Over 450 Jewish Hollywood professionals denounce Glazer’s Oscar speech

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 claimed Israel has “hijacked” Judaism with its conduct toward the Palestinians, Variety reports.

“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 that “[t]he current climate of growing antisemitism only underscores the need for the Jewish State.”

According to Variety, the signatories include Debra Messing (“Will and Grace’), Brett Gelman (“Stranger Things,” “Fleabag”), and Julianna Margulies (“The Good Wife”).

The outlet says Glazer declined to comment on the open letter.

At the March 10 Oscar awards ceremony, 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.

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 a podcast two days later.

The film, 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.