Over 180 Jewish Figures Sign Open Letter Defending Mark Ruffalo Against Paramount Allegations

According to CinemaDrame News Agency, over 180 Jewish figures from the entertainment industry and other sectors have signed an open letter in support of Mark Ruffalo, describing the allegations raised against the actor as a “smear campaign.”

Among those who supported the letter—which claims Ruffalo has been targeted by “baseless and spurious allegations of antisemitism”—are Joaquin Phoenix, Jonathan Glazer, Joel Coen, Todd Haynes, Ilana Glazer, Hannah Einbinder, James Schamus, Emma Seligman, Tony Kushner, Jane Schoenbrun, and Wallace Shawn.

The letter comes after a tense week during which Ruffalo found himself at the center of a growing confrontation regarding the merger between Paramount and Warner Bros. In a social media post on August 21, the Marvel star attacked the deal and its potential consequences for Hollywood, while also accusing the Ellison family of complicity in “genocide” against Palestinians—a generation that, according to him, has been shaped “on top of an apartheid system of oppression backed by Oracle.” In his post, he shared a video of Safra Catz, Oracle’s Executive Vice President and Paramount board member, highlighting Oracle’s connections with the Israeli military, where the video referenced “really deeply terrifying technologies” used by the company to assist following the October 7 terrorist attack.

In response, a Paramount spokesperson accused Ruffalo of using “antisemitic tropes” under “the thin veneer of a business dispute.” Other individuals and entities joined the debate; among them, the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the Creative Community for Peace condemned Ruffalo’s statements. Furthermore, an industry activist group including Haim Saban, Teddy Schwarzman, and Lawrence Bender wrote in a letter: “Injecting Jews, anti-Zionism, or antisemitism into discussions about business deals, simply because the individuals involved are Jewish, is unacceptable.” A spokesperson for Catz also issued a statement in response, saying the technology she referenced “was actually intended for use in rescue operations for hostages abducted during the October 7, 2023 Hamas terrorist attack.”

Ruffalo reacted in response, calling Paramount’s claim of him being antisemitic “shocking and fundamentally disingenuous,” adding: “Criticizing the actions of the Prime Minister of Israel, a military tech contract, or the executives funding it is not criticism of the Jewish people.” Others also came to his defense; including Einbinder—who is Jewish herself and a staunch advocate for Palestinian rights—who thanked Ruffalo for making “the connection between the Ellison family supplying military technology to Israel during a genocide and their unprecedented media takeover.” On Tuesday, Oscar-winning screenwriter and playwright Kenneth Lonergan shared a letter in support of Ruffalo, stating: “The notion that he is antisemitic is criminal and utterly absurd, and the charge itself is a cynical and disgusting lie.”

The new letter signed by Jewish figures and released on Tuesday echoes the defense of Ruffalo, arguing against what it calls the “cynical and dangerous weaponization of charges of antisemitism.” However, the letter also touches upon the exact connections Ruffalo drew between the Paramount/Warner Bros. merger and the Ellison family’s ties to Israel.

The letter states: “Pointing out the vital connections between what is happening in Gaza and what is happening in Hollywood is the exact opposite of antisemitism. To us, it is the essence of Jewish moral duty.”

Along with signing the letter, Glazer provided an additional statement.

He said: “To call Mark Ruffalo antisemitic because he questions a major corporate merger is not only ridiculous—it is a dangerous tactic to silence legitimate criticism. Mark has consistently spoken out against antisemitism while advocating for Palestinian rights and human dignity for all people. It is the right of an American to debate corporate consolidation and the dangers of monopoly power without antisemitism being weaponized to bully and silence people.”

The full text of the letter and the list of signatories follow:

We are Jewish artists, writers, creative professionals, faith leaders, and thinkers who have a simple message to share with the world in response to the smear and defamatory campaign against our esteemed colleague Mark Ruffalo: Enough is enough! Enough of the cynical and dangerous weaponization of allegations of antisemitism against those brave enough to state the obvious: that the attack on the Palestinian people and the attack on our domestic freedoms are deeply interconnected, and there is nothing antisemitic about recognizing this truth.

The proposed merger of Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery is not merely the combination of two massive multinational corporations. Yes, it will destroy the livelihoods of thousands upon thousands of people. Yes, it will further entrench oligarchic control over our media (witness the gutting of the CBS News division). Yes, it will stifle competition and creativity in film and television production and distribution.

However, the deal does all this and more as part of a larger project of tech-driven dominance—a project that Larry Ellison and his partners have never hesitated to trumpet—and a project they themselves have explicitly linked to their support for the ongoing destruction inflicted upon the Palestinian people and the silencing of critics of these atrocities. We all saw this after the Trump-brokered TikTok takeover—a takeover they publicly acknowledged was largely motivated by a desire to boost pro-Israel propaganda. Larry Ellison personally, with a staggering $350 million in claimed donations and commitments to the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, has been Blair’s primary backer as Blair assumes an influential role in the “Peace Council” outlined in Trump’s plan for Gaza—a territory transformed into an open-air laboratory for AI-driven technologies of killing and control, much like those praised by former Oracle CEO (and current Oracle and Paramount board member) Safra Catz.

The path of AI toward “Warner-Mount” runs through Gaza, and Ellison has often shown us the Orwellian world he envisions by consolidating control over what we see and how we see it—knowing that as we watch, he and his corrupt syndicate will always be watching us: “Citizens will be on their best behavior because we will be constantly recording and reporting.”

Pointing out the vital connections between what is happening in Gaza and what is happening in Hollywood is the exact opposite of antisemitism. To us, it is the essence of Jewish moral duty. According to a recent Washington Post poll, 61% of American Jews now agree that Israel is committing war crimes in Gaza; and four out of ten even agree that these crimes amount to genocide. Do those attacking Mark Ruffalo as an antisemite seriously believe that all these American Jews are also antisemitic? Or is it that we fail to see the connection between the criminal impunity driving the U.S. and Israel toward endless catastrophe on one hand, and the oligarchic power plays of the likes of the Musks, Ellisons, Thiels, and others working to dismantle our democracy on the other?

Yet the severity and invalidity of the slanders directed at their critics are testament to the growing weakness of their position, which is built on defamation. Today, more people of conscience are joining together to proclaim loudly and with one voice: The time for leveling false allegations of antisemitism, this time in defense of war, oligarchy, and AI dominance, is over. That tired tactic no longer works.

We proudly stand with Mark Ruffalo and all honorable human beings who courageously stand up and speak truth to power.

Aaron Costa Ganis, Actor

Abbi Jacobson, Actor/Comedian

Alan Snitow, Documentary Filmmaker

Alex Winter, Actor/Filmmaker

Alison Klayman, Filmmaker

Alison Leiby, Writer/Comedian

Alyssa Weiss, Rabbi

Ally Gross, Writer

Amos Goldberg, Holocaust Historian, Hebrew University

Amy Ziering, Filmmaker

Anat Matar, Senior Lecturer (Ret.), Tel Aviv University

Andrea Weiss, Filmmaker

Andrew Kahn, Rabbi

Anjuli Kronheim Katz, Advocate

Anna Pollack, Director

Anthony Arnove, Author/Producer

Ariel Friedlander, Artist

Ariel Wengroff, Artist

Atalia Omer, Professor, University of Notre Dame

Avi Shlaim, Professor (Ret.), St Antony’s College

Ayelet Waldman, Author

Barry Trachtenberg, Professor, Wake Forest University

Bella Freud, Designer

Ben Korman, Producer

Ben Moser, Writer

Ben Nathan, Actor/Producer

Brian A. Kates, Editor

Bruce Cohen, Producer

Camille Levy Sarfati, Writer/Curator

Cat Davis, Rabbi

Chani Nicholas, Astrologer

Charlie Goldenson, Strategist/Analyst

Charlotte Sheedy, Literary Agent

Cindy Liu, Journalist

Cyler Meyerson, Writer

Craig Aaron, Journalist

Dana Kornberg, Associate Professor, UC Santa Barbara

Daniel Levy, Political Analyst

David Bornstein, Filmmaker

David Mivasair, Rabbi

David Fine, Writer

David Wilson, Filmmaker

Dave Zirin, Writer

Deborah Eisenberg, Writer

Deborah Kaufman, Filmmaker

Deborah Shaffer, Filmmaker

Debra Winger, Actor

Deirdre Fishel, Filmmaker

Dr. Mark Perlmutter, Physician

Einat Weizman, Filmmaker

Emily Kunstler, Filmmaker

Emma Seligman, Filmmaker

Erin Axelman, Filmmaker

Estie Chandler, Radio Host/Producer

Estelle Tarica, Professor, UC Berkeley

Ethan Sachs, Writer

Frances Fisher, Actor

Gabor Maté, Physician/Author

Gili Getz, Photographer

Gina Gershon, Actor

Gini Sikes, Producer

Hanna Morgenstern, Associate Professor, Newnham College

Hannah Einbinder, Actor

Henry Bean, Screenwriter

Howard Rodman, Screenwriter

Hunter Abrams, Photographer

Idit Korman, Musician/Composer

Ilana Glazer, Actor/Writer/Director

Ilyse Hogue, Researcher

Itamar Ziegler, Composer/Musician

James Renton, Professor, Edge Hill University

James Schamus, Filmmaker

James Wilson, Producer

Jamie Zellermayer, Producer

Jane Schoenbrun, Filmmaker

Jason Kliot, Filmmaker

Jason Rosenberg, Public Health Activist

Jeffrey Kusama-Hinte, Producer

Jenna Weiss-Berman, Producer

Jennifer L. Pozner, Writer

Jeremiah Zagar, Director

Jeremy Yaches, Producer

Jesse Mechanic, Writer

Jill Goldman, Artist

Jillian Neal, Program Director

Jo Firestone, Comedian/Actor

Joaquin Phoenix, Actor

Joel Beinin, Professor (Ret.), Stanford University

Joel Coen, Filmmaker

John Weiss, Filmmaker

Jonathan Feingold, Law Professor, Boston University

Jonathan Glazer, Filmmaker

Jonathan Lethem, Writer

Josette Maskin, Musician

Karin Loevy, Law Professor, NYU

Kate Berlant, Actor

Katy Vazana, Filmmaker

Katie Halper, Journalist

Lance Kramer, Producer

Larry Charles, Screenwriter/Director

Laura Kraftowitz, Writer

Liora Barish, Screenwriter

Lex Rofes, Rabbi

Libby Lenkinski, Producer

Linda Holtzman, Rabbi

Lindsay Beyerstein, Journalist

Lior Sternfeld, Associate Professor, Penn State University

Lisa Cholodenko, Filmmaker

Lonie Kleinman, Rabbi

Liz Flahive, Screenwriter

Mara Hoffman, Artist

Mark Weiss, Filmmaker

Marianne Hirsch, Professor, Columbia University

Maris Kreizman, Writer

Mark LeVine, Professor, UC Irvine

Mati Shemoelof, Writer/Poet

Matt Bernstein, Content Creator

Max Z. Reynolds, Rabbi

Meryl Crean, Rabbi

Michael Greif, Director

Michael J. Drexler, Associate Professor, Bucknell University

Michael Skolnik, Organizer

Michael Rothberg, Professor, UCLA

Miranda July, Filmmaker/Writer

Manisha Guelman, Professor, Emerson College

Molly Crabapple, Writer/Artist

Mordechai Liebling, Rabbi

Morgan Bassichis, Writer/Performer

Morgan Spector, Actor

Naomi Klein, Author/Professor

Nathan Thrall, Author

Nicole Morse, Educator

Nina Menkes, Filmmaker

Noa Avishag Schnall, Journalist

Orian Zakai, Associate Professor, George Washington University

Orli Matlow, Comedian

Peter Beinart, Journalist

Phyllis Bennis, Author

Rachel Leah Jones, Filmmaker

Rain Phoenix, Musician

Raphael Greenberg, Professor (Ret.), Tel Aviv University

Raz Segal, Associate Professor, Stockton University

Rebecca Vilkomerson, Writer/Analyst

Rick Perlstein, Author

Rinat Abastado, Rabbinical Student

Roee Rosen, Artist

Romy Soleimani, Makeup Artist

Rosanna Arquette, Actor/Director

Sai Kouros, Rabbinical Student

Sandi DuBowski, Filmmaker

Sarah Kunstler, Filmmaker

Sarah Schulman, Writer

Sarah Sherman, Comedian/Actor

Sarah Sophie Flicker, Artist

Shira Klein, Associate Professor, Chapman University

Sigal Primor, Artist

Simone Zimmerman, Podcast Host

Spencer Ackerman, Writer

Steve Quester, Anti-Racism Educator

Steven Katz, Screenwriter

Susan Margolin, Filmmaker

Susan S. Lanser, Professor (Ret.), Brandeis University

Tammy Gold, Filmmaker

Tamir Sorek, Professor, Penn State University

Tavi Gevinson, Actor/Writer

Ted Hope, Filmmaker

Terry Ginsburg, Assistant Professor of Education, Rutgers University

Tia Lessin, Filmmaker

Todd Haynes, Filmmaker

Tony Gerber, Filmmaker

Tony Kushner, Screenwriter/Playwright

Udi Aloni, Filmmaker

Udi Raz, Writer

V (formerly Eve Ensler), Playwright/Author

Vanessa Hope, Filmmaker

Vanessa Nunez, Physician

Wallace Shawn, Actor/Playwright

Wendy Ettinger, Filmmaker

Yael Bridge, Filmmaker

Yael Ronen, Director

Yoni Golijov, Filmmaker

Zach Woods, Filmmaker

Zachary Foster, Historian

Zachary Lockman, Professor, NYU