In a broad-ranging interview on Judaism, actor Seth Rogen said the reason for Israel’s existence “makes no sense,” and the notion of a Jewish homeland to safeguard the Jewish people was comparable to putting them in a blender. Rogen also said antisemitism today was “pervasive and prevalent.”
Rogen, in conversation with Marc Maron on his hour-long “WTF” podcast on Monday, grew up in Jewish day schools in Vancouver.
Macron prefaced the show with the disclaimer, “If you don’t like Jews, you’re gonna get triggered” and said it was the “Jewiest talk” he had ever had on his show.
“If you meet a Jewish person in America, they’re probably here because someone tried to kill their grandparents not that long ago,” Rogan said.
The left-wing actor and comedian went on to denounce the idea of Jewish state in Israel and said a “better strategy” after the Holocaust would have been to ensure that Jews are spread out all over the world and not concentrated in one place. “You don’t keep all your Jews in one basket,” he said.
“It makes no sense whatsoever,” he added.
“It would be nice to live somewhere which was not a part of Christian apocalyptic prophecy,” he said, “maybe settle somewhere the Christians don’t think you’ll have to die in order for the Apocalypse [to occur].”
Macron concurred, saying Christians had a “ridiculous vision” they needed Jews in order to fulfill but that in the long run they weren’t “gunning for us.”
The 38-year-old said there was no way he would ever live in Israel.
“To me it just seems an antiquated thought process,” Rogen said. “If it is for religious reasons, I don’t agree with it, because I think religion is silly. If it is for truly the preservation of Jewish people, it makes no sense, because again, you don’t keep something you’re trying to preserve all in one place — especially when that place is proven to be pretty volatile, you know? ‘I’m trying to keep all these things safe, I’m gonna put them in my blender and hope that that’s the best place… that’ll do it.’”
“It doesn’t make sense to me,” he continued. “And I also think that as a Jewish person I was fed a huge amount of lies about Israel my entire life! They never tell you that — oh by the way, there were people there. They make it seem like it was just like sitting there, like the fucking door’s open!…They forget to include the fact to every young Jewish person.”
Rogen also admitted that “I would have been totally happy marrying a non-Jewish person, it’s only coincidental that [his wife Lauren Miller is] Jewish, and it really bothers her when I say that. She wants her Judaism to have some value to me, even though it doesn’t, in any way, shape or form.”
He did, however, pay homage to some of Judaism’s rituals, including the laws surrounding death and mourning, such as the week-long shiva.
“As I get older, I appreciate that religion, you know, specifically revolving around death, like Judaism has a lot of protocol that is helpful.”