I Walked Away from Zionists in Film

For my first gig in LA I played a person transitioning into becoming a woman. It was edgy. I played a character on the bottom of the social totem pole who kidnapped a comic in order to “cancel” him.

Open ending and cue the dramatic music!

I had lines and was killing it with improv. Ok, yeah, I’m tooting my own horn. But they were all telling me as much — the production team I mean. Dude, I even cut myself (accidentally) for this role. Not an ER situation but still. That is, until the director and director of photography (DP) got into a bit of a kerfuffle. The DP wanted to cut my lines…

Before shooting, they told me about their political and cultural views on Israel. I said I’d love to go, but that Netanyahu dude is bad news. The DP didn’t like that much. Former IDF guy… I found out after the fact.

So my lines were cut and the short film — which I was told was meant to mirror societal views on a touchy topic — became a music video of a trans person kidnapping a comic. That’s it.

Both the DP and director did the right thing for millennials, though: they still followed me on socials. Perfect for me to dig more. Cause it had to be my fault, right?

Turns out they were more religious than I suspected. Which is fine, until I realized it was mixed up with patriotism for Israel. Because patriotism in America, Israel’s older sibling, occasionally warps into a lot of bad things. Go look at current events if you don’t believe me.

The only issue I had with the director was that he kept ghosting me post-shoot, despite telling me I was great, and ignoring me and a co-star’s request to give us IMDB credit. Fellow creatives will know that sort of struggle.

The DP, though — different story. I try to keep personal views out of it, but I saw he was involved with an organization that, in my opinion, came off a bit like the banned terror group, the Jewish Defense League.

There was also an instance where he posted a picture of Ilhan Omar, similar to that masterpiece by a failed politician who ushered in the current political climate.

So I muted him. Networking is still a thing. Besides, the director got back to me.

Fast forward: I stumbled onto something huge. Someone approached me with a hefty budget for a project — close to six digits. They wanted my help in securing a team. Though I asked someone else, the director got back to me first.

“So weird how your texts never got through to me.”

There was a red flag, but I was blinded by opportunity. This portion deserves its own post because obviously other factors were involved. In terms of me working with these particular individuals.

I take responsibility for not being better on my part as far as walking away. This is life. Can’t change anything now. Just write a post to show yourself you learned from it.

Long story short: the director dropped the ball.

He never entertained having me in the project as an actor. His goal was to have an all-Jewish cast. Which I could handle. But since it came from someone who holds an ideology that connects to Jewish supremacy… Well, it just made me feel weird.

The project became more of a religious thing, even branching out to film festivals in Israel. On top of it, he began to drive away the one connection I had outside a group of friends in the business.

“They’re bleeding me dry. I don’t have enough money for things I want.”

Our director introduced our main investor/producer to one of his mentors. A mentor who took our budget. Who I assume shared their ideology. But it was fine for the director and DP. They all got to eat. That wasn’t my breaking point, though.

“He’s right, Israel gets in trouble for things other countries do all the time.”

I saw that post after Israel had dropped white phosphorus on not just Gaza, but Southern Lebanon. If that’s how they viewed people — despite already being in war — then that red flag from earlier should have text on it, reading:

“If they think like that toward one group of people, how do they view me?”

At least I became an actual Angelino afterward. I just began to ghost them. Though even that hurts.

People are strange. We’ll collaborate with one another to make incredible things — until ideologies and political views begin to cloud judgment. Not just the judgment of those who cost me some things in LA, but the people around them as well.

Just because people treat you cordially doesn’t mean what they ultimately believe in involves you.

I can’t stress this enough: Zionism is not Judaism. There are Israelis in the West Bank who voluntarily use themselves as human shields for Palestinians. Hell, the draft bill in Israel targets members of the Israeli Orthodox Jewish population, who are more likely to support the Palestinian cause.

Letting people go, whether personal or professional, hurts. But letting people go after seeing how they treat others — or even just one group of people — hurts even more.

These gentlemen are talented, I give them that. But I refuse to allow that amazing fact about them to become the reason why I enable words and actions like that.

Which is why I stopped working with Zionists.