Identifying as a Jew
3 min read
Jonathan Glazer, the Jewish director of The Zone of Interest, equated Israel with Hamas and turned his back on his people.
When accepting the Oscar for Best International feature at the Oscars for his trailblazing Holocaust film, The Zone of Interest, director Jonathan Glazer chose to turn his back on his people.
In his acceptance speech, he stated to roaring applause, “Our film shows where dehumanization leads at its worst. 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 7 in Israel or the ongoing attack in Gaza.”
Never mind how confusing his statement is. Is he refuting his Jewishness? Refuting how his Jewishness and the Holocaust is being hijacked? How? What occupation? Israel hasn’t occupied Gaza since 2005. What is clear is his lack of moral clarity. Glazer equates Hamas’s unprovoked massacre of Jews, murdering 1200, raping scores and taking hostage 240 innocent Israelis with Israel’s response to an existential threat to its people. If Hamas would release the hostages, put down its arms and renounce violence, peace would be at hand. It is a disgrace for someone to use the memory of the Holocaust to equate victim with perpetrator.
And Jonathan, if you did mean to refute your Jewishness, which I suspect you didn’t, the Jews who thought they could refute their Jewishness during the Holocaust ended up in the same gas chambers as those who proudly held on to their Jewish identity until their last breath.
I can understand a call for ceasefire and peace, but at this pivotal moment you said nothing about the 130 hostages who are still being held by Hamas in Gaza. Shame on you to use such a prominent platform to cave into the propaganda of Hamas, enemies who would like nothing more than to replicate the Holocaust. This is the time Jews around the world need to stand with their people and to proudly state that you are a Jew.
I am proud to be a Jew. I am proud to be part of the people that is fighting a just war, a people who wants nothing but peace.
I celebrate our heritage as a people who have bestowed upon the world the concepts of equality, sanctity of life and the dignity of the human being made in the image of God.
Your film shows the great evil human beings can do to each other, and the need to fight evil.
Today, don’t confuse those fighting for civilization and decency with those fighting for murder and savagery. It is not too late to retract your remarks.
I am not Jewish, I am a Christian and I love the Jewish people and the state of Israel and it grieved me deeply when I heard of the events of October 7th.
What appals me, being British, is that I have never heard in the British mainstream media or from our politicians a sustained call for Hamas to return the hostages they have taken and for the leadership of Hamas to give themselves up to the IDF in order to save the people of Gaza and Israel from anymore suffering.
"who refute their Jewishness"
This person married out and therefore I think he chose to refute his Jewishness a while ago
What is it about the sentence "It's us or them" that you don't understand?
Are you an anti-semite or a self-hating Jew?
Tell us.
Do.
I am lost for my words to describe my reaction to this person's Oscar statement. I am more committed to my Jewishness as a result of his poor choice of words.
Glazer FAILED his "Queen Esther Moment"
https://aish.com/henry-morgenthaus-queen-esther-moment/
Golda Meir said it best. Words to the effect of. I can forgive the terrorists, however, I cannot forgive the good Jewish people who adopt the same acts. Perhaps this wise Rabbi will say that the former leader of Israel is past her use by date from his wilful blindness and cognitively dissonant although right religious viewpoint. Please.
Golda Meir said no such thing.
She said "We can forgive them for killing our children, we can never forgive them for making us kill their children".
How many pro-Palestine marches have you been on, self-hating Jew?
And I cannot fathom Rabbi the call for a "cease fire" at all.SG MM 2610
He is ignorant of history. Israel handed over Gaza with all the modern amenities such as hydroponic growing farms and more. The Palestinians proceeded to destroy everything. Jonathan Glazer is an example of the obscene anti-semitism hidden in the woke agenda.
With the intention of NOT feeding to the emotions that surround what is unfolding today, it is always good to see opposing views. I suppose there are enough Jews that are not only anti Israel but also against what is unfolding at the moment - mass genocide behind the smokescreen of killing Hamas fighters/commanders. Let us call a spade a spade.
What is bothersome is that the more you read history and listen to folks that have been disenfranchised by the State of Israel (Zionist state that has nothing to do with Judaism), for example like Miko Peled etc, you realize that to maintain the occupation a whole mosaic of lies has to be constructed and then pushed and then maintained! Amazing!
https://www.amazon.com/Arabs-History-Eugene-Rogan/dp/0465025048
Cease fire now! Stop the genocide
Your bleeding heart forgot to mention a single fact- i.e., that your beloved Hamas started the fire (a maniacal & barbaric conflagration, at that) and Israel is fighting an existential war.
The rest of your commentary is merely a hateful regurgitation of Arab propaganda, full of the twisted lies they're so good at -- but let's give them some credit because it's the ONLY thing they're good at.
And your parenthetical attempt at PC fools no one, BTW: you're clearly a Jew hater.
What does it feel like, anti-semite, to lose to the Jews constantly?
Your lot cannot frighten us because your lot are stuck in the Seventh Century and always will be.
You know what is the most depressing thing about your lot?
You haven't made any intellectual advances since the Seventh Century!
As you write "it is always good to see opposing views". If so, I'm wondering how "good" you feel about seeing "opposing views" to any of the cherished Woke dogmas? concerning The classic tactic of the left is to cry "free speech" when it's down, and "control disinformation" when it's on top.
Once you use the word occupation you have lost the argument. There is no occupation. The Arabs launched 5 major wars against Israel and lost the first four. It looks like they are working on losing the fifth. No other country has been told to return territory it won in war except Israel. When the United States returns the states that were the original colonies and the land they gained in others wars, then maybe they can talk. Otherwise everyone needs to mind their own business. Also, referencing arab history books is also a nonstarter since according to Arabs Jewish people have no right to the land of Israel since either they all left or that Avraham gave the blessing to Yishmael which is utter hogwash. Finally, the Koran makes no mention of Jerusalem as a holy city. So where is your point
Glad you posted, because it means less time for you to take kinetic action against Jews. Please keep wasting your time.
What a coward and a creep.Crawling at the feet of the world's 'exalted' for a crumb of acceptance.Self hating Jews are the worst.
Ah,I see most of my comment has already been mentioned! Glad to see there are some of us who can still see straight.
Needless to say, the article was excellent but Glazer is a disgrace to us all...tukhus-lecking to the crowd. What does he think? They'll hate him anyway. Like it or not, he's a Member of the Tribe. Let him change his name to Gleason and see how far he gets selling himself to his buddies in Jaballiya. Foolish man.
I believe that the majority of non-jewish people in the US and Europe stand with Israel, supporting its right to self-defense. Unfortunately, this support often seems silent in public discourse, overshadowed by a vocal minority.
First, The rebbe emphatically stated “a Jew is a Jew”. In reality, it would appear this Glaser individual, who so easily refutes his Judaism in order to seek acceptance by the Hollywood woke, never really felt the longing to belong to our wondrous family. Good riddance, Jonny boy; I’m certain your Jewish grandparents are or would have been proud of you, you “no nachis “gutter gnat.
Thankfully this review reminds the reader of how quickly this situation in Gaza could be resolved, if the hostages are released and Hamas accepts defeat.
Israel is not going anywhere. The sooner Israels gainsayers realize this fact, there will be more chance for peace in the region.
I think you mean “naysayers” rather than “gainsayers” but your comment is right on target.
May Hashem nullify the enemies of the Jews and bless and protect the Jewish people.
This is really nothing new. There has always been a cadre of opportunistic, self-hating Jews who publicly embraced the dominant culture and threw their brothers and sisters under the bus. Check your history and you'll see that from the middle ages on up how many in Christian Europe denounced Judaism and converted to Christianity to gain fame and fortune. Now Christianity is passé, so they jump ship to the new 'dominant religion' of Wokeism. Pure cowardice and self seeking. But, as then, this too will pass.
Ranting and raving about self-hating Jews is one thing.
We have to admit that it is our fault for tolerating them for too long.
But what are we going to do about them now?
Awful man we all need to tell him !!
Well said! When will people do their due diligence and quit being lazy and just believing what they are spoon fed?!!!!!!! Wake up!!!!
To paraphrase, 'the left is not after the Jews/Israel they're after God, we're just in the way.'
Just another leftist Jew trying to ingratiate himself with the "Death to Israel" crowd who are now in vogue in (self-styled) progressive circles.
Excellent article!!
Thank you!!!!
Miki Fine
It is good that you posted this. I don't have a word that can describe him concisely. My father, a Holocaust survivor and WW2 veteran who worked in a lumberyard would probably have words that would get him banned on social media for eterenity.
I would hazard to guess that Jonathan Glazer has never set foot in Eretz Yisrael. He is another of the million self-hating American Jews who inhabit this country.
He's actually British but a self-hating Jew nonetheless.
There are a lot of movies/studios I will not watch. Like anything Disney or Marvel.
They have gotten so weird. He is now on my list of never watch anything he is involved with.
It’s a shame the point Glazer made was using the holocaust to make himself a lot of money instead using his bully pulpit to desecrate the memory of what his movie represents.
What Israel is doing is trying to insure its survival and give its citizens peace. The problem is who they are dealing with fo not want peace and abuse the aid it receives.
Most of Hollywood is an embarrassment to the Jewish people.
HOLLYWOOD was created by poor immigrant jewish men from northern Europe..All the big Studios were named after them..even the American Dream ..was thier Dream . And the Star of David they wore as arm bands during the war became the prize given to famous people who became a part of the American Dream.
And yet, most of Hollywood cooperated with Nazi Germany; in fact those poor immigrant Jewish men couldn’t forget their Judaism fast enough.
Shame on you! I’m a Holocaust teacher and child of survivors. Had you done any accurate research you would know, as a Jew, no matter how simulated you are, you would have been on one of the first transports to Auschwitz and subsequently gassed.Let that linger for a moment.
Glazer was Utterly disgraceful
Jonathan Glazer is a disgrace to our people.
Blatant pandering for applause
Oscars...... IDOL WORSHIP; plain and simple
Interesting take. Thanks.
I was unfamiliar with this film and did not watch the Oscars the other night. Oh my! How could this director have said what he did?! How could he have ignored the violence against so many women and children? What world does he live in? With that said, I see that many commenters are angry at those with more left leaning views. I am a registered Democrat but make no mistake. I do NOT fall into lockstep merely because someone has a liberal viewpoint. This director is EXTREMELY benighted.
I take into account a politician’s views on Israel when I vote. Genesis 12:3
Of course! I do as well. That is precisely the reason I loathe and detest Bernie Sanders. Talk about a self hating Jew.
Who are our greatest and worst enemies?
It's not the Muslims.
It's not the Christians.
It's not the Arabs.
It's not the Germans.
It's the self-hating Jews!
Enough is enough!
The "Jewishness" of this piece of art was lost a long time ago, if he ever had it. This creature doesn't even have a clue what it means to be Jewish. So much for Hollywood, the poison of the world .
Nevertheless HOLLYWOOD was created by Jews.. Watch the documentary on UTUBE
Yes, the Jewish spiritual ancestors of Glazer.
See my comment above.
If Hollywood had its way, the Jewish founders would be obliterated. There is a new museum about Hollywood that has done exactly that. They had to fix things when people protested. Very sad.
Real simple, your neighbor (Hamas), keeps saying that the reason they exist is to kill you and every other Jew. Netanyahu is obviously aware that the only way to end this is to totally exterminate Hamas. Problem is that there a preponderance of civilians who cheer them on, which makes them complicit. In order to end this, All Hamas has to do is return the hostages, or just keep watching civilians perish.
It is a shame how widespread ignorance is among Jews. He makes a film about the Holocaust and then brings up the usual left-wing lies and slanders.
Seems like in order for viewers of his film to assuage any feelings of unresolved guilt they may have in regards to the Shoah, they'll blame Israelis, e.g. the IDF, for avenging the Shoah by "dehumanizing" Palestinians.Leftist Jews can't stand being lumped in with Isreal, and antisemites feed off the dishonest MSM and their journalists to fuel their hate,
Thank you Rabbi Menachem Lehrfield for writing this powerful and insightful commentary.
Right on Aish
I cannot believe the sheer number of self-hating Jews on here.
Just read the comments on here to spot them.
You self-hating Jews need to understand one thing - it's us or them.
Would you prefer the Jews to do the dying?
You also need to realize that when the National Socialists win, they don't care if you are self hating, if you are a Jew you are kindling.
Thank you for your response. Somehow we need to get across to the protesters and Quislings that they're on the wrong side: that they've been manipulated by the fake numbers that Hamas releases, by the gullible reporting of the media that throws image after image of suffering Palestinians at us while ignoring the hostages and the very history of the region.
The plain fact is that Israel/Jews will always lose a numbers game - there are just so many more of our enemies than us.
i agree with the article. i understand that for many people who by inheritance are jews may be very influenced by the environnement (ei christian or other) and somehow unwithingly vote withe masses to please the said mass and be accepted by them.
at this point Israel , the real representative of the jewish people, needs all the support and help he can get. ONLY ISRAEL MAKES THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE HOLOCAUST AND THE PRESENT SITUATION.oNLY ISRAEL REPRESENTS AND DEFENDS THE jewish people be it in arab contries or elswhere.
the film artist may be a good artist but it certainly not a good jew.In fact using the holocaust for his work is doubly insulting to the millions who did not have the opportunity that he has mainly the possibility to live.
shame on him
Nor a good human being.
It must be so wonderful to be a leftist moron. You can ignore common sense. You can ignore history. You can even ignore self interest. Do any of you folks who are so angry at Israel remember the Allies letting food convoys into Nazi Germany during the war? Do you remember the Allies ever giving notice to the Japanese which locations they are going to bomb in advance? Of course not. Only stupid people would expect that. In fact when Great Britain started bombing Germany they intentionally targeted the civilian population. No "From the Rhine to the Ocean" signs to be seen anywhere in London.
May I remind these weak wristed cry babies that our own country killed 500,000 Japanese civilians by dropping two bombs.
Thank you Mel. Nothing worse than a Jew hating Jew.
You have made some excellent points in your comments, However, calling someone a leftist moron will cause them to turn away, imo, I am a registered Democrat who attended the rally in Washington back in November. Shortly after that I attended a similar rally in my town. I promise you I am not ignoring any history!
Zone of Interest is a haunting and masterful film and I hoped it would win an Oscar. Now I am beyond disappointed in Jonathan Glazer. I purposely did not watch the Academy Awards because I am sick of their identity politics and woke pandering, to which Mr. Glazer added bigtime. Sadly, people are killed in war. The civilian casualties of this one have not been deliberate targets, unlike the the 1,300 souls who perished at the hands of Hamas on October 7--genocide that many seem to have forgotten or choose to ignore. No other country has dropped as many evacuation warnings or endured such condemnation from its allies for simply exercising its right to survive. Shame on Jonathan Glazer for misusing such a massive platform. He just negated his own film.
All that research to make the Holocaust into a tear jerking movie and one huge feature totally overlooked.
To bring an end to the attempt at eliminating all Jews from the face of the earth, the Allies had to sacrifice the flower of their masculine youth in huge numbers and to fight and kill the enemy combatants had to sacrifice a huge number of European non-combatants.
War is hell.
Each and every war is hell.
German Nazi expansionism starting World War 2 could not be avoided or ignored and the might of the German forces could not be defeated by just attacking the armies, ships and aircraft.
HAMAS must be neutralised whatever the cost in unavoidable loss of life amongst the non-combatant population within and behind whom they shelter in disgusting heartless barbarity.
You Rabbi should be apologizing to the Palestinians in Gaza and beg for their forgiveness
Rabbi what occupation? What genocide ? What apartheid what collective punishment? What tens of thousands of innocent babies murdered by the sadistic immoral racist Israeli army ?
U have to be kidding or mentally ill ir just an uncritical Israel defender shame on you posing as a man of the cloth you are an imposter as. Human being
Delta - you don’t get it do you. You didn’t read the statement. And you have no idea of the “stats” Hamas quoted. You really believe them after all the other lies.
And you would have the Hamas and Palestinians murder every Jew to fit your agenda It’s really shame on you be careful who you accuse of being mentally ill . This Rabbi is not . He is quite sane and reasonable.
Illiterate antisemite. You are the person that needs to learn and understand what is really happening - the TRUTH about why there is a conflict. This is about hatred of Jews..plain and simple.
Excellently stated! Delta is just another yiddified yok!
And you, non-dear "lady," are a hopelessly duped one to swallow all the (so-called) "Palestinian" propaganda garbage.
BTW, the likes of you couldn't be expected to understand what humanity is, so your opinion counts for minus zero since the truth has a habit of eventually being revealed!
The shame is entirely yours.
It is good that you wasted your time on this website. Less time for you to do kinetic harm.
I cannot agree. Collective punishment is against the Geneva Convention. Restricting food and water is a crime. Bombing hospitals, shooting people who are lined up for flour is a crime. The Government is killing innocent women and children. The army shot hostages who were trying to escape. The army shot an old deaf man in his bed. That was a crime. The Torah says that there will be a time for Zion but not at the cost of breaking the rules in the Torah.
you are repeating propaganda that has been widely debunked even by leftist media. Stop lying
You’re a brainwashed Zionist all you have to do is look into your phone videos don’t lie Israel does
Who are you going to believe Israel Hasbara or your very own eyes ?
Absolutely agree!
Hear, hear, another fool speaks! You likely don't even know what you're agreeing to -- just reacting from your anti-Semitic gut!
Well if you get your news from TikTok that explains it.
A Zionist to someone who loves Israel you obviously hate Israel hate Jews and are on the side of those savages that burnt babies alive in their cribs
And you think you're not being brainwashed by hateful propaganda & consummate lies?!
If so, you're worse off than I thought, you miserable Jew-hater!
May you go the way of all anti-Semites throughout history, and enjoy all of Hamas' "contributions" to society and none from Israelis' or other Jews'!
You are a brainwashed Zionist with no conscience
A bit of Jew hating here I see. Getting carried away
Total due hatred this Delta is delusional, and if she is or he is or whatever it is is a Jew, they be the first ones to thrown into the oven
Gaza Hamas And Palestinian attacked Israel for no reason . Killed 1200 people and beheaded babies and raped women . How can you defend that. They started all these atrocities and still won’t release hostages! Why? Peace could be had if they would return hostages. You are ignorant and believe all this fake Hamas crap
The “beheading babies” story has been debunked over and over again. It was a lie! Also, do read some history of the occupation and abuse of the Palestinians in the “world’s largest open prison”.
Not true.
Omg!!!! There is no genocide not when the population is 2 million and growing these ignoramuses don’t realize the terrorists were given five times a chance for their own state and they said now we’d rather have dead Jews and live in squalor and spend our billions on terrorist tunnels, rather than make a beautiful Singapore on the sea and live in peace with our neighbors But God gave that tiny strip of land to the Jews. You have 26 Arab nations go
Yes indeed, read history -- but not the fake "Palestinian" version!
Fact is that in the history of world conflicts, no group has ever treated enemies who were out for their destruction as humanely as Israel does.
Even if that were true, which it isn't (and your repeating it doesn't justify your ridiculous claim that you're guilty of yourself -- just substitute the word "Arabist" for Zionist!), that's still better than being brainless -- like you!
You must be reading different news reports from me. Hamas are responsible for everything that is happening in Gaza. Using women and children as human shields to hide behind. Why should Israel be responsible for the people in Gaza and provide food and water? What army in the world has ever been responsible for the welfare of their enemy? You have it all wrong. Go and get educated.
When the United States and Canada put Japanese people in internment camps because they feared they could be enemies, the US and Canada were responsible for the well being of those people.
As long as Israel controls what goes in and out of the Gaza Strip, they bear responsibility for the people there.
Have you SEEN the border fence between Gaza and Egypt, Matt?!!!
Egypt has a huge crossing (Rafah border crossing) at the southern end of Gaza. So how is Israel 'responsible for Gazans' if it is actually Egypt that doesn't permit 'what goes in and out of the Gaza Strip' as you put it.
Stop fooling yourself. Arab states are hoping for an Israeli victory over HAMAS... they're just being quiet and coy about it so as not to irritate fellow Islamic member states that are also more radical and militant. (Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, etc.)
Totally agree! 👍🏿
My, my -- what a surprise!
Oh. Shut up. U Jew hater. Despicable!! Jews were beheaded. And every day Israelis are subject to bombings and stabbings and car ramming and that’s OK with you. I guess you’re on the side of the enemy I see.
Good guess!
Tell it like it is - what a pathetic human being you are.
You haven't said anything worth hearing, Miss Paragon of Virtue (or whatever you think of yourself).
Perhaps he meant that performing genocide on any people is wrong. 30000 plus have been killed. How many more? All of them? That was the sick idea Germany had.
Btw I am the descendant of a survivor. I dispise killing of any civilian.
You are going overboard. You know it. You are just repeating the Hamas propaganda they all want you to spew. This is more than insulting to everyone
don't feed the trolls please.
I disagree.
number one that's Hamas propaganda and second how many of those were Hamas terrorists? How many germans die during WWII? I guess to you none of them should have died, not even to save a single Jew. Shame on you
Such love I feel from you, the chosen one. Blessings and shalom.
EC, get real. when the real numbers come out, we will all see puffed up stats. then subtract all terrorists, &you have a much smaller number of those killed, still unfortunate.The chutzpa to accuse israel of genocide when it is in the midst of a war against gazan terrorists called hamas who purposely put their own people in the path of destruction is beyond belief! No nation has ever had to fight an underground militia that by the way is bolstered by the Gazan citizenry which for over two generations has been brainwashed to want israel destroyed.
i for one am tired of listening to marginalized jews who are ashamed of seeing good jews defend themselves against evil people as though it is a sporting event and if the score is lopsided, the jews are no good. Puleeez
Funny - I never heard that terrorists were a race.
As stated above: there are many more haters in the world (including terrorists) than Jews, so Israel will always lose in a numbers game.
But doesn’t it worry you at all that there are so many dedicated killers at large? Do you really want to live in a world where killing, maiming and torture are seen as acceptable behaviors - and are the reaction of choice should an argument break out, as at the Superbowl celebration?
First, the death toll of non-combatants is fake and there is good evidence for that assertion.
Second, there are no adult innocent people in Gaza, they voted HAMAS as government, cheered the massacre of Jews in October and support the war
Third, HAMAS attacks from within sacred places, hospitals and other crowded places hiding behind the women and children on purpose, not heedless of their deaths but gladly use them as reasons to cry genocide.
Fourth, this is war and no modern war lacks casualties.
He’s a disgrace to use this platform to bash Israel fighting for survival, I’m sure the pro Palestinians would be proud of this self hating Jew. Boycott he’s movie.
Yes, the moment Glazer secured his pocket for the future, without any scruples to sell Israel, let’s boycott his movie!
yawn
Extremely well said. Not confrontational, but direct. Will his statements make hime more accepted in the imagined "correct society"? Many have traveled this rocky road -- it leads nowhere and does not develop any love or acceptance in the anti-Jewish groups. History has proven this time and time again....