Actor and author Brett Gelman sits for a portrait at Am Shalom on April 2, 2024, in Glencoe. Rabbi Steven Stark Lowenstein, of the Am Shalom synagogue in Glencoe, looked out on the more than 300 people sitting in front of him and Brett Gelman on Tuesday night. “Raise your hand if you were at Brett’s bar mitzvah,” the rabbi said. About 20 people did.
On a normal book tour, such an author would also get asked questions about Hollywood, then read a little from their new book, which, in this case, is a funny, caustic, dark set of thinly autobiographical stories about anxiety, titled “The Terrifying Realm of the Possible.” It shows the clear influence of Woody Allen and Philip Roth, and as Gelman explained before the event, “it’s very much about showing Jewish pride in neurosis.
He leaned prominently into pro-Israeli activism, making a speech at the March for Israel on the Washington Mall, visiting Israel several times in recent months and appearing on an Israeli TV show satirizing Western protests.And, in turn, backlash on social media accused him of equating criticism of Israel with antisemitism, and soft pedaling the death of Palestinians, and turning a blind eye to both Palestinian evictions and a historical treatment of Palestinians that many consider apartheid.
“I don’t know anyone who actually uses that term who’s truly woke,” Gelman replied. “If you were truly woke, you wouldn’t be antisemitic and pervert analytic thinking to defend Islamic jihad — you wouldn’t equate Islam with radical Islam! That’s being very asleep.” He also said the same way that Jews have inherited centuries of trauma, “the rest of the world has inherited antisemitism — both genetically and psychologically. I believe that.
He said he’s definitely lost friends in the film and TV industry, but he’s not aware if his activism has cost him future work. Not yet, anyway. Still, he said, he calls his agent frequently to ask if he’s OK, if everything’s fine. He joked he’s exhausting to be around.