Over 450 Jewish creatives, executives, and Hollywood professionals have signed an open letter criticizing acclaimed director Jonathan Glazer for his acceptance speech at the Oscars nearly a week and a half after the 96th Academy Awards took place.

Jonathan, whose film The Zone of Interest won the Best International Feature award at the 2024 Oscars, spoke about the war in Gaza during his acceptance speech.

“Our film shows where dehumanization leads at its worst. It’s shaped all of our past and present,” Jonathan said as he accepted the golden statuette.

Jonathan Glazer’s film The Zone of Interest won the Oscar for Best International Film this year

United Kingdom snags that Best International Film Oscar! Congratulations to the cast & crew of ‘The Zone of Interest’! #Oscars pic.twitter.com/0lWZItPoal

— The Academy (@TheAcademy) March 11, 2024

“Right now, we stand here as men who refute their Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation [that] has led to conflict for so many innocent people,” Jonathan continued. “Whether the victims of October — whether the victims of October the 7th in Israel or the ongoing attack on Gaza, all the victims of this dehumanization, how do we resist?”

His speech became hotly debated and continued to garner attention after a number of Jewish stars and Hollywood professionals signed an open letter denouncing Jonathan’s statements in his acceptance speech.

The acclaimed director’s speech became a hot topic for debate after the 2024 Oscars

The backlash to director Jonathan Glazer’s acceptance speech at the Oscar’s—where his film The Zone of Interest won “Best International Feature Film”—is really beyond the pale.

Let’s take a minute to watch his speech & examine what he said in context: 🧵pic.twitter.com/JlRSJex5IC

— Monica Marks (@MonicaLMarks) March 11, 2024

Among those who expressed their disapproval were Will & Grace star Debra Messing, Hostel director Eli Roth, Amy Sherman-Palladino (creator of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel), and producers like Lawrence Bender, Amy Pascal, Hawk Koch, and Sherry Lansing.

“We are Jewish creatives, executives and Hollywood professionals,” read the group’s statement. “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.”

Image credits: Getty Images/Mike Coppola

“Every civilian death in Gaza is tragic. Israel is not targeting civilians. It is targeting Hamas. The moment Hamas releases the hostages and surrenders, is the moment this heartbreaking war ends. This has been true since the Hamas attacks of October 7th,” continued the statement.

“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,” the statement went on to say. “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 current climate of growing antisemitism only underscores the need for the Jewish State of Israel, a place which will always take us in, as no state did during the Holocaust depicted in Mr. Glazer’s film.”

More than 450 actors, directors, producers, and other Hollywood professionals signed an open letter denouncing Jonathan Glazer for his remarks

Image credits: Rodin Eckenroth / Getty Images

Some of the open letter’s co-signees spoke to Variety about what pushed them to have their names attached to the group’s statement.

Modern Family producer Ilana Wernick said she felt Jonathan’s speech sounded “eerily similar to Vanessa Redgrave’s infamous ‘Zionist hoodlum’ speech.”

“Only this time there was no Paddy Chayefsky to stand up and say the right thing. Sadly, Jew hatred won the day. That’s why so many of us in the industry reached out to each other. It was a very sad, very scary night. Writing the letter wasn’t just cathartic for us. It’s something we had to do,” Ilana told the outlet.

“There was no concern for how Jewish people are going to react to a speech like that, to that applause to those red pins, when not even our hostages are being mentioned, and it’s just incredibly hurtful, incredibly painful,” Fleabag actor Brett Gelman said. “It’s truly baffling to me that people were choosing to be silent that night.”

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