Steven Spielberg warns: 'Jews may again have to fight for right to be Jewish'

 

Acclaimed Hollywood director Steven Spielberg warned of the dangers of modern antisemitism while being honored by the University of Southern California yesterday (Monday).

Speaking at an event marking the 30th anniversary of the USC Shoah Foundation, an organization he founded in 1994, Spielberg said that "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

The Schindler's List director stated that he is "increasingly alarmed that we may be condemned to repeat history, to once again have to fight for the very right to be Jewish."

He warned that “the machinery of extremism is being used on college campuses” and that “the echoes of history are unmistakable in our current climate."

In November, Spielberg announced that the Shoah Foundation would launch a new project in which it would interview survivors of the October 7th massacre and document the various acts of terror it included, similar to its efforts to gather testimony from Holocaust survivors to document the crime that led to the creation of the word genocide.

“I never imagined that I would see this kind of unspeakable barbarity against Jews in my lifetime,” Spielberg commented at the time.

In an interview with Fox News, he commented on the growing antisemitism in the world. “I find it very, very surprising because antisemitism has always been there. It’s either been just around the corner and slightly out of sight but always lurking, or it has been much more overt, like Germany in the 30s,” he said. “But not since Germany in the 30s have I witnessed antisemitism no longer lurking but standing proud with hands on hips like Hitler and Mussolini.