A widely followed kids’ YouTuber and top ally of NYC’s Maine-educated mayor is under fire for offering a fake apology after ‘liking’ an offensive antisemitic Instagram comment.
Internet sensation “Ms. Rachel,” who like her protégé mayor has Maine roots, claims she accidentally endorsed a pro-Hamas account that appeared to “blame the Jews” for the scandal, according to the New York Post.
She insisted on Wednesday she had meant to click “hide” on the comment calling for America to be “free from the Jews” instead of giving it a ‘like.’
But she then appeared to endorse another antisemitic trope that was put forward by a pro-Hamas Instagram account, which claimed that a pro-Israel or Jewish group had posted the original antisemitic comment to trap her.
The YouTube youth influencer known as Ms. Rachel is Rachel Griffin Accurso, a popular children’s educator born and raised in southern Maine.
Known for her channel “Songs for Littles,” she was born in Biddeford and raised in Sanford, went to Sanford High and then the University of Southern Maine.
Accurso, who uses her platform to teach toddlers language, music, and emotional skills, was inspired by her own son’s speech delay.
She’s a former public-school teacher who’s become an international sensation, expanding to Netflix, and uses her fame for child advocacy, raising awareness for humanitarian crises impacting children.
Accurso is a top ally of Zohran Mamdani, who graduated in 2014 from Maine’s top school, prestigious Bowdoin College in Brunswick, and who was recently elected as New York city’s first Muslim mayor.
Mamdani himself has been accused by some leading Jewish groups of being antisemitic, a charge he has denied.
During his years at Bowdoin, he wrote several columns in the student newspaper accusing the school of white elitism and formed Bowdoin’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine.
During his time at Bowdoin, 2010–2014, he actively organized the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, advocating for an academic boycott of Israeli institutions.
Ms. Rachel was a member of his mayoral inauguration committee and last week was pictured alongside him at a kindergarten in New York City.
Mamdani has been urged by Jewish groups to distance himself from Ms. Rachel in the wake of the scandal.
