Steven Spielberg calls anti-Semitism 'straight and proud' again

Spielberg is sounding the alarm: according to him, anti-Semitism has never been so present and assumed in the media and on social networks

Steven Spielberg calls anti-Semitism 'straight and proud' again

Spielberg is sounding the alarm: according to him, anti-Semitism has never been so present and assumed in the media and on social networks. A situation he compares to what the world experienced in the 1930s, reports the site Deadline. "Not since Germany in the 1930s had I seen an anti-Semitism that no longer hides, and that stands tall and proud, one hand on hip, like Hitler and Mussolini, as if challenging us fight it," the director explained on CBS's The Late Show. I had never experienced it, and especially not in the United States. »

And to denounce the danger of "marginalizing people who do not belong to an ethnic majority". “Hate has become a club that has gathered more members than I could have imagined in America. And hatred and anti-Semitism go hand in hand, you can't separate them from each other,” explains the filmmaker.

"Not since Germany in the '30s have I witnessed antisemitism, no longer lurking but standing proud with hands on hips like Hitler and Mussolini — kind of daring us to defy it. I’ve never experienced this in my entire life. Especially in this country." — Steven Spielberg

According to the Jewish Agency and the World Zionist Organization, anti-Semitic acts have reached record highs in recent years, especially in 2021, with more than ten incidents per day recorded as vandalism, destruction and physical and verbal attacks: 50% of his acts occurred in Europe, 30% in the United States.

With, sometimes, an outrageous speech relayed by certain celebrities, like the American rapper Kanye West, whose Instagram account was suspended in December 2022 when he displayed his admiration for Hitler, whose extermination policy led to death 6 million Jews during World War II.

Steven Spielberg has always been very vigilant on the issue of intolerance, both in his interviews and through certain films. In his latest feature, Les Fabelman, the director returns to anti-Semitism by evoking the rejection or intimidation felt by his young hero Sammy in 1950s America.

He is also widely known for having produced, in 1993, Schindler's List, which tackles the Holocaust, rewarded, at the time, by seven Oscars. In the process, using proceeds from the film, the filmmaker created the Shoah Foundation and collected the dramatic stories of more than 50,000 survivors, in more than thirty languages. "One of the most important jobs I've ever done," he would say.

A humanist to the end, the director wants to believe that man is also capable of the best and makes a phrase from Anne Frank his own. "I think she was right when she said most people are good," he concluded on The Late Show. She said she saw good in most people. And I think that deep down inside of us, our hearts are capable of kindness and empathy…”