{"id":148045,"date":"2026-06-06T13:34:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T13:34:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/148045\/"},"modified":"2026-06-06T13:34:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T13:34:11","slug":"jerry-oconnell-talks-antisemitism-israel-and-a-childhood-promise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/148045\/","title":{"rendered":"Jerry O\u2019Connell talks antisemitism, Israel, and a childhood promise"},"content":{"rendered":"

I recently interviewed actor and talk show host Jerry O\u2019Connell via Zoom. He spoke to me from Mort\u2019s, a deli in the San Fernando Valley \u2013 the perfect setting for a conversation about the Jewish people.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Connell\u2019s career took off early, with his breakout role as Vern in the classic film Stand by Me. There\u2019s been a kind of elasticity to his career \u2013 an ability to adapt, to stay relevant, to keep showing up in new ways.<\/p>\n

Over the decades, he\u2019s moved easily between film and television, drama and comedy, with memorable roles in Jerry Maguire, Scream 2, and the family film Kangaroo Jack before reinventing himself as a television host and personality on The Talk for CBS.<\/p>\n

I knew Jerry had a reputation as a consummate professional and a great guy. My husband, Jeff Melman, directed him and his co-star, Jim Belushi, in an episode of The Defenders, a series about two attorneys in \u201canything goes\u201d Las Vegas. It was a terrific concept for two comedic talents that never made it to a second season, but that\u2019s show business.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t know that he was willing to be a vocal ally for Israel and the worldwide Jewish community at a time when so many have fallen silent. A video clip from a recent Anti-Defamation League (ADL) event, where he said \u201cJewish people have been showing up for me and my family for my entire life, and [it\u2019s] time for me to show up for my Jewish friends,\u201d taught me otherwise.<\/p>\n

\"Bridge\"Bridge (credit: Wikimedia Commons)<\/p>\n

His connection to Israel<\/a> comes from his very good high school friend, Tommy Gutman, and his Israeli mother.<\/p>\n

She was so kind to us and just so funny. I loved her’<\/p>\n

Apparently, Tommy\u2019s mom had a full refrigerator and an easy nature. She would combine English words with Hebrew syntax, like \u201cclose the light\u201d instead of \u201cturn off the light,\u201d which the teenagers found hysterical. \u201cMy God, she was so kind to us and just so funny. I loved her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mostly, however, it is three wise men who are the key Jewish influences in his life. There is the late director Rob Reiner, who gave him his big break by casting him in Stand by Me and encouraging him to be himself; his longtime manager, Michael Rotenberg, who has guided his career; and his godfather, \u201cUncle Bill\u201d Silverstein, a World War II veteran.<\/p>\n

Uncle Bill\u2019s stories about being a former POW made a huge impact on him, Jerry explains.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Bill] served in the [US] Air Force<\/a> and got shot down. He would tell my younger brother and me stories about being a prisoner of war in Germany. The most frightening part for him was being discovered as a Jew.<\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t believe he had to live with that kind of terror. As a child, I promised myself, \u2018if I ever see antisemitism like that again, I\u2019m gonna do something about it. I\u2019m gonna enlist; I\u2019m gonna fight.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

I was nine years old when I learned about the Holocaust, and it was as if my DNA changed. For years, like Jerry, I would have fantasies about how I would have rescued others had I been alive at that time.<\/p>\n

\"SpeakingSpeaking out at the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) Never is NOW Summit, New York City, March 2025. (credit: SHUTTERSTOCK)<\/p>\n

A screening at the Simon Wiesenthal Center of the Israeli documentary October 7: Bearing Witness to the Massacre, an IDF compilation of raw footage from the attack, reminded him of his childhood promise.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mentor in Hollywood<\/a> [manager] Michael Rotenberg, whose parents are Holocaust survivors, asked me to go with him. I said no; I didn\u2019t want to see it. I couldn\u2019t handle it. But he didn\u2019t want to go alone, so I went [with] him.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd after seeing that film, I thought I am witnessing a Holocaust; antisemitism on a global level again.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I have to tell you… It brought everything back. That childhood feeling. That anger. That promise: if something like this ever happens again, I\u2019m going to do something.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AtAt the 2003 premiere of \u2018Kangaroo Jack\u2019 in Hollywood, with co-star Estella Warren. (credit: REUTERS)<\/p>\n

For O’Connell, doing something means showing up however he can. \u201cDoing interviews, speaking, and signing letters. I know people in Hollywood have different opinions, but I don\u2019t want to be combative. I just show up for my Jewish friends. If I didn\u2019t, I\u2019d feel ashamed when I saw them.\u201d<\/p>\n

He gets hundreds of messages of gratitude on social media<\/a>, but also biting personal attacks, which he ignores. \u201cNo one says it to my face. I ignore it. I don\u2019t think being combative helps. I focus on what I can control: my actions.\u201d<\/p>\n

I support his decision not to engage with the vitriol. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s reasonable to expect members of the entertainment industry to be experts on all things Israel and do battle.<\/p>\n

\"Appealingly,Appealingly, O\u2019Connell doesn\u2019t take himself too seriously. Here, at the 2019 American Rescue Dog Show in Pomona, California. (credit: SHUTTERSTOCK)<\/p>\n

Social media is a cesspool of slander against the Jewish homeland. Like the Whack-a-Mole game at an arcade, when you bat down one lie, another one pops up. The mitzvah, especially for people whose jobs depend on being liked, is standing strong in your convictions.<\/p>\n

I ask what drew him to acting in the first place.<\/p>\n

He describes himself as the kind of child who was always in trouble for speaking out of turn, blurting things out, and playing the class clown.<\/p>\n

\"LateLate Director Rob Reiner was a key Jewish influence. Pictured: O\u2019Connell on stage with fellow actors at the 98th Academy Awards during the In Memorium segment, which paid tribute to Reiner and wife Michele Singer Reiner, March 15. (credit: MIKE BLAKE\/REUTERS)<\/p>\n

\u201cI got on a movie set, Stand by Me, when I was 11,\u201d he says, \u201cand I came to quickly realize that that behavior was not only allowed, it was encouraged.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, an acting career wasn\u2019t a grand plan or a carefully nurtured path by a stage mother. It was a light-bulb moment when who he already was suddenly made sense in a new environment. \u201cI was just good at it. I wasn\u2019t really good at anything up until that point in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is actually a message to all parents,\u201d he tells me. \u201cIf you have a child who is \u2013 well, in my day they called it hyperactive \u2013 I hope that\u2019s not offensive \u2013 but a kid with a lot of extra energy… consider putting them in the entertainment industry.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jerry has an appealing, self-deprecating sense of humor and the ability to wink at the audience and include them in his mischief. Hollywood is always looking for pretty people. Pretty people who can really act are gold. Pretty, funny people who can act are platinum.<\/p>\n

Comedy is a lot harder to play than drama. It requires timing, a sense of rhythm, and an understanding of misdirection that most people don\u2019t have. How does he come by these traits?<\/p>\n

\u201cHanging out with funny people makes you funnier,\u201d he tells me. \u201cI surround myself with people who make me laugh. I get coffee every morning with Howie Mandel (actor and TV host, St. Elsewhere, America\u2019s Got Talent) and comedy writer Mark Blutman (Boy Meets World). We don\u2019t sit there and talk about current events; we sit around and continually joke about them. The goal is not to see who can make the best point or win a debate. The goal is to make the table laugh.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Connell went from the butt of the joke in Stand by Me to a hunky teen at 15 in the comedy series My Secret Identity. It\u2019s about a teenager who gets malfunctioning superpowers. For example, he can float like a balloon but not fly, so he propels himself forward with aerosol cans.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a very small, sort of lower-budget television show here in the United States,\u201d he explains. \u201cIt was syndicated, so it was on individual stations around the country. It was not a network show. It was not a hit show.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve never been to Israel, okay? And that\u2019s going to change at some point, but it must have been a hit in Israel, because there was a couple of years there where I could not walk down the street without an Israeli tourist or an Israeli person stopping me and saying, \u201cYou were in My Secret Identity!\u201d<\/p>\n

A few years later, there was another series, Sliders, on Fox, where Jerry plays the leader of fellow travelers moving between parallel worlds.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m never recognized for it by anyone, unless you are Israeli. And then I get recognized for it all the time. It\u2019s the craziest thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a mystery, and he\u2019d love to have it solved. A bit abashed, he says he hopes to get comments on this interview from Israelis to know whether it was a hit there. \u201cI\u2019m dying to know this.\u201d So, if you\u2019re an Israeli fan of either show, this is your chance to let him know.<\/p>\n

For the last 18 years, Jerry has been married to actress and model Rebecca Romijn, who blasted into American consciousness with her Sports Illustrated \u201cSwimsuit Issue\u201d in 1999.<\/p>\n

As an actress, Rebecca is probably best known for her roles as Mystique, a powerful, blue-skinned, yellow-eyed, shapely, and shape-shifting mutant in the first three X-Men films, and Commander Una Chin-Riley, Captain Pike\u2019s Number One, in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.<\/p>\n

They live in Calabasas, a popular enclave for members of the entertainment industry.<\/p>\n

During our conversation, Jerry plugs his favorite valley hangouts. Mort\u2019s Deli in Tarzana \u201chas great food,\u201d he tells me, and \u201cthere\u2019s a coffee place called Calabasas Coffee House. On Fridays, they sell the best challah bread.\u201d<\/p>\n

What has it been like raising their beautiful twin daughters, Charlie and Dolly, in Hollywood?<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re good kids \u2013 I think I\u2019ll keep them.\u201d He confesses to being a very vocal parent on the sidelines of their high school volleyball games. \u201cI cheer them on. No negativity, just encouragement. But the challenge,\u201d he says, \u201cis raising kids with privilege. We want them to still have drive and appreciate humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n

They are allowed on social media, where so much of the Jew-hatred lives. \u201cYou can\u2019t shield them \u2013 they need to learn to navigate it and defend themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Rebecca and Jerry have made sure the girls have learned about the Holocaust. \u201cWe\u2019re fortunate to live in Los Angeles \u2013 we have the Wiesenthal Center. I took them there when they were very young. Their school has taken them there a couple of times.\u201d<\/p>\n

Living in Los Angeles, the family is surrounded by the Jewish community \u2013 friends, temples, Seders \u2013 so their children are aware of the history.<\/p>\n

Unsurprisingly, given all his Jewish friends, O\u2019Connell has experienced many Passovers, \u201ceven one with a mariachi band doing the Four Questions,\u201d and brings his whole family. Mariachis are a new one for me, but then again, this is Hollywood.<\/p>\n

The inclusivity warms his heart. \u201cMy family feels completely welcomed. Sometimes even more special because we\u2019re guests. And I love brisket. But I worry about people who aren\u2019t exposed like we are,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s where ignorance comes in.\u201d<\/p>\n

I ask whether he has adopted any Jewish traditions or values. Getting his teenage girls to sit down for dinner as a family is almost impossible, he tells me. \u201cI envy my Jewish friends who have everyone together every Friday night. I wish I had that structure. We don\u2019t celebrate Shabbat formally, but we do eat challah every weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n

HIS DAUGHTERS are applying to college now, and there are colleges he wouldn\u2019t feel comfortable sending them to, based on how the schools have responded since October 7. He is shocked at how some educational institutions have handled things.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not. The universities began purging Jews in Germany in the 1930s, about a decade before the Nazis documented the state-sponsored genocide of the Jewish people in \u201cThe Final Solution.\u201d Beginning in 1933, legislation mandated the dismissal of Jewish faculty and choked student enrollment, culminating in their complete exclusion from higher education by 1938.<\/p>\n

Not many people \u2013 Jews included \u2013 outside of Israel are aware of how complicit German universities were in the Holocaust.<\/p>\n

Holocaust education often centers on the atrocities committed within the concentration camps, but I think it should place equal emphasis on the broader conditions within German society that made those crimes possible. Examining how institutions demonized Jews and normalized exclusion and discrimination before the camps were established shines a light on the troubling parallels today.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Connell is understandably proud of New York University, where he majored in film and studied screenwriting from 1991 to 1994, because of the changes it made in the way it handles antisemitism on campus.<\/p>\n

Settling a federal lawsuit, NYU updated its nondiscrimination policies to explicitly identify anti-Zionism as a form of harassment and established the Center for the Study of Antisemitism. In addition, the university implemented mandatory training for students, appointed a Title VI coordinator, and made it clear that using \u201cZionist\u201d as a slur is a violation of its harassment policies.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s surprised at how much his outspokenness has meant to the Jewish community.<\/p>\n

The accelerating Jew-hatred is affecting Israeli Jews the most. They have been verbally abused and literally hunted when traveling abroad, but Jews everywhere have lost their sense of safety and often feel abandoned.<\/p>\n

Several Jewish members of the entertainment industry called for support in the weeks following October 7, 2023.<\/p>\n

Actress and comedian Amy Schumer posted the following message on her Facebook page: \u201cTo my non-Jewish friends, call your Jewish friends. They are scared, they\u2019re hurting, and they are terrified by your silence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Actress Julianna Margulies expressed all our pain when she wrote in a USA Today opinion piece, \u201cMy non-Jewish friends, your silence on antisemitism is loud. We are hurting, and we are terrified because history has shown us that this won\u2019t end well for the Jewish people if you don\u2019t hear our cries for help.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI really want to thank every person who has come up to me and said, \u2018Thank you so much for that ADL speech,\u2019\u201d Jerry tells me. \u201cIt really means a lot to me because I didn\u2019t realize the importance of what I was doing at that moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a very emotional moment recently at LAX \u2013 that\u2019s our airport here in LA,\u201d he continues.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was sitting with my daughter. We were going to a volleyball tournament, and we were waiting to board our flight. A couple of teenagers, a girl and a guy, came up to me and asked to take a selfie. And listen, a lot of people recognize me. Sometimes, younger people know me from a kid\u2019s movie I did called Kangaroo Jack. So I said, \u2018Oh yeah, sure, I\u2019ll take a selfie.\u2019 If people ask for a photo, I take it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said, okay, thanks, and I was gonna sit down with my daughter when the girl said to me, \u2018Thank you for your ADL speech. It really meant a lot.\u2019 And I found it to be very, very emotional. I can\u2019t even tell you why.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before we wrap up the interview, he adds, \u201cBy the way, I have got to go to Israel. It\u2019s crazy [that I haven\u2019t been there].\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ll welcome you like a son,\u201d I tell him.\u25a0<\/p>\n

The writer is an attorney and 20-year entertainment veteran, the CEO of Liberate Art, and the author of the award-winning book Artists Under Fire: The BDS War Against Celebrities, Jews, and Israel. Her column, \u201cHollywood Stories,\u201d spotlights Jewish and non-Jewish entertainers who voice support for Israel and the Jewish community.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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