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Motion Picture Academy Museum Fixes Its Problem of Excluding Jews By Demonizing Them

Outside the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. Photo: Josh White, JWPictures/©Academy Museum Foundation.

On September 30, 2021, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences (the organization best known for its annual Oscars ceremony) finally opened their long-awaited museum, aptly named the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.

The museum’s website describes it as “the largest museum in the United States devoted to the arts, sciences and artists of moviemaking,” which “offers exceptional exhibitions and programs that illuminate the world of cinema … through a variety of diverse and engaging voices.”

But there was one voice that was conspicuously absent: that of the Jewish immigrants who founded, and some would say created, Hollywood.

This glaring omission was widely noticed at the time of the museum’s opening. John Goldwyn, the grandson of Hollywood founding father Samuel Goldwyn (the “G” in “MGM”) declined to attend the opening. He was quoted at the time in a Hollywood Reporter article saying, “If you’re going to have a museum in Los Angeles tied to the Academy that celebrates arguably the most significant art form of the 20th century, how is it possible not to acknowledge the Jewish men who started it all? … It’s an egregious oversight.”

ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt, who did attend the opening, told Rolling Stone, “As I walked through, I literally turned to the person I was there with and said to him, ‘Where are the Jews?’”

To its credit, the Museum sought to remedy this oversight. That is the charitable interpretation.

The less charitable version is that they were pressured into doing something they had purposefully chosen not to do. Either way, on May 19th of this year, the Museum opened a new permanent exhibit titled “Hollywoodland: Jewish Founders and the Making of a Movie Capital.” Sounds great, right?

The somewhat small exhibit (the smallest of any exhibit in the museum) includes a brief documentary film, a hi-tech relief map of Hollywood, and a series of panels with biographical information about the Jewish men who built Hollywood and the studios they created.

Here is a sampling of that biographical information. Jack Warner was a “womanizer” and was “frugal.” Carl Laemmle was known for “nepotism.” Harry Cohen was “a tyrant and a predator.” The studio system created by these Jewish founders represented “a period of oppressive control” and these Jewish men were responsible for “the prejudices” of their studios and their movies.

I assume, because the exhibit provides no context, details, or examples, that words like “oppressive” and “tyrant” refer to the very controlling, top-down management style employed by these Jewish moguls.

Such a management style may be unpleasant for some to work under; it may be either effective or ineffective from a business standpoint (and given the studios’ success, I would argue it was very effective). But it is not inherently immoral, as the use of the words “oppressive” and “tyrant” would seek to imply.

The panel featuring Warner Bros. includes a paragraph describing one of the studio’s films, The Jazz Singer. It is the only film featured in this manner in any of these studio descriptions. The brief paragraph ends with the claim that The Jazz Singer invoked “a popular symbol of racial oppression [i.e. blackface] that further harms another marginalized group.”

The documentary that is part of the exhibit builds upon this theme of discrimination: “Hollywood films of [the era of these Jewish moguls] generally excluded, stereotyped or vilified people of color and LGBT+ characters and perpetuated ableism and sexism with rare exceptions. In Hollywood, to become American was to adopt and reflect oppressive beliefs and representations.”

It is true that the United States of the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s was a very different place, in terms of equality, inclusion and representation, than it is today. But was this really the fault of Jewish movie moguls? Why pound this point home in the one section of the museum supposedly dedicated to their accomplishments and contributions? After all, the movie The Jazz Singer did not invent Al Jolson’s blackface character; he had been performing it on stages across the country for many years and to great acclaim.

An exploration of the history of racism and sexism in Hollywood could be a perfectly valid topic for the museum to explore. Was it necessary to make it part of the exhibit on Jewish contributions?

The exhibit’s display includes a section describing the origins of United Artists, a studio formed in defiance of the Jewish-run studios. It mentions DW Griffith among its non-Jewish founders, but does not mention Griffith’s film Birth of A Nation (originally titled “The Clansman”), arguably the most racist film in the history of American cinema.

Why does Warner’s The Jazz Singer receive an entire paragraph but not Griffith’s Birth of A Nation? Because The Jazz Singer was produced by Jews?

The Museum’s mission statement, published on its website, includes the following goal: “The Academy Museum tells complete stories of moviemaking — celebratory, educational, and sometimes critical or uncomfortable.”

The “Jewish Founders” exhibit definitely falls under the heading of “sometimes critical or uncomfortable.” I was curious to find what other displays or exhibits could similarly be described. It was very difficult to find any. There are numerous exhibits that celebrate the work of Hollywood actors, writers, directors, and producers. All of the subjects of these exhibits are praised in glowing terms and hailed for their artistry and accomplishments.

I found a picture celebrating an actor which did not include the fact that the actor had pled guilty to sexual assault. I found a panel praising a director that said nothing about the sexual harassment allegations that the director has faced. The museum has decided not to mention these facts, while calling Jack Warner a “womanizer” and Harry Cohn a “predator.”

Maybe I just missed it, but I found no place in the museum, other than the “Jewish Founders” exhibit, in which the biographies of those honored included personal details about their lives or characters that were negative or defamatory.

Where there were details in an exhibit that could be considered “critical or uncomfortable,” outside of the “Jewish Founders” exhibit, the person being celebrated by the museum was the victim, not the perpetrator.

There is, for example, an empty display case paying tribute to Hattie McDaniel, the first Black person to win an Academy Award.  The plaque discusses the racism she faced and the fact that she did not receive a statuette. Hence the empty display case.

There was a panel celebrating Black Lives Matter and The Black Panther Party, praising documentary films that “capture the determination of activists and their pursuit of universal human rights.”

A similar panel celebrates “the global #MeToo movement” and its exposing the “conditions that enable sexual exploitation in the workplace.”

So there are a few mentions, throughout the museum, of racism and sexism in the context of acknowledging those who have suffered from it and praising those who have combated it. But the only people the museum specifically charges with perpetrating racism and sexism are the Jews of the “Jewish Founders” exhibit.

To be clear, I do not claim that the Jewish moguls were without sin or above reproach. What I object to is the double standard that the museum employs in singling out Jews as the only ones called out for their sins.

Sadly, a common feature of modern antisemitism is the application of a different set of rules and standards to Jews from that which applies to everyone else.

We see this double standard in college hate-speech codes that don’t apply when Jews are harassed and threatened. We see it in criticism of Israel, the only nation accused of war crimes for unintended civilian deaths in a war it did not start. And now we can see it every day but Tuesday from 10am-6pm at the Academy Museum.

Michael Kaplan is a TV writer-producer, playwright, and children’s book author. For his TV work, he has been nominated for four Emmy Awards, winning one.

The post Motion Picture Academy Museum Fixes Its Problem of Excluding Jews By Demonizing Them first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War

Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa

Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.

Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.

“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”

GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’

Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.

“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.

“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.

“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.

After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”

RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL

Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”

Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.

“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.

She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”

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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests

A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco

Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.

People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.

“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”

Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.

On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.

Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.

On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.

“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.

Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.

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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan

Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas

Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.

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