Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

ZOA President Mort Klein Slams ‘Beautiful’ Natalie Portman As ‘Not Too Bright’

After Natalie Portman announced that she would withdraw from the Genesis Prize awards ceremony in Israel to protest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, one of her harshest American critics has been the Zionist Organization of America and its president, Morton Klein. Now, Klein has stepped it up a notch, drawing criticism in the process.

“Natalie Portman’s absurd, uninformed, inaccurate, dangerous views on Israel, while ignoring the anti-Semitic, pro-terrorist views/actions of Hamas and Palestinian Authority gives credibility and legitimacy to the ludicrous, false, nonsensical belief that beautiful women aren’t too bright,” Klein wrote on Twitter on Wednesday.

Klein’s remark was denounced on Twitter.

“Can’t say I’m surprised by this breathtakingly misogynist @MortonAKlein7 tweet on Harvard-educated #NataliePortman, whom he reduces to a ‘beautiful woman,’ Debra Shushan of Americans for Peace Now wrote.

Portman “LITERALLY went to Harvard,” Allison Kaplan Sommer of Haaretz pointed out.

And Rabbi Jill Jacobs of T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights wrote that she had reported Klein to Twitter’s support team. “#NotOKForAJewishLeader #Misogyny” she added.

Klein previously co-wrote an op-ed for the Jewish News Service on Tuesday that was scathing in his criticism of Portman.

“Doesn’t she realize that without Israel defending her border against Hamas assaults, and without Israel defending her people from the deadly Palestinian Arab attacks on Jews incited by and paid for by Palestinian Authority dictator Abbas, there would be no ‘Israeli friends, Israeli food, books, art, cinema and dance’? Ms. Portman’s obtuseness is mind-boggling,” Klein and Liz Berney wrote.

“Ms. Portman’s disgraceful statements and reneging on her trip to Israel show contempt for everything she claims to care about,” they added.

Contact Aiden Pink at [email protected] or on Twitter, @aidenpink

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

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. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

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 credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link 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.