyed my job. i will still be an artists, it’s the students who will lose” he wrote on Instagram.
A mother of a Berklee student, who signed the petition against Payton, spoke to me the condition of anonymity.
“I 1000% don’t think it’s OK for the school to keep employing Nicholas Payton. I feel like if he was targeting any other group, such as black people, asians, or transgender people, it would absolutely not be tolerated.”
“So it’s very frustrating that it’s being tolerated when he’s attacking Jews.”
Nicholas Payton’s antisemitic behaviour has added him to an elite coterie of professors and academics fired for alleged antisemitism : UPenn cartoonist Dwayne Booth, a Havard librarian named Nicholas Tuttle, and most notably, Maura Finkelstein of Muhlenberg College, who was fired despite having tenure, often considered the gold-standard of job security in academia. Finklestein’s termination became a cause célèbre, even catching the attention of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), the top academic free speech watchdog in the United States.
Why does Payton now consider himself a victim of antisemitism? We are left without answers. Recently, it’s become common on TikTok for some African Americans males to make claims of antisemitism. Why? Identification with the Black Hebrew Israelite movement, in many cases. But Payton has not responded to any inquiries on that.
This piece was brought to you by Toni Airaksinen, Senior Editor of Liberty Affair and an independent journalist based in Boca Raton. Follow her on X @Toni_Airaksinen and on Instagram. Read how to support her first trip to Jerusalem here.
The guy blows a horn for a living. That's all he's qualified to opine on (other than how to crater your career).
Because of false narratives promoted by leaders in the black community, such as claiming jews were heavily involved in the slave trade, and because of jewish landlords.