The Canadian-Jewish actor Seth Rogen appeared to have walked back some of his statements regarding the need for a Jewish state, less than a week after stirring controversy on the matter in a podcast, although it was not immediately clear what he had actually retracted.
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Rogen, who grew up in Vancouver and went to a Jewish day school and a Habonim Dror summer camp on Gabriola Island, talked with Jewish Agency Chairman Isaac Herzog via Zoom on Sunday to discuss the comments that he made, in which he claimed that he was "fed a huge amount of lies about Israel" in his youth, including on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as well as wondered out loud whether it made sense to have a large Jewish community in the Middle East due to its volatility, calling this rationale an "antiquated thought process."
"Over the weekend I was glad to hold a frank and open conversation with actor and comedian Seth Rogen about his comments in a podcast with Mark Maron which were interpreted as challenging Israel's legitimacy. At the start, Seth was kind enough to make clear to me that what was missing in the published interview was what he did not say: How important Israel is to him. And that, of course, Israel must exist," Herzog wrote on Facebook.
According to Herzog, Rogen told him that "his words were meant as a joke, taken from a critical, humorous exchange with a fellow Jewish comedian, he was misunderstood and apologized for that and I accepted his explanation."
"Rogen also referred to the culture of debate in the Jewish tradition and said that raising doubt, asking questions, and arguing differing positions are fundamental in Judaism and in some interviews he humorously asks questions about almost everything, as part of the process of casting doubt, which he says is an important motif for the Jewish people. He told me that while he was speaking in jest during the noted conversation, we cannot ignore the fact that Jews outside Israel often have to stand at the forefront and explain the State of Israel, and sometimes they do not know how nor what to explain," Herzog continued, adding that he invited him to come to visit Israel, tour around the country, and get to know more of the fascinating Israeli mosaic."
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Rogen's account of the conversation was somewhat different. Israeli-American journalist Mairav Zonszein reported Monday that Rogen implored her to "read what I actually said about all this and not these secondhand telling."
It remains unclear whether Rogen indeed apologized for what he said.
