As he presented his longtime colleague Bruce Resnikoff with Creative Community for Peace’s (CCFP) Ambassadors of Peace award, singer/songwriter John Mellencamp had a message to antisemites: “And to the Jewish haters, I say, f— you!” Mellencamp told the crowd of over 500 people. “Yeah, you need to open your eyes and remember the Golden Rule: What is hateful to you, do not do to others, and try to learn that ignorance is not a virtue.” The crowd erupted in cheers and laughs of affirmation.
It was CCFP’s seventh annual Ambassadors of Peace gala, honoring figures in entertainment who have been influential in opposing antisemitism and creating dialogue about peace and understanding through art. This year’s event, held at the Beverly Hills home of Haim Saban, honored Resnikoff (President/CEO of Universal Music Enterprises), actor Jerry O’Connell, David Kohan (showrunner and executive producer, “Will & Grace”), his wife Blair Kohan (partner and board member at United Talent Agency) and Jonathan Strauss (CEO of Create Music Group).
David Renzer, CCFP co-founder, framed the night around education and dialogue. “We have to educate, we believe in coexistence, we believe in the power of music and arts and culture to help build bridges and that it should not be shut down,” Renzer said in his opening remarks. “Thousands of people, I think, aren’t getting the whole story, because by the way, the boycott movement does not believe in coexistence.”
Renzer shared a quote from the Founder of Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, Omar Barghouti: “‘We oppose a Jewish state in any part of Palestine. Only a sellout Palestinian would accept the Jewish state in Palestine.’” Renzer responded, “I’m sorry, but we do not believe that. We believe in coexistence, and that is our message.”
CCFP was founded in 2012, after musical artists began facing pressure not to perform in Israel and has since built a global advisory network with roughly 150 members in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, Spain and Israel. CCFP has expanded year after year — but most notably in the last two years since the Oct. 7 attack on Israel. There was a bit more of a jovial mood amongst the crowd, likely having to do with the living hostages remaining in Gaza being returned to Israel less than two weeks ago. Still, many in attendance wore dog tags and yellow ribbons. And the CCFP’s executive director’s speech sounded just as fiery as it would have been three weeks ago.
“Creative Community for Peace really punches far above its weight,” CCFP executive director Ari Ingel said. “We literally have Turkey’s state-run news agency, TRT News, putting out articles about us that we are secretly pulling the strings behind the scenes throughout the entertainment industry. We’ve become the BDS movement’s sort of cultural boycott bogeyman, and you know what? We’ll take that all day. We’re proud to take that on.”
It was by far the largest of the CCFP’s Ambassadors of Peace galas. Among the over 30 honorees since 2018 are actress Mayim Bialik, actor Liev Schreiber, Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr., actor Eugene Levy and musician Ziggy Marley.
Entrepreneur and music producer Kenny Hamilton, representing the Black-Jewish Entertainment Alliance — a partner of CCFP — spoke about the power of conversation. “One thing about the Black and Jewish Entertainment Alliance is that it’s been steered in a way of getting people together that are non-Jews, that are Jews,” he said. “I converted about 10 years ago. I actually grew up right outside of Atlanta, Georgia, in a place called Stone Mountain, Georgia, which is just outside of the city. We could be better together as one. If we start having real conversations, getting people together for fellowship around food, around drinks, to really talk about the things that are bothering us, it brings us a little closer together.”
Although he was not an honoree, KISS founder and bassist Gene Simmons sat in the front row. Simmons, born in Haifa as Chaim Witz, spoke to reporters about what concerns him most today about the rise in antisemitism in the last two years.
“Jewish self-hatred is at an all-time high, which is astonishing,” Simmons told reporters. “And I fully support the ‘they/them’ community, the Queers for Gaza, but that they’re not informed. “If you’re queer in Gaza you’re going to be ‘was/were.’ You’re going to be thrown off a building. Education is important. When a mother loses her child, it doesn’t matter what religion or nationality you are, it hurts just as much. So yes, we can validate Israel — which I am — war is war; don’t attack us, we’ll take out your whole family. Yes, that’s terrible. On the other side, a mother loses her child and it hurts just as much despite the politics and the religion and all that. We’ve got to figure this out.”
Actor O’Connell, who is not Jewish, said in his acceptance speech that two years earlier he attended a Simon Wiesenthal Center screening — at the request of a friend who didn’t want to go alone — of raw Oct. 7 footage. Watching it, he realized “it’s happening again” and promised himself he would take action if it ever did. After that, he reached out to CCFP.
Before Mellencamp’s appearance, Ringo Starr and Def Leppard appeared in separate pretaped tributes congratulating Resnikoff on his award. Starr thanked him “for being a very peaceful, loving human being” and for his long support of the Peace and Love campaign. The members of Def Leppard added, “We know how much the arts mean to you and what you can do to spread the word.”
Mellencamp performed acoustic renditions of “Pink Houses” and “Jack & Diane” before introducing Resnikoff. In his speech, Resnikoff singled out another music legend in attendance, Motown Records’ founder Berry Gordy. “Berry Gordy, I’ve idolized you my whole career. The fact that you would come here for me, the fact that you’ve made me part of your extended Motown family is one of the greatest thrills and joys of my life. Thank you for being here,”
Resnikoff’s closing remarks are exactly what CCFP has aimed to do over the past 13 years.
“The music and entertainment industry has been at the forefront of every rights movement in this country and around the world,” Resnikoff said. “Earlier in this speech, I said, ‘sometimes we need to get out of our comfort zone.’ Well, right now, we need the entire industry — our creators, our performers, our business partners — to get out of their comfort zone and embrace the fight against antisemitism. We need more people like all of you and more people like my friend John Mellencamp to speak out and help change the world for good.”
