Actress faces backlash over podcast discussion
Julianna Margulies is in hot water with some social media users for comments she made about antisemitism and what she says is the lack of support by the Black and LGBTQ+ communities for Israel in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack.
The “Good Wife” and “Morning Show” actress was on the Nov. 20 episode of “The Back Room With Andy Ostroy.” The podcast began with a discussion of Margulies’ work with the Holocaust education program at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York, as well as her recent performance as journalist Laura Peterson in the Apple TV+ series “The Morning Show.” The character is a lesbian, although Margulies is straight.
But Ostroy and Margulies — both of whom are Jewish — went on to talk about antisemitism in light of the Israel-hamas war.
Margulies described herself during the podcast as not religious, but called out a lack of support for Israel. She described an instance during last month’s March for Israel in Washington in which supporters were left stranded at the airport after bus drivers chartered to drive them to a rally deliberately failed to show up.
“If that had happened to any other marginalized community, this country would be in an uproar,” Margulies said, “but because it happened to the Jews, for some reason, it’s laughable.”
Margulies also suggested that the young people “spewing … antisemitic hate” are often those concerned with pronouns and gender identity. Margulies added, however, that Hamas and Islamic fundamentalists would not share the sentiment.
“If they stepped foot in an Islamic country,” the actor said, “it’s those people that will be the first people beheaded and their heads played with … like a soccer ball on the field. … And that’s who they’re supporting? Terrorists who don’t want women to have their rights. LGBTQ people get executed. Bar none, you’re dead.”
Toward the end of her podcast appearance, Margulies referenced the 2022 Ken Burns documentary “The U.S. and the Holocaust” and its depiction of how Adolf Hitler drew inspiration from the racist practices of the Jim Crow South.
“Which is also why, in the civil rights movement, the Jews were the ones that walked side by side with the Blacks — to fight for their rights, because they know,” Margulies said. “And now the Black community isn’t embracing us and saying, ‘We stand with you the way you stood with us.’ ”
Margulies has not issued a response to the backlash, but she has apparently deactivated her X profile and turned off the comments on her Instagram.