Actor and filmmaker Seth Rogen will be honored alongside his father on Monday by the Workmen’s Circle, an organization dedicated to promoting Jewish identity based on social justice and the Yiddish language.
Rogen, 37, and his father, Mark Rogen, who worked for the organization in Los Angeles in the early 2000s, will receive the Generation to Generation Activism Award.
“It has played a very key role in my life,” the actor said about the importance of being involved in social justice work through Workmen’s Circle. “I think that when you’re a part of a group of people that is targeted globally, there’s some comfort in getting together and working within that community, and I think that is just something that I’ve always found throughout my life.
“At a very young age, my dad told me everyone hates Jews, so just be aware of that, and it’s probably a fine reason to, at times, do things that involve just other Jews cause at least you’re surrounded by people who don’t hate you,” he added.
Mark Rogen, who has always worked for nonprofits, said his goal at Workmen’s Circle was “to try to let people know that there are people out there suffering, and we have to try to do something about it.”
Seth headlined a Workmen’s Circle event when his father worked there, and Mark’s grandparents, Labor Zionists who performed in the Yiddish theater, grew up down the street from a Workmen’s Circle office, according to The New York Jewish Week.
