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JULY 4 • 2024 | 7
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Rapaport, a world-renowned 
comedian and actor who has 
responsibly used his platform 
in his personal capacity to raise 
awareness about the growing 
epidemic of Jew-hatred plagu-
ing cities across the nation 
after Oct. 7. 
The reason for his cancella-
tion was that he was deemed 
too “controversial” for his 
public views, someone who 
actively pushes back against 
actual Jew-haters in the world 
of entertainment and politics. 
Just last month, two more of 
Rapaport’s shows in Illinois 
and Wisconsin were canceled 
due to threats of protests from 
the well-organized anti-Israel 
crowd. If anyone actually has 
seen Rapaport’s material, they 
would know his comedic style 
and routine is multifaceted 
and does not revolve solely 
around Jew-hatred or Israel. 
The Jewish community was left 
with some burning questions: 
 Why did the Comedy 
Castle give in to evil? How is it 
acceptable to silence minority 
voices — Jewish voices — in 
this age of social justice?

On June 21, the Detroit 
House of Comedy was set to 
host Amanda Seales, a comedi-
an with a track record of pro-
moting real hatred and hostil-
ity against the Jewish commu-
nity, including the indigenous 
rights of the Jewish people to 
our ancestral homeland and 
openly defending Hamas, a 
U.S. and internationally des-
ignated terrorist organization. 
This is a comedian who has 
never said anything about 
Israel prior to Oct. 7, but now 
seems to believe it shouldn’t 
exist. 
She has been promoted 
by Congresswoman Rashida 
Tlaib, has openly mocked 
Israeli hostages on social 
media, and has embraced her 
status as a Jew-hater as a badge 

of honor. On Oct. 8, 2023, 
she shared a graphic to her 
Instagram page from Breaking 
the Silence, a controversial 
Israeli organization ideolog-
ically synonymous to fringe 
groups like Jewish Voice for 
Peace and IfNotNow, which 
stated, “Hamas’ attack and the 
events unfolding since yester-
day are unspeakable. We could 
talk about their cruel and 
criminal actions or focus on 
how our ‘Jewish supremacist’ 
government brought us to this 
point.” 

We have heard this antise-
mitic trope — shifting the 
blame to Jews for the suffer-
ing we’re experiencing at the 
hands of oppressors — before. 
During World War II, the 
Nazis justified their genocide 
of Jews by escalating the trope 

about Jews controlling the 
world as a struggle against 
“Jewish supremacy.” David 
Duke, the former Grand 
Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, 
literally wrote a book called 
Jewish Supremacism: My 
Awakening on the Jewish 
Question.” 

JEWISH VOICES SILENCED
When word got out about 
Seales’ upcoming show, 
grassroots activists from the 
#EndJewHatred movement 
rapidly responded with an 
email campaign directed to 
the two owners of the venue, 
John Tobin and Rick Bronson, 
detailing her deeply troubling 
and extensive history of pro-
moting Jew-hatred, and ask-
ing them to deny their stage 
to an openly proud Jew-hater. 

Over 5,000 emails were sent 
by members of the Jewish 
community and our allies to 
the venue within a three-day 
period, but the Detroit House 
of Comedy refused to respond, 
and their phone lines were 
closed. 
People began flooding their 
official Instagram page with 
condemnations, but instead 
of listening to the pleas of 
the Jewish community, they 
shamefully decided to disable 
the comments and tempo-
rarily hide the backlash on 
their posts, as if it never hap-
pened. That update prompt-
ed fury from our national 
volunteer network, and the 
#EndJewHatred movement 
mobilized influencers with 
large platforms to speak out.
The intensified online 
backlash prompted the venue 
to eventually restore the 
comments, but they couldn’t 
restore their integrity as 
they allowed Seales to per-
form. As a response to this, 
#EndJewHatred sent a truck 
to circulate around Woodward 
Avenue visually displaying 
examples of Seales’ Jew-hatred 
and calling out the club for 
giving the stage to an individu-
al with such animosity toward 
the Jewish community, which 
she describes as Zionists. 
The truck garnered Seales’ 
attention after the show, when 
she posted four reaction videos 
to her social media, and active-
ly proved our point about her 
Jew-hatred by invoking numer-
ous classic tropes suggesting 
Zionists control the world and 
the media. 
This #EndJewHatred action 
isn’t about cancel-culture; this 
is about demanding responsi-
bility and accountability from 
those who amplify bigotry 
against the Jewish community.

The Detroit House of 
Comedy’s complicity in spot-

continued on page 8

Matisyahu concert 
performances in 
various states 
were canceled 
due to a campaign 
by pro-Hamas 
sympathizers.

LEFT: Michael Rapaport’s shows at Mark Ridley’s Comedy Castle in 
Royal Oak were canceled because of “security concerns.” 
RIGHT: The London Eurovision Song Contest Screening Party was 
canceled due to “Israel’s participation,” namely 20-year-old singer 
Eden Golan.

BY HAIM ZACH / GOVERNMENT PRESS OFFICE OF ISRAEL