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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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Bryan Singer Secretly Filmed Period Drama With Jon Voight Critical of Israel for Lebanon War: Report
Jon Voight at the opening night of the 2023 Beverly Hills Film Festival held at TCL Chinese 6 Theatres in Hollywood, California, on April 19, 2023. Photo: FS//AdMedia/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect
Jewish-American filmmaker Bryan Singer has returned to the director’s chair after a long hiatus with a film starring Oscar winner Jon Voight that is set in the Middle East and critical of Israel, Variety revealed on Wednesday.
Singer secretly filmed the period drama and one source who saw the final cut, but is not involved with the production, thinks the feature is “going to be a huge hotbed of controversy” because of its attention on the Middle East. “It makes Israel look really bad and could be polarizing,” the insider told Variety.
The source said the film is set in late 1970s or early 1980s. On June 6, 1982, Israel launched the First Lebanon War against Palestinian terrorists based in southern Lebanon following the attempted assassination of Israeli Ambassador to the United Kingdom Shlomo Argov by a terrorist cell.
The “Superman Returns” director shot the new film in Greece in 2023, and it focuses on the relationship between a father and son, Variety added. Israeli filmmaker Yariv Horovoitz is also reportedly collaborating on the project. There are no details about a release date.
Voight is a longtime supporter of Israel and said in 2018 that he feels an obligation to combat antisemitism. Last year, he was critical of his daughter, actress and filmmaker Angelina Jolie, when she slammed Israel’s defensive military campaign against Hamas in Gaza following the Palestinian terrorist group’s Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of and massacre across southern Israel.
Singer – who was raised Jewish in suburban New Jersey – has not directed in mainstream Hollywood since he was infamously fired by 20th Century Fox from “Bohemian Rhapsody” in 2017 and replaced during shooting, after several absences during the film’s production. He was signed on to direct a remake of the action film “Red Sonja,” but was reportedly fired from the project amid allegations in 2019 of sexual misconduct involving minors, which he denied.
The director’s past credits include four films in the “X-Men” franchise, “Valkyrie,” and the Oscar-winning film “The Usual Suspects.”
Singer faced sexual misconduct allegations starting in 1997, when two teenage boys claimed the director ordered them to strip naked for a scene in his film “Apt Pupil.” The filmmaker has never faced criminal charges for the sexual misconduct allegations made against him in 1997 or in later years.
Singer has been living in Israel for several years and Variety reported in 2023 that he was looking to make a comeback into the mainstream Hollywood film industry with features set in and around Israel.
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Italian Law Professor Faces Backlash Over Viral Antisemitic Social Media Posts
An Italian law professor is facing mounting backlash after past antisemitic social media posts went viral, sparking outrage among the local Jewish community and public officials.
Professor Luca Nivarra, who teaches in the Faculty of Law at the University of Palermo in Sicily, has come under scrutiny after several of his social media posts went viral, spreading antisemitic and hateful content.
“I don’t want to meddle in matters that don’t concern me directly, but, having very few tools at our disposal to oppose the Palestinian Holocaust, a signal, however modest, could be to unfriend your Jewish ‘friends’ on Facebook, even the ‘good’ ones, who declare themselves disgusted by what the Israeli government and the IDF are doing,” Nivarra wrote in one of his posts.
“They lie, and with their lies, they help cover up the horror: it’s a small, tiny thing, but let’s start making them feel alone, face to face with the monstrosity to which they are complicit,” he continued.
On Tuesday, the university issued a public statement distancing itself from Nivarra’s antisemitic remarks. Despite mounting public outrage, Nivarra has not faced any disciplinary action yet.
Massimo Midiri, Dean of the University of Palermo, condemned such hateful rhetoric, calling it “a personal and culturally dangerous initiative, far removed from our academic principles.”
“Nivarra’s statements risk fueling the very dynamics he claims to oppose. Complex issues like the Middle East conflict require dialogue and critical engagement, not exclusion or ideological censorship,” Midiri said in a statement.
Italy’s Minister of University and Research, Anna Maria Bernini, also denounced Nivarra’s remarks, saying they “not only offend the Jewish people but also all who uphold the values of respect and civil coexistence.”
“Conflicts are overcome through dialogue, not isolation and it is only through this path that an authentic journey toward peace can be built, an objective to which Italy and the international community continue to dedicate their efforts,” the Italian diplomat wrote in a post on X.
This is not the first time Nivarra has made public antisemitic statements and spread anti-Jewish hateful rhetoric. In his previous Facebook posts, he also wrote that “there are no good Israelis” and that “Israeli society is morally rotten.”
Nivarra also compared the Israeli Defense Forces’ defensive campaign against the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas to the actions of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann during the Holocaust.
“The only difference between Adolf Eichmann and the IDF is that Eichmann defended himself by saying he was following orders, while Israeli soldiers happily do what they do,” he wrote in another social media post.
Since his posts went viral, Nivarra has faced mounting criticism on social media, but he has denied any accusations of antisemitism.
“You can call me an anti-Semite when I am not one at all. There is an insurmountable distance between me and the perpetrators of these horrors,” he wrote on his Facebook page.
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‘Six Million Not Enough’: Minneapolis School Shooter Scrawled Antisemitic, Anti-Israel Messages on Guns
Law enforcement officers set up barriers after a shooting at Annunciation Church, which is also home to an elementary school, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, US, Aug. 27, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ben Brewer
The lone suspect in Wednesday’s mass shooting at a Catholic school in Minneapolis, Minnesota, scrawled antisemitic and anti-Israel messages across his weapons and allegedly shared his desire to kill “filthy Zionist Jews” in a notebook before unleashing a barrage of gunfire on students and parishioners.
Law enforcement officials identified the shooter as Robin Westman, 23, who died by suicide at the scene. According to police, Westman opened fire during morning Mass in the school’s adjoining church, killing two children (aged 8 and 10) and injuring 17 others.
Witnesses said the church erupted in chaos as stained-glass windows shattered and gunfire ripped through pews filled with children. Teachers and staff rushed to shield students, with some ushering them outside the building.
The shooting is being investigated as both a domestic terrorism case and a hate crime against Catholics, according to FBI Director Kash Patel.
However, the assailant also appeared to endorse antisemitic conspiracies and express a desire to kill Jews and Israelis.
Researchers at the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) reported they found videos believed to be from Westman showing firearms and ammunition magazines marked with the antisemitic messages. Investigators are also reviewing the now-deleted YouTube channel allegedly linked to Westman that featured disturbing videos uploaded before the attack.
“Israel must fall and “Burn Israel” were among the writings on the weapons, as seen in the video. In addition, the messages on the guns included “6 million wasn’t enough” — an apparent reference to the 6 million Jews killed during the Holocaust, and “Burn HIAS” — an apparent reference to a Jewish organization which helps settle refugees.
Westman also allegedly wrote “kill Donald Trump” on a gun magazine as well as anti-black and anti-Latino racist messaging.
The videos also included images of a notebook with writing in the Cyrillic alphabet.
“If I will carry out a racially motivated attack, it would be most likely against filthy Zionist jews,” the notebook said, according to a translation by the New York Post. Westman also allegedly wrote slogans such as “Free Palestine.”
Images of the content has been widely circulated on social media.
Robin Westman, the suspected shooter in today’s mass shooting at the Annunciation Catholic Church and School in Minneapolis, Minnesota, appears to have had a YouTube Channel named “Robin W” which has since been deleted, that contained several video consisting of guns, a manifesto… pic.twitter.com/B3JJUOIGJp
— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) August 27, 2025
Shocking antisemitic messages spotted on the Minneapolis shooter’s gun including:
– “Israel must fall,”
– “Burn Israel”
– “6 million wasn’t enough.”
– “ Burn HIAS (originally a Jewish resettlement org for refugees)Via our colleague @RealSaavedra pic.twitter.com/NFUnkRNlDs
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) August 27, 2025
An analysis of the shooter’s apparent manifesto by the ADL found no singular political motive. The assailant “scrawled numerous references and symbols on their weapons linked to a broad range of mass attackers, mimicking the 2019 Christchurch, 2022 Buffalo, and 2025 Antioch shooters, among others, who marked their weapons before launching their attacks,” the ADL wrote.
“The references found on the attacker’s weapons do not suggest a deep knowledge of white supremacy. Instead, the references point to a broader fixation on mass violence,” the group concluded.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, who is Jewish, spoke with raw emotion after visiting the scene. “There are no words that can capture the horror and the evil of this unspeakable act,” he said.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said the students “were met with evil and horror and death.”
“We often come to these and say these unspeakable tragedies or there’s no words for this. There shouldn’t be words for these types of incidents because they should not happen and there’s no words that are going to ease the pain of the families today,” Walz added.
The suspect was reportedly a transgender woman who changed her name from Robert to Robin in 2020. Westman’s mother worked as a secretary at Annunciation until 2021, according to news reports, and authorities are still examining whether that connection influenced the target.
The tragedy adds to a growing list of school and faith-based shootings in the United States this year. Experts warn that antisemitic conspiracy theories, spread widely online, can inspire such violent attacks.
The tragedy came a week after the ADL released a new report highlighting how extremist online spaces are fueling not only school shootings but also a broader rise in antisemitism across the US. According to the report, many websites containing violent and gruesome material have pulled young people into white supremacist propaganda and conspiracy theories, inspiring them to commit deadly attacks.