Saturday, May 28, 2016

Spielberg to Harvard Grads:Anti-Semitism Rising; Says World Is Full of Monsters Espousing Hatred

Acclaimed film director Steven Spielberg admitted he was "wrong" to think as a child that anti-Semitism "was fading," telling Harvard's graduating class this week that President Barack Obama was right when he warned that anti-Semitism is on the rise," the Times of Israel website reports today (May 28, 2016).

Spielberg -- whose 99-year-old father Arnold sat in one of the first rows at his address before the Ivy League university's class of 2016 -- told the graduates on May 26 that the world "is full of monsters" espousing "racism, homophobia, ethnic hatred, class hatred, and religious hatred."

The Oscar winner said, "As a kid, I was bullied -- for being Jewish. This was upsetting, but compared to what my parents and grandparents had faced, it felt tame. Because we truly believed that anti-Semitism was fading. And we were wrong."

Spielberg added, "Over the last two years, nearly 20,000 Jews have left Europe [due mainly to anti-Semitism] to find higher ground. And earlier this year, I was at the Israeli embassy when President Obama stated the sad truth. He said: 'We must confront the reality that around the world, anti-Semitism is on the rise. We cannot deny it.'"

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