Jewish Playwright David Mamet Tells Parents to Stop Sending Kids to Colleges That Fuel ‘Antisemitic Hatred’
by Shiryn Ghermezian
Writer, director and executive producer David Mamet takes part in a panel discussion of HBO’s “Phil Spector” during the Winter Press Tour for the Television Critics Association in Pasadena, California. Photo: Reuters
Pulitzer Prize-winning Jewish playwright, screenwriter, and filmmaker David Mamet is urging parents to “stop funding antisemitic hatred” by allowing their children to go to universities and colleges that do not condemn antisemitic behavior.
“Thanksgiving’s coming up, when your kids come home from college, don’t send them back,” Mamet said Tuesday on Fox News. “Stop funding antisemitic hatred and calling it, ‘Oh, it’s a good place to meet people.'”
“Because for a Jew to send his or her son or daughter to these elite institutions because they’re going to make connections is the same thing as putting their daughter in a brothel because they’re going to meet powerful men there,” he added. “It doesn’t make sense, and we’re going to have to assert ourselves.”
The writer and director of the HBO film Phil Spector elaborated on the topic in a piece he wrote on Monday for the British news website UnHerd headlined, “How the Democrats betrayed the Jews: The sick thrill of antisemitism has a price.” In the article, he discussed the Jewish experience in New York and why most Jews have historically voted Democrat, even though, he argued, it has been a mistake.
During his guest appearance on Fox News, Mamet also commented on the backlash White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre faced for her remarks about antisemitism during a press briefing on Monday. When asked if the White House was concerned about a potential rise in antisemitism due to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in the Middle East, Jean-Pierre said, “We have not seen any credible threats,” before pivoting to discussing Islamophobia and how “Muslims and those perceived to be Muslim have endured a disproportionate number of hate-fueled attacks.”
The Anti-Defamation League reported on Wednesday that antisemitic incidents in the US have risen by nearly 400 percent compared with the same period last year since Hamas’ invasion of Israel on Oct. 7.
“With the exception of the state of Israel, we have always been at the mercy of the countries which allowed us — some of them allowed us to live … We Jews got in the habit of saying, ‘Please, please, can’t you see there’s such a thing as humanity,'” Mamet said, upset at Jean-Pierre’s response. “The problem is that a lot of people see that there is such a thing as humanity, but a lot of those people, and a lot of them are in power in the White House, don’t think the Jews are human beings.”
Jean-Pierre said in an email to Fox News Digital on Tuesday that she misheard the reporter’s question at the White House press briefing.
“As I have footstomped many times from the podium and on the air, antisemitism is an abomination that this president has fought against his entire life; and I feel strongly about that work,” she said. “That’s why, in the briefing room, I have blasted the repulsive increase in antisemitic rhetoric, conspiracy theories, and hate crimes in our nation, calling out that, tragically, this is a rising threat. And it’s a threat the president is taking concrete action every day to fight.”
