Jewish Agency chairman Isaac Herzog said he had a private conversation with Seth Rogen and the actor apologized for his recent remarks about Israel. Herzog made the announcement in an Aug. 2 Facebook post. However, Rogen has denied apologizing.
Rogen sparked controversy when he said on Marc Maron’s July 27 podcast that he “was fed a huge amount of lies about Israel my entire life” and that if Israel “is truly for the preservation of Jewish people, it makes no sense.”
Herzog wrote that he and Rogen had a private conversation over the weekend and that Rogen said he didn’t mean to downplay Israel’s right to exist and that Rogens’ “words were meant as a joke, taken from a critical, humorous exchange with a fellow Jewish comedian, he was misunderstood and apologized for that and I accepted his explanation.”
Herzog also stated that Rogen expressed concern over rising anti-Semitism worldwide and that he often jokingly asks questions about everything because it’s a Jewish tradition to constantly question everything.
“He told me that while he was speaking in jest during the noted conversation, we cannot ignore the fact that Jews outside Israel often have to stand at the forefront and explain the State of Israel, and sometimes they do not know how nor what to explain,” Herzog wrote.
https://www.facebook.com/161648040544835/posts/3254719591237649/
However, in an Aug. 3 interview published in Haaretz, Rogen said that while he was sensitive to Jews thinking that he didn’t believe in Israel’s right to exist, he never actually issued an apology to Herzog. He told Haaretz that his comments were specifically referencing the Jewish education he received.
“I talked to my parents about it actually just yesterday and I was like, ‘Do you feel that what we were given … was a complete story?’” Rogen said. “And they said ‘No. Looking back, at the time, you were given a less complex view of the situation than maybe you could have been given.’”
He added that he understands “how it’s uncomfortable for some people to hear me say that I was not given that education.”
As for his remarks about how it didn’t make sense for Jew to all be in one place, Rogen said that he was repeating a joke that Israelis often make. “When you take a comedic monologue and treat it as if it’s not based in humor, there are probably some very questionable thoughts in there,” Rogen told Haaretz.
He also told the paper Herzog had told him that their conversation would be completely private and the details of it wouldn’t be shared with anyone. “My mom implored me to call this guy and I did and told him I thought this was a private conversation… at no point did I give him permission to publish any part of the conversation.”
A source close to Herzog told Haaretz that the Jewish Agency chairman accurately described Rogen’s conversation and that Rogen gave him permission to make the details of the conversation public.
More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.