April 16, 2024
As antisemitism seems to grows more acceptable in America, celebrities are using their star power to fight the scourge.
Meet a dozen entertainers, authors, and social media influencers who stepped up to join AJC's Voices Against Antisemitism and watch their videos below.
Modi Rosenfeld
Modi Rosenfeld, known on the comedy circuit as MODI, left Wall Street for MacDougal Street, the address of the infamous Comedy Cellar where he started performing stand-up 30 years ago.
ACT NOW: Urge Elected Leaders to Stand with Israel Against Iran and Hamas
Born in Tel Aviv and raised in Long Island, Rosenfeld was in a Tel Aviv hotel October 7, 2023 after wrapping up a series of shows when Hamas launched its deadly terror attack on Israel. A few hours later, he flew to Paris. There he closed his show by singing Hatikvah, Israel’s national anthem, and has done so at every show ever since.
“Jewish celebrities should be speaking about what antisemitism is and how crazy it is that the whole world has turned on us,” he explained on AJC’s People of the Pod. “It's more important that celebrities that aren't Jewish do it and I think it's great to keep that conversation going. But I will tell you, I believe the way to end it all is to laugh together … That unites us more than just being lectured.”
Listen now!
Moshe Reuven
Rapper and Rabbi Moshe Reuven turned heads at the 2024 Grammy Awards when he stood up against antisemitism on the iconic red carpet.
While other men donned smoking jackets, jumpsuits, and tuxedos by eponymous designers, Reuven paired a 'Never Again Means Now' shirt by Israeli designer Karin Margolis with a kapota, the long black coat occasionally worn by Chabad Hasidic men. He accessorized it with a beaded yellow flower styled by luxury fashion icon Kobi Halperin.
An entrepreneur who led multiple technology start-ups before signing with a record label, Reuven amassed more than a million social media followers after his 2020 hit “You Are Not Alone” rose on Billboard charts. He recorded his next hit “Say” with Julian Marley, the son of reggae star Bob Marley. His latest song “Red and Yellow” has reached No. 1 on Israel’s Spotify Charts.
Amid horrifying levels of denial about the Hamas massacre, Reuven joined a delegation of other influencers and content creators on an AJC Social Media Influencer Fact-Finding Mission to Israel in December.
“One good deed can win the war in the Middle East,” he posted on Instagram.
Lizzy Savetsky
An influencer and mother of three, Lizzy Savetsky has been called a modern-day Queen Esther for using her impeccable appearance and platform to advocate for the Jewish people. Hundreds of thousands of fans now follow her social media channels for thoughts on fashion, motherhood, and most recently, matchmaking.
Her pro-Israel advocacy started during the Jewish state’s conflict with Hamas in 2021, when she posted a photograph of herself wrapped in the Israeli flag. The online backlash and repercussions were swift; and motivated her to continue. She encountered antisemitism online again when she was cast on a reboot of the Bravo network’s The Real Housewives of New York and left before the season wrapped.
But she has gained a third of her social media following since the terror attacks on October 7, which she spent with her family inside a Jerusalem bomb shelter. In an AJC video about antisemitism, she urged vigilance and activism.
“We need to do everything that we possibly can for our people, for our future, for our children.”
Eitan Bernath
Whenever he’s in public or in front of a camera, celebrity chef Eitan Bernath has always tried to wear a Star of David to show his audience how proud he is to be Jewish. Those opportunities come often as Bernath, 21, films content, sits for interviews and shares a stage with actress and talk show host Drew Barrymore.
In his cookbook Eitan Eats the World, which covers a bevy of international flavors, Bernath highlights the displacement of Jewish communities from Europe and the Middle East and how that has shaped Jewish cuisine.
Meanwhile, Bernath uses his social media platform of seven million followers to fight anti-Israel bias and antisemitism and call attention to the hostages still in captivity.
“It's so important to be loud and proud as a Jew,” he said on AJC’s podcast People of the Pod in 2022. “I never hide that I’m Jewish.” But he admits that the attack on October 7 made him second guess that.
“Immediately after October 7, I felt fear,” he told AJC recently. “I’ve really felt that I need to hide my Jewish star. I don't think it's good to have to hide your Jewish identity. I'm a very loud and proud Jew, but I think every person has to make a decision for their own safety, their own personal security."
Jennifer Jason Leigh
While many celebrities involved in the AJC campaign have amassed huge social media platforms over the years, Hollywood and Broadway star and self-proclaimed introvert Jennifer Jason Leigh only joined Instagram in January with the sole purpose of fighting antisemitism.
Leigh has been starring on stage and screen since she played a leading role in the 1982 movie Fast Times at Ridgemont High. She earned her first Oscar nod in 2016 for her supporting role in The Hateful Eight.
After this year’s Oscars, she joined more than 1,000 Jewish creatives and Hollywood figures who signed a letter denouncing Jonathan Glazer’s widely panned Oscar acceptance speech.
Ginnifer Goodwin
Raised in both a Unitarian church and a Reform Jewish temple in Memphis, actress Ginnifer Goodwin had both a bat mitzvah and a baptism and attended summer camps for both religious traditions.
Though she didn’t practice Judaism for about a decade, she reconnected with it in recent years. "I was a Jew by birth, and now I'm a Jew by choice,” she told the congregation at the Memphis temple she attended in her youth.
Goodwin, the former star of Big Love, has condemned the atrocities committed against Israeli women and children by Hamas and the silence surrounding them.
Also known for her award-winning voiceover in Zootopia, Goodwin posted a video to Instagram in November in which she became the voice of Raz Asher, a then 4-year-old girl held captive in Gaza. Goodwin championed the case of Raz, her mother Doron and her 2-year-old sister Aviv all of whom were released on November 24.
Now a mother of two, Goodwin can’t imagine staying silent.
“I can't sleep at night if I'm not actively trying to do something for my people and myself and my kids,” she told AJC. “It's become something that's just as necessary for me as eating or sleeping. I don't know how to be a mother anymore unless it's in the framework of how to raise good Jews.”
Jonah Platt
Best known for his role as Fiyero in the Broadway show Wicked, Jonah Platt is the oldest of the Platt brother trio, which includes his brothers Ben and Henry. In addition to the stage, Jonah has appeared on screen in The Office, Uncoupled, Curb Your Enthusiasm and NBC’s Jesus Christ Superstar Live.
But behind the scenes, he’s a writer, director, and longtime Jewish advocate. He is currently penning the lyrics and co-writing the music for a stage adaptation of Lois Lowry’s The Giver. He is also producing his first feature, a contemporary Jewish story called The Mensch.
“One of the most frustrating things about anti-Jewish hate is that it’s so easy to do,” he posted on Instagram. “Lob a demonizing label or false/over simplified accusation – “occupier,” “Colonizer,” “white,” “genocide” and walk away. It requires no effort, understanding, or real engagement. Yet to rebuff these hateful, painful slurs during this moment of intense Jewish trauma and grief no less requires so many words, so much knowledge, and unbelievable calm in the face of both aggressive hatred and chilling apathy.”
“I know many of you feel this,” he added. “We’ll be alright.”
Ariel Martin
One night in 2015, Ariel Martin dubbed herself Baby Ariel and posted a 15-second video of herself making silly facial expressions to a Nicki Minaj tune. The teen’s social media following exploded. Within a year, she had gained 20 million followers across her social media accounts.
The overnight sensation parlayed that success into an acting career, starring in the Zombies Disney franchise. Now with a combined following of more than 50 million on Instagram, TikTok, X, and YouTube, she has used her tremendous reach to advocate against antisemitism, call for the release of hostages still held by Hamas, and display her Jewish pride.
On a recent trip to Israel, she told The Jerusalem Post that a picture of herself wearing a Star of David drew more vitriol than she’s ever seen before. Even though it never mentioned Israel or the war, people told her she deserved to die.
“My safta was the proudest Israeli woman, Zionist, and Jew and she always instilled in me that I have to continue my duties, I have to continue my faith,” Martin recently told AJC. “After October 7, that’s when I found that part of myself, that part of her in me – this feeling of being such a proud Zionist and proud descendant of Israelis. She was a fighter and a fighter for Israel and because of her, that’s why I fight for Israel.”
Brandon Farbstein
At the age of 2, Brandon Farbstein was diagnosed with an extremely rare form of dwarfism called metatropic dysplasia. When he joined Instagram as a teen in 2014 to explain his condition and inspire people, the hatred and harassment about his short stature reached such a degree that he finished high school online.
But the harassment wasn’t limited to this height. One cyberbully created a meme of Farbstein as Hitler. The experience propelled Farbstein, the 24-year-old motivational speaker and author, to become an advocate for disability rights and to fight cyberbullying. In his home state of Virginia, he successfully lobbied for anti-bullying legislation.
When white supremacists at the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville chanted “Jews will not replace us,” he turned his focus to antisemitism.
The terror attack on Israel in October touched him deeply. He had just visited Israel for the first time in July with Birthright. He also went to preschool with Hersh Goldberg-Polin, one of the American-Israeli hostages still held by Hamas.
Elon Gold
When an earthquake rocked the East Coast in early April, comedian Elon Gold saw a punchline. “Someone gave G-d the wrong intel that Hezbollah is operating out of THAT Lebanon,” he posted to Instagram.
Then he added a more thoughtful caption: “Evil has reared its ugly head and humanity has embraced it in the form of propping up Hamas and vilifying Israel,” he wrote. “Wake up to the truth folks before it’s too late and I have to start building an ark.”
For weeks after the terror attacks on October 7, Gold, 53, an American Jewish comedian and actor, couldn’t perform stand-up or post jokes on social media.
“I dropped everything on October 8,” he told a New Jersey Jewish newspaper. “It felt like nothing was important except defending Israel right now … How could I not use my platform for this?”
He canceled most of his scheduled gigs, but the organizers of a charity event insisted that he fulfill his commitment. He realized what they already knew: people needed to laugh. Now he uses his platform for defending Israel, providing comic relief, and combating antisemitism.
Sarah Idan
Born and raised in Baghdad, Sarah Idan was the first beauty queen in 45 years to represent Iraq at the Miss Universe pageant. But her nation’s support vanished when she took a selfie with Miss Israel, for which she received death threats. Idan and her family were forced to flee Iraq and immigrate to the U.S.
In 2018, Idan and Miss Israel, Adar Gandelsman, appeared together at the AJC Global Forum in Jerusalem.
In June 2019, Idan became an Ambassador for Peace for UN Watch, an NGO whose charge is to monitor the United Nations. In a speech to the UN Human Rights Council, she criticized the Iraqi government's failure to condemn death threats against her. She also seized the opportunity to call out Hamas terrorists for firing missiles at Israeli civilians and using Palestinian civilians as human shields.
Though not Jewish, she has since become an advocate for Jews who were forced out of Arab lands they once called home and for the hostages held by Hamas. At Elton John’s Oscar party this year, she designed and wore a dress featuring the names of the 19 Israeli women still held by Hamas and a yellow sash emblazoned with “Bring Them Home Now.”
Gabriel Boxer
Gabriel Boxer is one loud and proud Jew.
The social media personality aggressively condemns antisemitism, while flaunting the joys of being Jewish through exceptionally delicious kosher food. He makes it clear that he and the Jewish people are not going down without a fight.
Best known as @kosherguru, Boxer’s focus has been building a brand in the kosher food world. The 43-year-old husband and father has made several trips to Israel to show solidarity with the Israeli people and bring in supplies since the Hamas terrorist attacks.
