How Ms. Rachel went from beloved children’s streaming sensation to ‘mouthpiece for Hamas’

Ms. Rachel, one of the most influential children’s entertainers in the country, has stormed the political stage, emerging as a donor to socialist candidates and talking head, using her celebrity to pontificate about controversial topics ranging from the detention of illegal immigrants to the war in Gaza.Regarded as the modern-day Mister Rogers, former preschool music teacher Rachel Accurso, known by her online persona Ms. Rachel, is watched by millions of children around the world who look to the overall-wearing content creator as a role model.Accurso’s original “Songs for Littles” series, a YouTube channel featuring music and interactive instruction primarily in babytalk, gained popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic and quickly became a global phenomenon. At the time of the shutdown, parents relied on Accurso as a lifeline to entertain their children as they worked from home and teach their tiny tykes the basics while daycares were closed. But the subjects discussed by Accurso to her fanbase of 37.5 million followers across social media platforms have since moved beyond early childhood education, transforming the toddler whisperer into a deeply polarizing public figure pushing politically charged content in front of young children.From phonics to Palestinians Accurso, who once focused solely on teaching children the alphabet and how to count to 10, has increasingly expanded her content to culture-war issues following her appointment to New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s inaugural committee in December 2025. As a committee member aiding his transition to power, Accurso publicly appeared with the socialist mayor to promote his proposal for free childcare and free bus services citywide, while singing “The Wheels on the Bus” to a classroom of children.Since then, she has championed gay rights, backed the case for slavery reparations, and adopted Palestinian liberation as her chief cause. Her pro-Palestinian activism, which involves frequent posts claiming that Israel is committing “a genocide” against the Palestinian people, has earned her criticism in recent months, with detractors arguing that the ever-peppy preschool star is echoing Hamas talking points.StopAntisemitism has accused Accurso of being “a mouthpiece for Hamas” by spreading what the Jewish advocacy group says is Hamas propaganda about the mass slaughtering and starvation of Palestinian children in Gaza.According to the group, Accurso circulated grotesque images of a Palestinian child supposedly starving. StopAntisemitism said those pictures were debunked and the boy was not starved, but had cystic fibrosis. The child’s mother told the Washington Post that he was suffering from both cystic fibrosis and starvation.Last year, StopAntisemitism sent a letter urging then-Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate whether Accurso has ever received funding to stir up sympathy for the Palestinian cause in America and if she was acting as an unregistered foreign agent. In the complaint, the organization said Accurso’s posts have “largely ignored the suffering of Israeli victims, hostages, and Jewish children, while she consistently amplifies misinformation from Hamas and other anti-Israel sources.”In December, StopAntisemitism also named Accurso a finalist for its “Antisemite of the Year” award.The following month, Accurso apologized for liking an antisemitic Instagram comment that said “Free America from the Jews.” In a tearful apology video explaining her actions, Accurso claimed it was an innocent mistake and that she accidentally liked the comment when she was trying to delete it. “I hate antisemitism,” Accurso messaged a fan who had flagged the hateful comment to one of her posts, indicating it was liked by the author.Fellow travelers Accurso is accused of platforming a terrorist sympathizer over a 2025 video she posted of her “friend,” Palestinian photojournalist Motaz Azaiza, who withheld footage of Israeli hostages being beaten in the streets on Oct. 7, 2023.The 13-second clip shows Accurso introducing Azaiza as she teaches the letter “M.” Azaiza briefly appears to announce the letter of the day before Accurso refers to him as her friend.“Hi, yes, it’s M, for my friend, Motaz,” Accurso says. “Yay! Bye!”The old video resurfaced after Azaiza admitted in an on-camera interview on Sept. 3 that he deliberately decided against publishing footage of the Oct. 7 attack out of fear it could identify and potentially harm the Palestinian perpetrators involved in the violence, believing Israeli authorities would use his video for punitive purposes.According to an English translation of his Arabic-language podcast appearance, Azaiza described following a vehicle carrying Israeli prisoners and filming as members of a crowd assaulted them.“I saw the vehicle of the al Qassam Brigades, and there were Israeli captives there,” Azaiza said. “People got out, watched, beat them, hit them, and I followed them and filmed. But I did not publish those videos. Why? Because I did not want to ruin the lives of the people who were filmed.”In the same podcast episode, Azaiza expressed support for “armed resistance.”“I support armed resistance, but one that brings results,” Azaiza said, “or at least gives me the feeling that my life is valuable in the eyes of the resistance.”Accurso has also chosen to associate with revolutionary-left figures in America. Ahead of the 2026 elections, she has endorsed a slate of progressives contenders, backing former Rep. Cori Bush; Graham Platner’s replacement, Troy Jackson, in the Maine Senate race; and Abdul el Sayed for the open Senate seat in Michigan, among others.EL SAYED TOUTS ENDORSEMENT FROM LOBBYISTS TIED TO TERRORIST FINANCING: ‘DEEPLY GRATEFUL’She campaigned alongside New York congressional candidate Brad Lander, a former socialist and close ally of Mamdani. On the 2026 campaign trail, Accurso and Lander, who has been calling for the abolition of ICE since 2018, sang songs together with an entourage of children. She told New Yorkers to vote “for candidates who see all our children as neighbors — from our neighbors who are immigrants to our neighbor in Gaza.”Accurso, who has an estimated net worth of $50 million, also donated $3,500 to Lander’s campaign and to the congressional run of Darializa Avila Chevalier, another member of the Democratic Socialists of America. Both won their New York primaries, ousting two pro-Israel incumbents amid the progressive wing’s efforts to push out Israel-friendly establishment Democrats.In deleted posts, Avila Chevalier has called for the seizure of private property, open borders, and the abolition of policing and the U.S. prison system. She also reposted a post reading, “Israel doesn’t exist!”Accurso’s husband, Aron Accurso, a Broadway music director who composes scores for her “Songs for Littles” production and operates puppet characters part of the Ms. Rachel brand, also donated $1,500 to Avila Chevalier’s campaign.Palestinian pledges Most recently, Accurso pledged to donate $1 million to the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund, of which she is a global brand ambassador. Her gift matched Macklemore’s $1 million commitment to various Palestinian aid organizations, including the PCRF, following controversy over the rapper’s onstage “free Palestine” declaration at an Ed Sheeran concert in New Jersey.“I invite every wealthy white celebrity to match it,” Accurso wrote on Instagram, saying that they have “a moral obligation to use our privilege and platforms.” She said those unwilling to speak out about the plight of Palestinian children are “racist” and would otherwise do so if the “kids were white.”The PCRF, a California-based 501(c)(3) organization, claims to provide free medical care to Palestinian children affected by the war in Gaza.According to NGO Monitor, the PCRF was named in declassified Hamas files as one of the international medical organizations subject to Hamas’s diktats, or orders. The operational documents demonstrate how Hamas embeds its military infrastructure within hospitals and healthcare facilities in Gaza, using them as command centers, armories, and shelters to harbor terrorist operatives and military leaders.The PCRF ran a pediatric cancer unit inside al Rantisi Hospital, a children’s hospital under restoration that the Israeli military claimed Hamas had been using to hide weapons and Israeli hostages in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 terrorist attack.In November 2023, the Israeli military showed CNN a stockpile of suicide vests and explosives in the basement of the hospital, as well as evidence allegedly indicating that Israeli hostages had been held there. The evidence presented by the Israeli military included ropes, baby bottles, improvised toilets, and a nearby network of tunnels that ran underneath the hospital, which is located in a Hamas-controlled enclave and named after Abdel Aziz al Rantisi, the assassinated co-founder of Hamas. According to the Israeli military, wires leading into the shaft provided power to the tunnel from solar panels fixed on the rooftop of a Hamas commander’s house close to the hospital.However, the Palestinian Ministry of Health denied the Israeli military’s claims, insisting that the basement served as a bomb shelter for hospital staff and refugees, while the entrance to the tunnel system was “an electrical wire assembly point” that helped prevent electrical shocks caused by flooding.U.S. authorities have also tied the PCRF to Hamas. According to a Justice Department bulletin on “Terrorist Financing,” a website originating in Dallas, described as the unofficial website of Hamas, contained hyperlinks to the real Hamas website along with several U.S. charities, including the PCRF and the Texas-headquartered Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development.In 2004, the Holy Land Foundation, a Muslim charity convicted years later of financing Hamas, attempted to transfer $50,000 of its assets impounded by the Treasury Department to the PCRF. The PCRF president said the incoming money, frozen on suspicion that the Holy Land Foundation was funneling donations to terrorist organizations, was supposedly going toward “immediate relief services.”‘Useful idiot’ or fully cognizant ally? Palestinian aid organizations have relied on heartbreaking images of orphaned Palestinian children, much like the pictures Accurso has been posting in recent weeks, such as a photo she posted days ago of a wounded boy with an amputated arm, to generate funding.But there is documented evidence, flagged by federal investigators, that charitable donations meant to help child victims of the war do not actually reach their intended targets and likely have wound up in the hands of Hamas.A Jewish News Syndicate column, titled “Gullible Americans are funding Hamas, not starving children,” noted that many well-intentioned “useful idiots” donating to organizations such as the PCRF do not realize what sort of Palestinian aid they are providing and if they, instead, are funding the armed resistance, rather than providing food, clothing, and medical care to Palestinian children.The PCRF’s leadership appears to support a violent overthrow of the Israeli government. Amal al Haimoni, the PCRF’s area coordinator for Hebron, reportedly changed her Facebook profile picture in October 2023 to an image of a soldier stomping on the beheaded head of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu while a child raised the Palestinian flag. That month, she also changed her Facebook profile picture to text inscribed on the borders of Israel, reportedly reading, “This land cannot accommodate two identities; it is either us or us.”As for Accurso, it is unclear if she has taken into account the millions of lives claimed by socialism, looked behind the labels of Palestinian aid operations presenting themselves as “humanitarian relief,” or considered the other side of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Children’s books featuring Ms. Rachel and Cocomelon characters are for sale on Friday, April 18, 2025, in Ashburn, Virginia. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey) In a Guardian profile on the “controversial queen of toddler TV,” Accurso gave the outlet a surface-level answer as to what her long-term objective is: “My goal isn’t to be the most liked. It’s to help kids and speak the truth.”But in a Thursday interview with activist Illana Glazer, an out-of-costume Accurso revealed more of her political aims. On the sociopolitical podcast, she embraced progressive positions about welfare, illegal immigration, and the government takeover of health insurance. Couching these beliefs as safeguarding the well-being of children, Accurso accused conservatives opposed to mass migration and perpetuating the welfare state of Christian hypocrisy.“In the name of Christianity, too,” Accurso said. “Let’s be a more Christian nation and take away SNAP benefits. Let’s be a more Christian nation and put our neighbors and strangers in detention centers. Let’s make more and more money and not help others, and let’s deny people’s healthcare. But the SNAP thing, that just breaks me. You’re going to complain about a child having enough food?”Regardless of whether Accurso fully understands the revolutionary movements she has aligned herself with, some extremism watchdogs are warning that it is alarming for a popular children’s influencer to be ingraining such political messaging into the malleable minds of her preschool-aged audience.Scott Walter, president of the Capital Research Center, said Accurso’s divisive content should be a cause for concern among parents whose children regularly watch her videos.“Few parents, if they learned of Accurso’s advocacy and donations, would want their children exposed to an entertainer tied to such polarizing politics,” Walter told the Washington Examiner. “Much less would parents want to have children’s impressionable souls open to influence from groups like DSA and other nonprofits linked to Middle Eastern terror that preach hatred of America and her institutions.”The Washington Examiner contacted Accurso’s communications and brand management teams for comment.