March 19, 2024

On this day when Canadian Jews are all talking about the House of Commons’ shameful and outrageous vote last night (which I will write about another day), something surprising and wonderful happened. Read on, my friends, and join me in feeling better. . . . .

It started at the Oscars when Jonathan Glazer accepted his award for “The Zone of Interest”, a film that focuses on the life of Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss and his wife Hedwig. Here’s what Glazer said: Right now we stand here as men who refute their Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation, which has led to conflict for so many innocent people.

Whaaaat?! Yikes! I actually stopped and rewound the television to make sure I heard him correctly. It’s one thing to refute your Jewishness (I’m not even sure that’s the word he meant to use), but this man who made a Holocaust film was now, in front of 19.5 million viewers, referring to the “occupation”. I waited for people in the theatre to boo him, hiss him, condemn his words. But nothing. He got applause. In my book, this was another Palestinian victory.

Everyone pretty much agrees that Hollywood was built by Jews a century ago. There is still a strong Jewish presence in the film industry, and we’re so proud of that (A success for any Jew is a success for the Jewish People.). Unfortunately, so many of us have been repeatedly disappointed when our favourite Jewish artists have remained silent since October 7th. We watch, incredulous, as people in the entertainment world speak up in support of Palestinians and Hamas, and Jewish performers say nothing.

And then. Finally. Yesterday. A completely unexpected open letter appeared on the landscape. It was signed by over 450 creatives in the entertainment industry. Actors Debra Messing, Julianna Margulies, Michael Rapaport, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Emmanuelle Chriqui, and Tovah Feldshuh; directors Eli Roth and Rod Lurie; producers Lawrence Bender, Amy Pascal and Sherry Lansing; and hundreds more, all came together and denounced Glazer’s speech. Another 100 or so — Jews and non-Jews — have since added their names.

This is what they wrote (underlining is mine): “We refute our Jewishness being hijacked for the purpose of drawing a moral equivalence between a Nazi regime that sought to exterminate a race of people, and an Israeli nation that seeks to avert its own extermination.”  The statement goes on to say “The use of words like ‘occupation’ to describe an indigenous Jewish people defending a homeland that dates back thousands of years, and has been recognized as a state by the United Nations, distorts history. It gives credence to the modern blood libel that fuels a growing anti-Jewish hatred around the world, in the United States, and in Hollywood.”

Amazing. It took a loathsome Jonathan Glazer to wake up our brothers and sisters in Hollywood. It took a repugnant acceptance speech to get Jews in show business (and some non-Jews as well) angry enough to finally speak out in support of Israel. Maybe now that previously silent celebrities and high-profile figures are opening their mouths, maybe now some of the stupid, misinformed, and blindly star-struck highschool kids, college students, and their Hamas-loving parents will begin to understand that the narrative they’ve been following is, plain and simply, wrong. I believe that Jonathan Glazer is responsible for turning the tide just a smidge. So thanks, Jonathan. (And good luck trying to get funding in Hollywood for your next film.)

Am Yisrael Chai!