Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Sarah Silverman’s Birthday Wishes To Her Nephew In The IDF Bring Out The Haters

(JTA) — Comedian Sarah Silverman posted birthday wishes on Instagram to her 19-year-old nephew showing a photo of him as a baby and a photo of him as an Israeli soldier, leading to hateful messages in response.

This baby is now a 19 year old soldier. OY. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, @adar_abramowitz_silverman I LOVE YOU A ZILLION!!❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

A post shared by @ sarahkatesilverman on

Adar Abramowitz is the son of her sister Rabbi Susan Silverman and Yosef Abramowitz, CEO of Energiya Global Capital, who live in Israel. Adar and his brother Zamir were adopted by the couple, who also have three biological daughters.

Messages in response called the soldier an “Israeli terrorist,” “a 19 year old apartheid colonial enforcement officer? must be so proud;” and said: “I am Palestinian and it breaks my heart to see kids forced to serve. It adds to to the oppression and subjugation. I hope this young man sees humans beings all the same and chooses not to participate in the oppression.”

Messages in support read: “soldiers don’t serve the (democratically) elected government. They serve the country and protect their families. Like here in the US, our Army isn’t Republican or Democrat;” “Looks like you have grown to become a fine young man who is serving your country well!”; and  “Bless you and your nephew. You should be proud. The hateful people on this feed are pathetic. Happy birthday to a very handsome soldier!”

Silverman wrote in response to one person who said he would be unfollowing her: “go for it but he can’t help being Israeli and having to serve. He isn’t the govt. let’s hope he’s part of the solution.”

The post received nearly 22,000 likes.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

2X match on all Passover gifts!

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:

  • Credit the Forward
  • Retain our pixel
  • Preserve our canonical link in Google search
  • Add a noindex tag in Google search

See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.