After October 7, actor, singer and writer Jonah Platt pivoted away from his entertainment career and poured all of his energy into what until then had been his “side hustle” – advocating for more “joyful” portrayals of Jews in Hollywood, and broadening his focus to include pro-Israel advocacy and fighting antisemitism. 

Platt joins the Haaretz Podcast where he discusses his own top-ranked Jewish podcast aimed at what he calls the “middle majority” of American Jews – engaging in pro-Israel advocacy while not hiding his misgivings and ambivalence about both U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

This, he tells podcast host Allison Kaplan Sommer, has drawn both admiration and attacks from across the political spectrum in the Jewish community and beyond.  

Platt notes that the criticism he gets from the Jewish left “mimics the hate that I get from non-Jews on the left, which is that I'm a nepo baby genocidal baby killer” while the attacks from the MAGA Jewish right “feels more like getting it from my own team.”

On the podcast, Platt also shares his views on conflicts within Jewish families over the Gaza war – including his own – and why he believes so many young New York Jews voted for Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani.

Read more:

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