‘Credence to a blood libel’: Hundreds from Hollywood denounce Glazer’s Oscar speech
Signatories echo director’s own language in saying they ‘refute our Jewishness being hijacked’ by him to falsely claim ‘moral equivalence’ between Nazis and Israel
Over 450 actors, producers, and photographers have signed a “Statement from Jewish Hollywood Professionals” castigating “Zone of Interest” filmmaker Jonathan Glazer over his recent Oscar acceptance speech, in which the director of the Holocaust film assailed Israel for “hijacking” Judaism with its conduct toward the Palestinians, American entertainment journal Variety reported Monday.
“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,” reads the statement, echoing Glazer’s own language at the awards ceremony.
“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,” the statement continues, adding, “The current climate of growing antisemitism only underscores the need for the Jewish State.”
The online document’s details indicate it began circulating on Thursday, four days after Glazer’s controversial speech. According to Variety, its signatories include Debra Messing (“Will and Grace”), Brett Gelman (“Stranger Things,” “Fleabag”), and Julianna Margulies (“The Good Wife”).
Glazer declined to comment on the open letter.
At the March 10 Oscar awards ceremony, standing alongside producers James Wilson and Len Blavatnik, Glazer said in his acceptance speech for best international feature that “our film shows where dehumanization leads at its worst. It’s shaped all of our past and present.
“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, whether the victims of October the 7th in Israel or the ongoing attack on Gaza,” he added to applause and cheers.
Wilson had criticized the war at the earlier BAFTA ceremony in February in an acceptance speech for best non-English language film. A spokesperson for Blavatnik declined to comment on Glazer’s speech, but said the Ukrainian-born media mogul is a steadfast supporter of Israel.
The film itself, which won two Oscars, focuses on fictionalized versions of the Nazi Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss and his family, who carry on their normal lives while living next door to the death camps.
Glazer’s speech caused a furor. “I just fundamentally disagree with Jonathan on this,” said “Zone of Interest” producer Danny Cohen, a former TV executive at the British Broadcasting Corporation, when interviewed on an Israeli news podcast two days later, adding that Glazer’s comments were a “distraction” from his film.
Lazslo Nemes, whose Holocaust film “Son of Saul” won the 2016 foreign language Oscar, also condemned Glazer. In a statement to the UK’s The Guardian on Friday, the Hungarian-Jewish director said that “‘The Zone of Interest’ is an important movie… Its director should have stayed silent instead of revealing he has no understanding of history and the forces undoing civilization, before or after the Holocaust.”
“It is especially troubling in an age where we are reaching pre-Holocaust levels of anti-Jewish hatred – this time, in a trendy, ‘progressive’ way,” Nemes added. “Today, the only form of discrimination not only tolerated but also encouraged is antisemitism.”
Glazer’s Oscars speech also drew harsh criticism from the Anti-Defamation League and The Holocaust Survivors’ Foundation USA. The Foundation’s president, David Schaecter, 94, the only one of 105 family members to have survived the Holocaust after passing through both the Auschwitz and Buchenwald death camps, called Glazer’s speech “factually inaccurate [and] morally indefensible.”
Letter from 94 year old Holocaust survivor David Schaecter to Jon Glazer. @TheAcademy pic.twitter.com/XvE6pNJFyF
— John Ondrasik (@johnondrasik) March 12, 2024
“[I]t is disgraceful for you to presume to speak for those of us who personally saw the world stand silent as our mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins were murdered,” wrote Schaecter in an open letter dated March 11, the day after Glazer’s speech.
“You should be ashamed of yourself for using Auschwitz to criticize Israel,” added the Holocaust survivor.