Jim Berk, CEO of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, is defending Paramount after the studio called Mark Ruffalo’s anti-merger comments “antisemitic.”
“Words matter, and so does the willingness to draw a line when legitimate debate gives way to antisemitic tropes,” Berk wrote. “We commend Paramount for speaking clearly and refusing to allow prejudice to masquerade as political or corporate criticism. At a time when antisemitism is too often minimized, rationalized or repackaged in more socially acceptable language, this kind of moral clarity matters.”
“Invoking Israel in an issue where it is completely irrelevant is a textbook case of obsession and demonization. Paramount was right to call it out. More leaders and institutions should have the courage to call antisemitism what it is, regardless of who is spreading it,” his statement concluded.
Earlier this week, the Oscar-nominated actor, who has been an outspoken opponent of Paramount’s $111 billion deal for Warner Bros., highlighted Larry Ellison’s (Paramount CEO David Ellison’s father) Oracle’s ties to the Israeli military amid the Israel-Gaza war. Ruffalo resurfaced a clip from 2024 of former Oracle chief Safra Catz talking about “profoundly scary technologies” the tech company had built in relation to Israel’s war effort in Gaza. The actor also described the war as a “genocide” that “was built on an apartheid system of oppression powered by Oracle.”
