In 2020, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) created a “Representation and Inclusion Standards” for eligibility in the Best Picture category effective for the 2024 Oscars. It is meant to “encourage equitable representation” both on and off screen.
Read MoreIn January 2023, I was well into the tour for my book, Artists Under Fire: The War against Celebrities, Jews, and Israel, which explains how the demonization of Israel sets the stage for widespread antisemitism. By the end of 2023, many people awakened to this dangerous truth.
I spent most of January in Florida, where I made the rounds from the conservative Villages in the north to progressive audiences in the south. I began each engagement with the same question. Who here is concerned about rising Jew-hatred? Inevitably, everyone raised their hands.
Read MoreMonsters descended on Israel’s southern border on October 7.
While Israeli and international families mourn the horrifying torture and murder of their loved ones, university students blame Israelis for the atrocities committed against them and university presidents have lost their moral compass.
The thin line between Israel bashing and Jew hatred continues to dissolve before our eyes. Participants in massive anti-Israel rallies worldwide shout, "Gas the Jews" and "We are Hamas."
Read MoreEach Rosh Hashanah, we celebrate the new year with the blast of the shofar, a ram’s horn. It awakens our senses to the coming days of self-reflection.
On Yom Kippur, we think about our deeds and words in the past year and how we could have done better. As Jews, we understand the power of choice given by the soul, and commit to return to our best selves (teshuvah) in the coming year.
Read More“The landscape of the American Jewish community and of the American rabbinate is changing, and the changes are coming rapidly.
“Who would have ever imagined during any of Israel’s previous wars that would-be rabbis would have the chutzpah to publicly circulate a letter condemning Israel for taking actions to defend its citizens!?”
Read MoreAlthough I have always had a strong Jewish identity, I did not grow up in a religious household or attend Sunday school as a child.
My father was a proud Jew but an atheist. My mother was very spiritual and would have liked my brother and me to get a formal Jewish education but didn’t press it. I was agnostic, uncertain if God existed. Becoming a bat mitzvah was not on the table, and I didn’t feel like I was missing much.
Read MoreThroughout history, many different societies have attempted to get rid of their Jews.
Every year at Passover we recite the story of a jealous Egyptian Pharaoh who ordered the death of Jewish baby boys. Three thousand years later, Hitler exterminated over 70% of Europe’s Jewry. Jews were expelled from England in 1290, from France in 1306, and from Portugal and Spain in 1492. Millions of Jews were killed during Spanish Inquisition, in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution, and by the pogroms throughout Europe.
Read MoreJew to Christian to Jew again? Such was the journey of folk-rock poet Bob Dylan.
Born Robert Zimmerman in Duluth, Minn., Dylan attended Hebrew school at an Orthodox synagogue and enjoyed summers at the Zionist-oriented Herzl Camp. Although Dylan became a bar mitzvah, he did not identify strongly as a Jew as a young man. Later, he changed his name to Bob Dylan and remade himself as the voice of the typical mid-Western American folk singer.
Read MoreDuring my trip to London this past March, British MP Bob Blackman graciously invited me to speak to members of the British-Israel All-Party Parliamentary Group about the cultural boycott campaign against Israel.
The campaign demonizes the Jewish homeland and creates an environment that makes Jew-hatred more acceptable. It falsely accuses Israel of crimes against humanity and calls for its destruction.
Read MoreI’m just back from a whirlwind week in London where I met with Jewish leaders, British MPs, print and TV journalists, folks from London’s West End theatre, and good friends.
My visit began with a speaking engagement at the Jewish Book Week Festival at Kings Place. It was an impressive production with 100 speakers over the day and 3,000+ audience members.
Read MoreIsrael is many things, different things, and important things to Jews everywhere.
For some, Israel is the land God promised to the Jewish people. Part of the covenant made with Abraham, the final stop after wandering 40 years in the desert. It is a deep spiritual bond with those who came before us and with those who will come after us.
Read MoreIn a 12-minute video posted on Facebook, movie star and former Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, whose father was a Nazi party member, talks directly to young neo-Nazi supremacists about his emotional experience visiting the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland.
Read More#EndJewHatred Day is a day of empowerment for the Jewish people - a day on which we come together as a community, with our allies, setting aside political differences, and commit to working together to achieve a future in which Jew-hatred is as unacceptable in society as every other form of racism and bigotry.
Read MoreAs a leading expert countering the cultural boycott campaign against Israel, people often ask why I am such a passionate advocate for the arts and Israel.
The answer lies in family, film, and the forever imprint of the Holocaust on my soul.
Read MoreSome readers may not have previously heard of BDS or, if they have, may not be sure what it means. However, if you have heard about “Israeli apartheid” or that Israel is committing genocide, you have received its messaging. If you believe Israeli settlements are the barrier to peace and the Palestinians are an ancient people, you have accepted some of its principles.
Read MoreIn Jewish religious law, a shomer is a guardian entrusted to take care of others. In today’s world, when antisemitism is coming from every direction and mounting daily, we all need to become a shomer for the Jewish people and for the Jewish homeland, Israel.
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