Michael Douglas came forward this week and personalized the impact of anti-Semitism as it was experienced by his son, while also calling on political and religious leaders to act, saying, “It is time for each of us to speak up against this hate.”
In an editorial published Sunday in the Los Angeles Times, the actor said a man once verbally attacked his son, who was wearing the Star of David, while the family was on holiday in Southern Europe. It was not unlike what happened to Douglas while he was young and a school friend told him that “all Jews cheat in business.”
Many have considered Douglas — whose father, Kirk Douglas, was Jewish — not to be of the Jewish faith because his mother was not, the actor wrote. But Douglas said that, as his son became drawn to his Jewish heritage, he too began to “reconnect with the religion of my father.”
Douglas pulled no punches in his editorial, saying that political and religious leaders need to speak out against anti-Semitism. He praised Pope Francis and French Prime Minister Manuel Valls for doing so.
The Independent Catholic News reported the Catholic Church of Scotland joined in calls to reject anti-Semitism in the light of recent attacks on Jewish people in Europe.
“We deplore such intolerance and hatred and commit ourselves to peaceful coexistence and respect,” Bishop John Keenan said in denouncing anti-Semitism.
The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg explored the growing hatred toward Jews, and he asked French philosopher Alain Finkielkraut, whose parents survived the Holocaust, a “very old Jewish question: Do you have a bag packed?”
“We should not leave, but maybe for our children or grandchildren there will be no choice,” Finkielkraut said of Jews living in Europe.
It is not just the world’s leaders who need to speak out, Douglas wrote in the Times.
“It's also the responsibility of regular citizens to take action. In Oslo, members of the Muslim community joined their fellow Norwegians to form a ring of peace at a local synagogue. Such actions give me hope — they send a message that together, we can stand up to hatred of the Jewish people.”
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