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The best villains played by Jewish actors

(JTA) — The film and TV world recently lost two Jewish actors who were not household names but were acclaimed for a pair of signature villainous roles.

Last month, Mark Margolis passed away following a career on stage and screen that spanned over 60 years. He studied with and was later the personal assistant of renowned acting teacher Stella Adler before appearing in “Scarface,” HBO’s “Oz” and multiple films by the acclaimed Jewish director Darren Aronofsky.

But he was most remembered for his Emmy-nominated performance as Hector Salamanca, the wheelchair-bound, largely non-verbal patriarch of a Mexican crime family in “Breaking Bad” and “Better Call Saul.” One could argue that Margolis, whose family “started a couple of Reform synagogues,” embodied one of the most well-known villains ever portrayed by a Jewish actor.

Later in the month, Arleen Sorkin died of pneumonia after a years-long struggle with multiple sclerosis. Possessing a unique comic sensibility, she was in the mid-80’s cast on “Days of Our Lives” as Calliope Jones — a quirky fashion designer based loosely on Cyndi Lauper. That character inspired Paul Dini, a writer on “Batman: The Animated Series,” to create the character of Harley Quinn — a jester-like henchwoman for The Joker, who would be voiced by Sorkin for nearly 20 years. Since Sorkin played Harley Quinn with an exaggerated version of her Brooklyn Jewish accent, the character became canonically Jewish as well.

Thanks in large part to Sorkin’s larger-than-life personality, Harley Quinn became so popular that she made the rare jump from animated series to comic books to live action films and has remained a uniquely endearing super-villain.

In memory of Margolis and Sorkin, and in tribute to the fantastically sinister characters they embodied, here’s a quick survey of some of the other noteworthy villains played by Jewish actors on screen.

Daniel Day-Lewis — “There Will Be Blood” and “Gangs of New York”

Three-time Oscar-winner Daniel Day-Lewis learned at an early age that acting was an effective way to deal with schoolmates’ bullying that came from being an outsider on both sides of his family — Irish on his father’s, Jewish on his mother’s. On screen, Day-Lewis masterfully embodied two of cinema’s most deliciously villainous characters: Oil tycoon Daniel Plainview (for which he won the Oscar for best actor) in “There Will Be Blood” and nativist gang leader Bill “The Butcher” Cutting (for which he was nominated for best actor). Both characters embody the darkest sides of the American dream, and no one has ever made a milkshake sound more menacing.

David Proval — “The Sopranos” 

Before playing Toby Ziegler’s Rabbi on “The West Wing,” Jewish actor David Proval played many Italians on screen, from Tony in Martin Scorsese’s “Mean Streets” to Hunk Pepitone on “Fame” to perhaps his most memorable role: Richie Aprile, the ruthless, sadistic capo of the DiMeo crime family on “The Sopranos.”

Martin Kove — “The Karate Kid” 

John Kreese, the original Cobra Kai sensei played by the Jewish Brooklynite Kove, was one of the most well-known 1980s bad guys.

Michael Douglas — “Wall Street”

“Greed is good,” says Gordon Gekko in this classic indictment of 1980s Wall Street culture. So was Douglas’ performance, which earned him an Academy Award in 1988.

Kirk Douglas — “The Villain”

Michael’s father, the legendary actor and two-time bar mitzvah boy Kirk Douglas, was often the hero on screen. But he tried his hand at playing the bad guy in this ridiculous, forgettable Western comedy from 1979.

Joan Collins — “Dynasty” 

The acclaimed role of Alexis Carrington, the scheming ex-wife of the wealthy Denver oil magnate Blake Carrington, helped catapult the soap opera “Dynasty” to the top of the ratings. The Emmy-nominated Collins made Alexis a multi-dimensional character that frequently cracks the upper echelons of “greatest villains of all time” lists and inspired a bevy of prime-time imitators. Her father was Jewish and proudly identified as a member of the tribe.

Daniel Stern — “Home Alone” 

Who could forget Daniel Stern’s iconic shenanigans as Marv Murchins, one half of the inept duo that fails to take on the wily kid Kevin McCallister in the “Home Alone” series?

Mel Brooks and Rick Moranis — “Spaceballs” 

These two comedy legends put in hilarious performances as Dark Helmet and President Skroob — the bungling bad guys of Brooks’ 1987 “Star Wars” parody.

Wallace Shawn — “The Princess Bride”

The year 1987 also saw Wallace Shawn play the sinister Sicilian Vizzini to comic perfection in this silly classic.

Dustin Hoffman — “Hook”  

Hoffman played the infamous Captain Hook in the eponymous 1991 Spielberg film, which critics (and later Spielberg himself) wrote off as a failure.

Joseph Wiseman — “Dr. No” 

Plotting from his island lair, Joseph Wiseman’s Julius No was the first, and one of the best ever, to portray a James Bond villain on screen. The Canadian Encyclopedia notes: “Despite his on-screen performances as the ‘heavy,’ Joseph Wiseman was a Jewish scholar who travelled extensively, giving readings from Yiddish and Jewish literature.”

Yaphet Kotto — “Live and Let Die” 

Years later, the proud Jew Yaphet Kotto played another Bond villain heavily influenced (in a cringe-worthy way by modern standards) by the Blaxploitation era: Dr. Kananga/Mr. Big, a ruthless drug baron and Caribbean dictator. Kotto’s Cameroonian father was Jewish, and his mother converted to Judaism.

Jesse Eisenberg — “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice”

James Bond isn’t the only IP with memorable villains portrayed by Jewish actors — several villains in the Marvel and DC comic universes have been played by Jewish actors as well. The normally quiet-tempered Eisenberg played Superman’s archenemy Lex Luthor in a 2016 blockbuster (and Michael Rosenbaum portrayed the character on the TV show “Smallville”). Some fans might also call Eisenberg’s Mark Zuckerberg portrayal a villain in David Fincher’s hit “The Social Network.”

(Although no Jewish actors have ever played Magneto, Marvel’s most significant Jewish villain, a small handful of prominent Jewish actors have played other Marvel villains, from Jake Gyllenhaal’s Mysterio in “Spider-Man: Far From Home” to Corey Stoll’s humorous version of M.O.D.O.K. in “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.” Jeff Goldblum also gave a memorable turn as Grandmaster in “Thor: Ragnorok.”)

Steven Bauer — “Breaking Bad” and “Better Call Saul” 

We would be remiss not to mention another actor from the “Breaking Bad” franchise: Steven Bauer, whose Jewish maternal grandfather had fled Germany to escape Nazi persecution, settling in Havana. He plays the ruthless drug cartel leader Eladio Vuente.

Like Margolis, Bauer also appeared in “Scarface” (co-starring as Pacino’s best friend, drug-lord Manny Ribera). Unlike Margolis, Bauer is actually fluent in Spanish. He also learned Hebrew to play an ex-Mossad agent on Liev Schreiber’s “Ray Donovan,” as he had done decades earlier when he starred in “Sword of Gideon,” a Canadian film that was the template for Spielberg’s “Munich.”


The post The best villains played by Jewish actors appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

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One-Third of US Jewish College Students Feel Faculty Promote Antisemitism, Hostile Learning Environment: Survey

Pro-Hamas demonstrators at Columbia University in New York City, US, April 29, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Caitlin Ochs

College professors across the US are promoting antisemitism and fostering hostile learning environments, according to Jewish students who responded to a newly released survey.

Roughly one-third of students, 32 percent, hold such feelings, according to the American Jewish Committee’s “State of Antisemitism in America 2024 Report,” which contains copious data on the Jewish experience in the US.

As part of the report, the American Jewish Committee (AJC) partnered with Hillel International to document Jewish students’ experiences during their time on US college and university campuses.

Of those who responded, 35 percent said they had personal encounters with antisemitism, 20 percent of whom did so more than once. Meanwhile, 32 percent reported feeling uncomfortable on campus, and 34 percent found ways to conceal that they are Jewish. forty-three percent refuse to discuss Israel and the conflict with the Palestinians for fear of being identified as a Zionist.

Additionally, 22 percent of Jewish students reported feeling that groups and campus events have excluded them because of anti-Jewish animus.

“How are Jewish students supposed to show up and engage in class or have trust in their educators if they feel that their professors are creating a hostile environment for Jews on campus?” AJC chief executive officer Ted Deutch said in a statement. “If students feel that they need to just keep their head down and earn their grade, they are not fully participating in the educational experience that they have a right to and deserve.”

He continued, “Educators and administrators need to take action to ensure that their classrooms and campuses are places free from hate, bigotry, and harassment so that all students — including Jewish, Israeli, and Zionist students — have the opportunity to grow and thrive.”

Hillel International chief executive officer Adam Lehman added, “As Jewish teens and their families make decisions about where they will spend their college years, it is crucial that they know they will be safe and able to fully express their Jewish identities. Jewish students should feel safe to express their Jewish identities no matter where they are on campus — whether at Hillel or in the dorms, the library, or the classroom.”

AJC’s survey also explored student attitudes regarding the “Gaza Solidarity Encampments” which emerged on college campuses across the US during the 2023-2024 academic year and caused incidents of violence and even the cancellation of Columbia University’s main commencement ceremony. Fifty-one percent said the demonstrations “made them feel unsafe on campus.”

The connection between anti-Zionist professors, many of whom are members of Faculty for Justice in Palestine (FJP), has been explored before.

In a study published in Sept. 2024, antisemitism watchdog AMCHA Initiative was able to establish a correlation between a school’s hosting a Faculty for Justice in Palestine (FJP) chapter and anti-Zionist and antisemitic activity. For example, the researchers found that the presence of FJP on a college campus increased by seven times “the likelihood of physical assaults and Jewish students” and increased by three times the chance that a Jewish student would be subject to threats of violence and death.

FJP also “prolonged” the duration of encampment protests on college campuses, and such demonstrations lasted over four and a half times longer where FJP faculty were free to influence and provide logistic and material support to students. Professors at FJP schools also spent 9.5 more days protesting than those at non-FJP schools.

AMCHA added that FJP facilitated the proposal and success of student government resolutions demanding adoption of the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement — which aims to isolate Israel culturally, financially, and diplomatically as the first steps towards its destruction. Wherever FJP was, BDS was “4.9 times likely to pass” and “nearly 11 times more likely to be included in student demands,” showing, AMCHA concluded, that FJP plays a role in radicalizing university students at the 103 schools — including Harvard University, Brown University, Princeton University, the University of Michigan, and Yale University — where it is active.

Citing its own latest data, AJC Center for Education Advocacy director Dr. Laura Shaw called on colleges and universities to reconcile anti-discrimination policies with intellectual and academic freedom.

“Academic freedom is foundational to higher education,” Shaw said. “However, academic discourse and debate can and must take place in an environment that is free from bias and discrimination. Our data, and work with students across the country, unfortunately show that American Jewish college students are feeling a pervasive lack of trust in their institutions and professors to maintain an atmosphere that is not biased against them. And we know that students who feel threatened cannot learn.”

The administration of US President Donald Trump has made moves to combat campus antisemitism, fulfilling a campaign promise which helped to elect him to a rare, second non-consecutive term in office.

Last month, Trump issued a highly anticipated executive order aimed at combating campus antisemitism and holding pro-terror extremists accountable for the harassment of Jewish students. Continuing work started during his first administration — when Trump issued Executive Order 13899 to ensure that civil rights law apply equally Jews — the “Additional Measures to Combat Antisemitism” calls for “using all appropriate legal tools to prosecute, remove, or otherwise … hold to account perpetrators of unlawful antisemitic harassment and violence.”

“It shall be the policy of the United States to combat antisemitism vigorously, using all appropriate legal tools to prosecute, remove, or otherwise hold to account the perpetrators of unlawful antisemitic harassment and violence,” Trump said in the order, which denounced the previous administration’s handling of campus antisemitism as a “failure.”

No sooner had the executive order been issued than the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice (DOJ) moved to create a “multi-agency” Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, the aim of which is to “root out antisemitic harassment schools and on college campuses.”

“Antisemitism in any environment is repugnant to this nation’s ideals,” Leo Terrell, senior counsel to the assistant attorney general for civil rights who has been appointed to lead the initiative, said in a statement announcing the task force. “The department takes seriously our responsibility to eradicate this hatred wherever it is found. The Task Force to Combat Antisemitism is the first step in giving life to President Trump’s renewed commitment to ending antisemitism in our schools.”

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.

The post One-Third of US Jewish College Students Feel Faculty Promote Antisemitism, Hostile Learning Environment: Survey first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Israeli Defense Chief Vows to Act ‘At Full Strength’ Against Hezbollah Amid Lebanon Withdrawal

Israeli soldiers gesture from an Israeli military vehicle, after a ceasefire was agreed to by Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, near Israel’s border with Lebanon in northern Israel, Nov. 27, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz on Tuesday vowed that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) will continue to act against the Iran-backed Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah, as the Jewish state reportedly completed its military withdrawal from most of southern Lebanon.

“The IDF’s enforcement activity against Hezbollah will continue at full strength,” Katz said in a Hebrew-language post on X.

“We will not allow a return to the reality of Oct. 7,” he added, referring to the 2023 Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel. The Oct. 7 onslaught not only started the war in Gaza to Israel’s south but also prompted Hezbollah, which wields political and military influence across Lebanon, to begin firing barrages of missiles, rockets, and drones at northern Israel on a daily basis..

In his statement, Katz reiterated that the IDF “will remain in the buffer zone in Lebanon at five control posts along the border line, to ensure the protection of the northern communities.”

On Monday, Israel said it would keep troops in several posts in southern Lebanon past the Feb. 18 ceasefire deadline for their withdrawal, as Israeli leaders sought to reassure northern residents that they can return home safely.

“We need to remain at those points at the moment to defend Israeli citizens, to make sure this process is complete and eventually hand it over to the Lebanese armed forces,” military spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani told a briefing with reporters, adding that the move was in accordance with the mechanism of the ceasefire agreement.

According to the Israeli public broadcaster Kan News, Israel completed its withdrawal from southern Lebanon ahead of the midnight deadline. IDF officials told the outlet that “the challenge is to preserve the [military] achievements and prevent Hezbollah from returning.”

On Sunday, Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem threatened Israel with consequences if it failed to comply with the Tuesday deadline to withdraw its forces, saying, “We will know how to deal with it.”

“Israel must fully withdraw on Feb. 18, it has no excuse [not to do so],” the top terrorist leader said in a televised speech cited by the France 24 news outlet.

Shortly after Israel’s withdrawal, the Lebanese army announced that its forces were deployed to several areas throughout southern Lebanon, with engineering units surveying the areas, reopening roads, and removing unexploded ordnance left behind during the war.

In November, Lebanon and Israel reached a US-brokered ceasefire agreement that ended a year of fighting between the Jewish state and Hezbollah. Under the agreement, Israel was given 60 days to withdraw from southern Lebanon, allowing the Lebanese army and UN forces to take over security as Hezbollah disarms and moves away from Israel’s northern border.

In late January, Israel’s withdrawal, originally set for Jan. 26 under the ceasefire deal, was postponed and extended until Feb. 18.

Tens of thousands of residents in northern Israel were forced to evacuate their homes last year and in late 2023 amid the unrelenting attacks from Hezbollah, which expressed solidarity with Hamas amid the Gaza war.

Last fall, Israel decimated much of Hezbollah’s leadership and military capabilities with an air and ground offensive, which ended with the ceasefire.

The post Israeli Defense Chief Vows to Act ‘At Full Strength’ Against Hezbollah Amid Lebanon Withdrawal first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Tech Entrepreneur Palmer Luckey Calls Himself a ‘Radical Zionist’ While Defending Israel’s Right to Exist

Palmer Luckey on the Shawn Ryan Show (Source: Youtube/Shawn Ryan Show)

Palmer Luckey on the “Shawn Ryan Show.” Photo: Screenshot

Prominent tech entrepreneur Palmer Luckey referred to himself as a “radical Zionist” while vigorously defending Israel’s right to existence during a new interview on the podcast the “Shawn Ryan Show.”

During the sit-down, Luckey reminisced about his 2017 firing from Facebook, allegedly over his support for US President Donald Trump. Luckey, founder of the defense tech company Anduril Industries, rejected the “lockstep narrative” presented by the media that he is “racist” or “sexist,” pointing toward his strong support for Israel as an example of his support for minority groups. 

I’m actually a radical Zionist,” Luckey said. 

When asked by Ryan to elaborate on what he meant, Luckey explained that Jews have the right to maintain a state for their own self-defense. He argued that the Holocaust proved the need for a Jewish state, and without it Jews are at risk of facing violence. 

“I strongly believe in the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish state. People are like, That’s so problematic, though. It’s so ethnostate adjacent.’ I said, ‘I don’t care,’” Luckey said. “After what happened to them in World War II, they deserve a place where they can do their own thing and protect their own people without getting wrecked by everybody else who hates them.”

Luckey also dismissed the “slippery slope” argument that validating Israel’s existence could lead to a surge in the formation of ethno-states for other groups, calling such hypothetical scenarios “absurd” reasons to oppose the Jewish state. He argued that it is “very reasonable for the Jews to have their own state” and that the potential formation of a Palestinian state should be treated as “a separate political issue.”

All minority groups in Israel, including the Arabs who comprise about 20 percent of the Israeli population, enjoy the full and equal rights of the country’s democratic system, including the ability to serve in parliament and the judiciary. 

Meanwhile, Jews and other minority groups, including Christians among others, have faced intense discrimination in other parts of the Middle East. In the Palestinian-governed West Bank, for example, Palestinians are prohibited from selling land directly to Jewish Israelis.

Luckey has stated his support for Israel several times. Following the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, the tech entrepreneur lambasted prominent American individuals and institutions for not standing behind the Jewish state. 

“Israel has my [and our] unqualified support,” Luckey said at the Wall Street Journal‘s Tech Live Conference in October of 2023. 

“What’s happening in Israel is just another instance of the same type of evil that’s been going on for a very long time,” he added. “And I think it reflects very poorly on our billionaire class that you’re not seeing a whole-of-country effort to become involved and to speak up about these issues, hedging on condemnation of Hamas for fear of saying the wrong thing, either in the court of public opinion or because it hurts their business interests.”

The post Tech Entrepreneur Palmer Luckey Calls Himself a ‘Radical Zionist’ While Defending Israel’s Right to Exist first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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