Hollywood group, Jewish leaders blast Mark Ruffalo over Ellison comments

A Hollywood group representing nearly 1,000 members and allies of the Jewish community has signed on to an open letter accusing actor Mark Ruffalo of invoking antisemitic tropes in his campaign against Paramount Skydance’s pending acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, joining a growing list of Jewish advocacy organizations that have condemned the actor over the past week.

The letter, organized under the banner of a group called The Brigade and first reported by Variety, was signed by producers Haim Saban, Lawrence Bender and Teddy Schwarzman, along with Ram Bergman, Anthony Bregman, Lynn Harris, Matti Leshem, Jamie Patricoff, Craig Emanuel, Shep Rosenman and Micah Green. The group described itself as representing members and allies working across film, television, music and other entertainment platforms.

“This is not commentary on a merger. It is not a criticism of a government,” the letter states, according to a copy published by TheWrap. “It is simple antisemitism, where Jewish executives are portrayed as a secretive and powerful wealth-hoarding elite delighting in mass death.”

The letter goes on to compare the rhetoric to that “weaponized” historically by Nazis, Soviets and the Ku Klux Klan, and warns that such language has real-world consequences for Jewish communities today.

The dispute began Friday

The controversy stems from a Friday Instagram post in which Mr. Ruffalo shared a 2024 clip of Oracle executive vice chair and former CEO Safra Catz, who also sits on Paramount Skydance’s board, discussing surveillance technology the company built for the Israeli military. Mr. Ruffalo, an outspoken opponent of Paramount’s bid for Warner Bros. Discovery — an approximately $81 billion equity deal valued near $111 billion including debt — accused Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison — the father of Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison — of being a “classic oligarch” and warned that the elder Mr. Ellison and his allies were “powering some of the most destructive and inhuman forces in the world.”

Paramount responded with an unusually pointed statement calling Mr. Ruffalo’s remarks “antisemitic” and “a bridge too far,” saying the company is “troubled when antisemitic tropes are invoked in purported service of a business dispute.”

Mr. Ruffalo did not back down. Writing on X the following day, he called the antisemitism accusation “appalling and fundamentally dishonest,” maintaining that criticizing Israeli government policy, a military technology contract or the executives tied to it “is not the same as criticizing Jewish people.” He added that his “views come from my own political convictions” and should not be read as hostility toward Jewish people, citing Jewish friends and colleagues who have shaped his career.

Jewish advocacy groups weigh in

Several major Jewish organizations sided with Paramount in the days that followed. Simon Wiesenthal Center CEO Jim Berk said “words matter” and that invoking Israel in a business dispute amounted to “a textbook case of obsession and demonization,” according to Variety’s Australian edition. Creative Community for Peace executive director Ari Ingel accused Mr. Ruffalo of fusing criticism of Israel with “Jewish-associated wealth, media ownership” and other tropes, while Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt separately described the actor’s posts as “cynical and sickening,” according to the Forward. The Los Angeles Jewish Federation and the Zionist Organization of America also joined the criticism.

ZOA National President Morton Klein said in a statement reported by Breitbart that Mr. Ruffalo was “puffing himself up as a humanitarian” while ignoring atrocities against Christians in Sudan, Egypt and Syria and violence carried out by Hamas against Israelis on Oct. 7, 2023. Mr. Klein’s remarks were cited only in the Breitbart report and could not be independently verified through another outlet as of publication. Jack Simony, president and director general of the Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation, separately praised Paramount for “confronting antisemitic tropes directly,” saying Mr. Ruffalo had “updated an old accusation for the age of surveillance technology.” Mr. Simony’s statement was independently reported by NBC News and other outlets.

Ruffalo has defenders, too

Not everyone in Hollywood has sided with Paramount. Actress Jane Fonda and her 1A Committee — of which Mr. Ruffalo is a member — issued a memo this week rejecting what it called a “cynical attempt to falsely label Mark Ruffalo as antisemitic,” arguing the accusation was designed to distract from concerns about media consolidation, according to TheWrap. Producer Bruce Cohen, a member of the group’s steering committee who is Jewish, said in the same memo that false antisemitism accusations should never be used to silence political criticism.

Mr. Ruffalo, an Oscar nominee for “The Kids Are All Right,” “Foxcatcher,” “Spotlight” and “Poor Things,” has a lengthy history of activism on Middle East policy, including wearing an Artists4Ceasefire pin at the 2024 Academy Awards and signing a 2024 letter urging his union to protect pro-Palestinian members. He currently appears as Bruce Banner/Hulk in “Spider-Man: Brand New Day.”

The blowup comes as Paramount works to close its Warner Bros. Discovery acquisition, which remains tied up in an antitrust lawsuit brought by California and 11 other state attorneys general. Talks between Paramount and California over a possible settlement were expected Monday, but California Attorney General Rob Bonta canceled the meeting, accusing Paramount of leaking details of a prior settlement session and misrepresenting what was discussed. Paramount denied being the source of any leak, saying in a statement it remained “ready to continue good faith discussions” to resolve the states’ lawsuit.