Louis Farrakhan, the 84-year-old head of the Nation of Islam, has been back in the headlines after a previously unreleased photo of him with President Barack Obama was published in January and Mr. Farrakhan gave an anti-Semitic speech at his organization’s annual convention last month.

The Feb. 25 speech, which was given at an event for Saviour’s Day, a religious gathering of the Nation, ran for almost three hours. During it, Mr. Farrakhan said that the “powerful Jews” were his enemies, and that Jews were “responsible for all of this filth and degenerate behavior that Hollywood is putting out turning men into women and women into men,” as well as other incendiary remarks.

A religious fundamentalist whose group has been condemned by the Southern Poverty Law Center, Mr. Farrakhan is fervently opposed to the legitimacy of the state of Israel, and his political positions regarding the country frequently spill over into bigoted remarks about Jews, which is why many public officials have avoided association with him. Mr. Farrakhan has denied that he is anti-Semitic and has even said that his father may have been Jewish.

Much of the recent coverage has been focused on Tamika Mallory, one of the heads of the Women’s March organization, who attended the Feb. 25 speech, and on Representative Danny Davis, a Democrat of Illinois, who defended Mr. Obama and Mr. Farrakhan after the photo came to light. Their reluctance to condemn Mr. Farrakhan has led to criticism from across the ideological spectrum this week.