By Rabbi Menachem Lehrfield
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.
Rabbi Menachem Lehrfield
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 G-d. 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.
Reprinted from this week’s website of aish.com
