President-elect Donald Trump announced on Thursday that Jon Voight, Sylvester Stallone and Mel Gibson “special ambassadors” to Hollywood, which he called “A great but very troubled place.”
“They will serve as special envoys to me for the purpose of bringing Hollywood, which has lost much business over the last four years to foreign countries, back—bigger, better and stronger than ever before,” Trump stated. “These three very talented people will be my eyes and ears, and I will get done what they suggest.”
“It will again be, like the United States of America itself, the golden age of Hollywood,” he added.
Trump drew criticism for his selection of Mel Gibson for the role.
StopAntisemitism stated that it is “deeply concerned” by the selection.
“Mel Gibson referred to a Jewish actress as an ‘oven dodger’ and is known to be one of Hollywood’s biggest Jew haters,” the group wrote. “We strongly urge Donald Trump to reconsider.”
Democratic Majority for Israel stated that “Trump is appointing Mel Gibson, who has a long record of antisemitic remarks, to a made-up position.”
“This is yet another attempt by the incoming administration to distract from the problems everyday Americans face and a troubling example of the antisemitism Trump normalizes,” the pro-Israel group added.
“If Jews really ran Hollywood, I’m pretty sure our first pick for special ambassador would not have been Mel Gibson,” wrote the rabbi and Jewish educator Dovid Bashevkin.
In 2006, Gibson apologized “specifically to everyone in the Jewish community for the vitriolic and harmful words that I said to a law enforcement officer the night I was arrested on a DUI charge.”
“Please know from my heart that I am not an antisemite. I am not a bigot,” he added. “Hatred of any kind goes against my faith.”
