Seth Rogen: surprise in Mel Gibson’s ‘oven dodger’ comment is that he acknowledges Holocaust
Seth Rogen, triumphant again Image by Getty Images
By Ari Feldman June 24, 2020
Seth Rogen admitted his surprise on Twitter that Mel Gibson’s “oven dodger” comment about the Jewish actress Winona Ryder allowed for the existence of the Holocaust.
I’m only surprised by Mel Gibson’s “oven dodger” comment because it acknowledges the Holocaust actually happened.
— Seth Rogen (@Sethrogen) June 23, 2020
Ryder revealed (for a second time, as it turned out) that the actor and director — and well-known anti-Semite — once called her an “oven dodger.” The term is a reference to the crematoria in Nazi-run concentration camps, where the bodies of Jews who had been murdered in gas chambers were systematically burned, often by fellow Jews who were forced to do the work.
The furor over the comments led to Gibson losing his voice acting role in the upcoming animated sequel movie “Chicken Run 2.”
Gibson was most recently in the news related to anti-Semitism, in 2016, for linking his newfound sobriety to not being anti-Semitic anymore. Art the time, Gibson said it was “really unfair” that he had been linked with anti-Semitism after a drunken tirade directed at Jews in 2006 during a DUI arrest.
Ari Feldman is a staff writer at the Forward. Contact him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @aefeldman
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
