Having discovered the depth of his Jewish connection last week, Dustin Hoffman may want to reconsider the support he lent back in 2013 to a Palestinian-Arab film that viciously and unfairly attacked the Jewish State, using misleading cinematic means to paint Israelis as monsters.
There were few dry eyes in many Jewish homes last week, when Academy Award winner Dustin Hoffman discovered on the latest episode of the PBS series “Finding Your Roots” that both his Jewish grandfather and great-grandfather were killed by the Soviets. His great-grandmother spent five years in a Soviet concentration camp before arriving in America.
For some reason, Hoffman’s late father, Harry, hid this information from his wife and two boys, possibly because in 1940s and 50s America Jews avoided anything that connected them to their Russian roots. “My father … told me he was an atheist,” Hoffman said in a 2006 interview. “About the time I realized we were Jews, maybe when I was about ten, I went to the delicatessen and ordered bagels and draped them around the [Christmas] tree.”
It tuns out that Hoffman spent much of his adult life unaware of his Jewish heritage, despite the fact that he may be one of the most Jewish-identified Hollywood stars, both because of his very Jewish nose (“My mother asked me to [get a nose job,” he told an interviewer. “When I was a teenager, when she got her nose job, I remember she wanted me to get one, too. She said I would be happier.”) and some of his film choices — “Marathon Man,” “Lenny,” and “Meet the Fockers.”
Hoffman began to see himself as a Jew when he married his second wife, businesswoman Lisa Gottsegen Hoffman, in October 1980. “My wife changed everything,” he confessed. “Two sons barmitzvahed, two daughters batmitzvahed.”
Hoffman believes his father wanted to shield his family from the tragic stories of grandfather Frank and great-grandfather Sam Hoffman. “Who knows,” Dustin said, “My father could have been crying, grabbing his father’s leg, saying, ‘Daddy, please don’t go.’ … My poor dad.”
Now, having learned the truth about the horrors his relatives experienced as Jews, he feels closer to his Jewish roots. “People ask me today, ‘What are you?'” Hoffman said, tearfully. “I say, ‘I’m a Jew.'”
So, now that he’s a Jew again, Hoffman may want to reconsider his April, 2013 enthusiastic endorsement of the film “5 Broken Cameras” for the Muslim Public Affairs Council’s 22nd Annual Media Awards Gala. Dustin was unable to attend the gala, but he delivered the following audio message for the event, praising Arab director Emad Burnat, a favorite of the Academy and the American left.
“But the protesters portrayed in ‘5 Broken Cameras’ were revealed as frauds even before the Hollywood crowd took a shine – it was nominated for an Academy Award – to the film,” Lowenthal Marcus reveals. “For those who maintain a vigilant watch on news reports about the Arab-Israeli conflict, [the village] Bil’in is known for a very different kind of revelation – it is one of the few times the pro-Israel side was able to capture – dead to rights – the Arab Palestinians in a flat-out lie.” (Read the complete report Dustin Hoffman — Latest Jew to Give Israel-Hater an Award.”)
Perhaps now, having discovered that his own family members fell victim to an anti-Semitic campaign intended to annihilate the Jews of the Soviet Union, Dustin Hoffman will find the time to express regret for legitimizing a similar campaign—albeit via its refined propaganda rather than its murderous terrorist arms.
You made a mistake, Dustin. Please fix it.