Portland movie theater marquee for ‘The Odyssey’ slammed as antisemitic

A theater outside Portland, Oregon, is facing backlash after displaying a tent advertising Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” with a provocative message that critics called antisemitic.

“Before there were Jews… there was the Odyssey,” in the marquee of the Lake Theater and Cafe. it said.

The framing sparked outrage in the Jewish community, with critics claiming the message was historically inaccurate, noting: academics usually The composition of Homer’s epic was written in the 8th century BC; The history of Jews and Israelis predates this period by several centuries. Critics also said it was an unnecessary move at a time when antisemitism is rising across the country.

The message was reportedly removed from one side of the tent on July 16, but remained on the other side. As OregonLive reported, He cited residents who saw the message on July 17. The theater is located in Lake Oswego, a city just south of Portland.

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Rabbi Eve Posen of Congregation Neveh Shalom in Portland he wrote on Facebook about the framework and how it reflects a broader issue. He noted that a car belonging to a member of the Jewish community had recently been vandalized with swastikas, writing that this happened “not in Germany. Not eighty years ago. Here. Today.”

“Over the last twenty-four hours I have found myself carrying a weight that is hard to name,” Posen wrote. “No individual moment taken in isolation necessarily calls for public reflection. We live in a world where people disagree. We debate policies. We challenge history. We confront acts of hate. But when these moments come one after another, piled on top of each other in a single day, they tell a story that is impossible to ignore.”

He then went on to criticize the framework of Lake Theater and Cafe. Like many critics, he said the message was both historically inaccurate and offensive.

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“This statement is historically inaccurate. More importantly, it raises a painful question: Why reference Jews? A clever film trailer could have celebrated one of the oldest stories ever told without unnecessarily positioning Judaism as an afterthought or comparison,” Posen said. wrote Posen.

“At a time when anti-Semitism has already reached historic levels, casually inserting Jews into a narrative in which we do not belong does not feel harmless. It is a reminder that our story is somehow expendable, that our history can be rewritten or diminished for the sake of a punchline.”

Israeli influencer Hen Mazzig also slammed the theater in a post on X, saying the tent was “objectively wrong.”

“Why would something that existed before the Jews be a selling point? Do they think the story is somehow ‘untainted’ by the Jews?” Mazzig wrote. “What disgustingly blatant anti-Semitism.”

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Lake Theater and Café manager Jordan Perry said in a text message. Lake Oswego Review he was trying to challenge what society saw as antisemitic.

“It is never my intention to influence opinion or fan flames, but to say this: It is okay to raise eyebrows, but I hope my messages do not reflect a depth of understanding that others find in themselves but not always in the world around them,” Perry told LOR via text message. Perry told LOR via text message.

“Through the media I consume, I believe that modern-day antisemitism is exaggerated, mostly in defense of Israel’s actions in the Middle East and its involvement in our policies. My intention in referencing the Jewish people in the frame was to provoke that everything is apparently antisemitic, in a statement that could not possibly be interpreted as antisemitic.”

He said he didn’t mean to “offend anyone” and was trying to “push back culturally on anti-Semitism, trying to point out in solidarity that this isn’t about ‘Jews,’ it’s about Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Iran and AIPAC. That’s my ‘humor,’ that was a deliberately subtle point of what I put in the marquee.”

A tent advertising “Odyssey” left an Oregon theater in hot water after some said the message was anti-Semitic. (Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Universal Images)

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Local sources have stated that the Lake Theater and Cafe has posted sharp messages on the tent in the past, angering some.

When the “Melania” documentary about First Lady Melania Trump came out, there were people in the theater chanting “Is Melania wearing Prada? Find out on Friday!” Banners like these were hung. A reference to the movie “The Devil Wears Prada”. The other scrolling text read: “To defeat your enemy. You must know them. Melania.”

Theater filed a lawsuit Instagram post He said Amazon was upset with the tents and would no longer show the film as a result.

“I got a call that the higher-ups (i.e., at Amazon) were upset with the way we were marketing their movie (i.e., Melania) and that, in their opinion, Sunday would be her last day here. Also, before that, we received countless emails and voicemails and Google/Yelp reviews (Google/Yelp has removed them) wondering why Melania was here or disdaining our disdain for her. Now that it has ended prematurely, the plug has been pulled on us in a non-public way. She screamed (always listening, thank you) but by a company executive (fair enough, sorry AMZN, please don’t cancel my Prime), Jordan thought he’d say something? TLDR link in bio,” the theater’s caption read.

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The post included a photo of the theater’s marquee; It read: “Amazon called. Our tent pissed them off. All Melania shows canceled. Show your support at Whole Foods instead.”

Fox News Digital has reached out to Lake Theater and Cafe and the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland for comment.