Call me Back LIVE - with Michael Rapaport
Today in this special episode, we are releasing the first episode of the Call me Back podcast recorded before a very enthusiastic live audience at the Comedy Cellar in Manhattan. Our guest was actor, director and comedian Michael Rapaport.
The focus of our conversation is about how Michael became such an energetic, provocative, and hilarious voice on behalf of Israel and the Jewish people since 10/07, as well as his observations on why more Jews from the creative arts and entertainment industry have not been as outspoken as him (or, even worse, why so many have remained silent).
We also discuss his reaction to those who criticize Israel “as a Jew”, and his experience dealing with the professional cost of proudly advocating for Israel and the Jewish people.
You can follow Michael on X here: https://x.com/MichaelRapaport
And on IG here: https://www.instagram.com/michaelrapaport/
Find Michael's podcast, I AM RAPAPORT here: https://www.iamrapaport.com/
Transcript
DISCLAIMER: THIS TRANSCRIPT HAS BEEN CREATED USING AI TECHNOLOGY AND MAY NOT REFLECT 100% ACCURACY.
MR: And one of the things that I ranted about was: you can say ‘as a Jew’, this, you could say ‘as a Jew’, that, and you could put up watermelons and ‘free Palestine’, and explain all this bullsh*t you want. But just know if you were in Israel on October 7th, you would be treated… ‘as a Jew’. Like all of us. And your flags and your watermelon posts, they don't give a f*ck about any of that.
DS: It's 7:00 PM on Friday, June 21st in Jerusalem, where I am right now, as Shabbat is about to come in, in 12 minutes, to be precise. It's 12:00 noon on Friday, June 21st in New York City. Well, today is a first. We are releasing the first episode of the Call me Back podcast recorded before a very enthusiastic live audience at the Comedy Cellar in Manhattan. My guest for this live event was actor, director, and comedian, Michael Rapaport. I'll say more about Michael's career and bio in our conversation you’re about to hear, but the focus of our conversation is about how Michael became such an energetic, and provocative, and hilarious voice on behalf of Israel and the Jewish people since October 7th. How he has taken on Israel's critics, his observations on why more Jews from the creative arts and entertainment world have not been as outspoken as him, or even worse, why so many have simply been silent. We also discussed with Michael his reaction to those Jews, and there are not many of them, but there are some, who criticize Israel, quote, ‘as a Jew’, meaning they use their credential, ‘as a Jew’ to inflict even more harm and criticism upon Israel. And also what the professional cost has been to an entertainer like Michael Rapaport for proudly advocating for Israel and the Jewish people, and defending Israel and the Jewish people. It is a spirited, thought provoking, and, at times, a laugh out loud, funny conversation. I hope you'll enjoy it. Michael Rapaport, live. This is Call me Back.
Good evening, everyone. First of all, thank you for being here. How many of you, just like an applause here, how many of you have been listening to this podcast since we started four years ago? Wow. Okay. Alright. Okay, so we're gonna bring up our guest here in a moment. Before we do, a friend of mine, Josh, who's here from Detroit, where's Josh? Josh? Okay, there he is, right there. He didn't come in just for this, to be honest. He had some business in New York. But he was shocked and horrified as he stood in line coming in here tonight, and he started texting me what was going on just moments ago. He was shocked, saying, ‘I cannot believe this.’ He was overhearing conversations. ‘People are here on dates. No joke. There are people using this to get intimate.’ Then five minutes later, ‘I'm actually listening to women in line talk about how they got babysitters weeks ago for this and it's the first time they've gone out of the house in months.’ Which, by the way, I was, Michael Rapaport and I were back in the green room and I was getting these texts from Josh and I was reading to him and I tried to explain to Michael that this is a very Jewish event. So listen, let me say a couple things before we start. Again, I want to thank you here. I think what everybody here has in common is that you all, since October 7th, have been red pilled in some way. And you kind of look around and think that everybody's kind of crazy - except for the people in this room. So this is like a nice community. That's right. And so we're here tonight. Not only for our first live, formerly, our first live podcast, but we're here tonight because, or maybe in spite, of the fact that there are a lot of people who don't want us to be here tonight. And there are a lot of people who don't want our guest tonight to be in front of audiences. In fact, as we will talk about in our conversation. He's been on the receiving end of efforts to get his events canceled. This event will not be canceled. One of the things that I think has happened to many of us since October 7th is we have found new friends and we found new community. And one of those people for me has been our guest tonight who reached out to me soon after October 7th, because… he DM'd me. I was a little scared because you follow him on Instagram and you think like, you know, he's like an ambulatory psychopath. I'm like - and then he reached out to me to discuss the finer points of the British Mandate. I'm like, okay, this is surreal. And I will say, and then we got together, and I would say, Michael Rapaport is one of those people who not only has become a new friend, but he is someone who has really stuck his neck out and been a singular voice. I mean, there really is no one who has his voice. Even at tremendous expense to him professionally. And he keeps going. So, I'm gonna do a formal introduction when he gets up here. But please join me in welcoming Michael Rapaport. Michael is more comfortable with the comedy club scene. I don't do a lot of, like, Israel talks at comedy clubs, so. This is more like your jam.
MR: Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.
DS: All right. I do have to timestamp this. So, it is 6:32 PM on Monday, June 3rd here at the Comedy Cellar in New York City. It is 1:32 AM in Israel on Tuesday, June 4th. And I am here this evening with my friend, Michael Rapaport, who has appeared in numerous television shows and movies. Just to give you a sense of the difference between the cultural references for my wife, Campbell and me, when Campbell hears Michael Rapaport, she thinks ‘Life & Beth’, the series with Amy Schumer. And my kids think ‘Only Murders in the Building’ - and my cultural reference is ‘Cop Land’ with Sylvester Stallone. So he's done a million TV shows and movies. And yet, since October 7th, he's taken on an entirely new cause. So, Michael Rapaport, thank you for being here.
MR: Thank you.
DS: Before we get into October 7th - because as you've told me, it has changed you. I want you to spend a minute or two telling us about your Jewish life, your Jewish identity, your connection to Israel, whatever there may have been of it, leading up to October 7th.
MR: Alright, I'd be remiss if I didn't say that I'm tripping out because, first of all, to hear you do the intro, which I listen to all the time, to see you do it in real life is crazy. And then also, like, I just was like - Haviv Rettig Gur, Benny Morris, Dr. Einat Wilf - and Michael Rapaport, like, it's just like…
DS: You have arrived, brother. You have arrived.
MR: Oh, man. So, you know, I'm born and raised here in Manhattan, and I would be what people refer to as a ‘bagel and lox Jew’, although I get offended because I always consider myself a everything bagel, toasted, cream cheese, lox, onion, capers, and tomato Jew. But I grew up on the Upper East Side and, you know, Judaism wasn't of much importance the way I was raised. We talked about being Jewish. My father grew up with antisemitism. He grew up on the West side of Manhattan, you know, always told me a story about getting bullied. There was a bunch of Irish kids that would come from the Upper West Side and bully his gang. And then one day his gang of friends - “gang”, they were, you know, like a bunch of, you know, Jewish kids that played stick ball. One day, the Irish kids, the biggest one is they called him Red, said to my father, ‘you killed Christ’. And my father was 10. He's like, ‘I didn't kill f*cking Christ’. And, you know, the next thing you know, my father's friends were gone, and my father was standing there with these six or seven Irish kids, and my father fought the the biggest one to a draw. And he always talked about that proudly and he always talked about standing up for himself and, you know, as a Jewish person… being Jewish wasn't, it wasn't sort of emphasized in our home. My brother was bar mitzvah’d, I thought I was going to be in the NBA. I couldn't go to Hebrew school on Sundays and Wednesdays because I needed to practice.
DS: By the way, by the way. My kids are here. So please don't give them any ideas.
MR: Stay in Hebrew school.
DS: Thank you.
MR: Trust me, trust me. You know, then when I started acting, you know, again, these are things that were, you know, sort of stuck with me. My father never loved the stereotypical Woody Allen, Larry David, you know, sort of stammering, you know, Jewish persona that we all love to be entertained by - he just didn't want me to do that. So he put that in my head. And, you know, I grew up. You know, and started acting and, you know, doing all my things. And, you know, being Jewish was just, it's how I led with things. Cause especially growing up with blondish red hair, people were always like, ‘you Irish, what are you?’ And I'm like, ‘yo, I'm Jewish,’ but I never had antisemitism. It wasn't a big thing for me. I just had, you know, my whole family's Jewish. And when the Charlottesville situation happened, when those Tiki torch kids were running around Charlottesville that Friday night. And they said, ‘Jews will not replace us.’ That really, really resonated with me. I was offended by that and concerned by that. And I did a social media post sweating with my dog on a Saturday morning, just similar to the way I do the posts now. But it was like, you know, ‘f*ck this. F*ck you and your tiki torching. If Jews were going to replace anybody, you'd be the last people we'd want to replace.’ But I had never seen - it was like very, it was concerning to me.
DS: Yeah.
MR: I never had to know how social media works, and that got a lot of attention from all races, creeds and colors across the board. It was simply about that. It wasn't about the politics of it that came afterwards. It was simply about that. And then with the Kanye West anti Jewish stuff, I was very, very, very concerned about that, because this is a very prominent person. He was saying crazy things, you know, very openly, and continued to double down and triple down on it. And I was saying things about that.
DS: Okay, pause there. Because I want to ask you about - we'll get to the aftermath of October 7th, but just, where were you on October 7th, and I guess my first question is, where were you?
Just describe how you learned about events and how you were processing it in real time.
MR: Okay, so I was performing that night, October 7th in Israel. I was performing -
DS: October 6th.
MR: October 6th, Atlanta. I was doing comedy. And I had done two shows, and you know, I'm not a late person, and I went to sleep later than I normally do. I like to go to sleep early. I woke up the next morning, flooded with DMs, from text. Flooded, flooded, flooded. ‘You see what's going on?’ I didn't see it the night before. Flooded. And I was like, Oh shit, you know, and I woke up kind of later than I normally do. And I was, you know, just kind of gathering everything. And by the time that, you know, I was really sort of ready to, you know, start my day, I went on stage again, the 7th of October in Atlanta. I did two shows. And then the next morning I flew back to New York, the 8th, which was the Sunday. And I was catching what was going on but I was kind of sleep deprived so I wasn't paying, I wasn't on my phone as much as people would expect me to be, because I'm on my phone a lot.
DS: Yeah.
MR: A lot, a lot.
DS: No, no, I know.
MR: Way more than I should be.
DS: We know. We know.
MR: Okay, okay. I got, like, wrist issues from it. And the 8th, when I flew back, there was rallies in New York, and there were pro Israel rallies and there were, you know, pro Palestine rallies, and by the time I was sort of really understanding the enormity and the violence of what was happening, I saw this girl on the news going like this to these Israeli people - in Times Square in New York City. And I was, then I started really, on my phone and on the news and I was like, holy shit, and realized the severity. And you know, Dan, I mean, I talked to you about this. I grew up - I wasn't an expert on the history of Israel, or certainly don't even consider myself an expert on the conflict of Palestine and Israel. I still don't consider myself an expert, but I know a lot, a lot more than I did on October 8th than I did now. And, but I just - from the violence and the videos that were being shown, like, I knew that it was something bad and something substantial. And then the reaction, to be totally honest, the reaction on the 9th, that Monday, and like, seeing people celebrate the shit in New York. In New York, where I'm from, which, you know, is a city for everybody - for white, black, Puerto Rican, Jews - this is a Jewish city, especially New York. There's no, like, I never had - to me, the melting pot is real to me, but to see people celebrate this kind of violence in real time… I don't know, it was like a fight or flight and something just… I just was on attack mode. Because I was scared. I was scared of what I was seeing.
DS: But there's been violence against Israel and Israelis for, you know, as long as Israel's existed, but in very gruesome ways, in terms of more modern forms of terrorism. You look at the second Intifada in the early 2000s, over thousand Israelis slaughtered in suicide bombings. And you go to, obviously there have been wars between Hamas and Israel, 2008, 2009, 2012, 2014. 2018, 2020 - I mean every couple of years there's one of these skirmishes and there was - 2014 lasted over 50 days, there was a major ground operation in Israel, Israel lost a lot of troops in that war. So, there have been things happening, and yet you knew this one was different.
MR: I never saw celebrating in my own city about this. And that, along with what I was seeing, the video, the stuff that was popping up on social media was shocking. It was shocking to me to see that. I remember the first couple of ones that I saw, you know, like it was like, you'd see 17 seconds, and 30 seconds, and you know, a dog getting shot and was like, what the f*ck is this? So to see it, and then see the reaction and hear the reaction and the social media of it all, something, you know, was very, very… it's just a primal sort of thing. My reaction was primal and I, you know, I said something on social media, the 9th, you know, combative. And to be on this crazy journey that I didn't expect.
DS: So one of the stops on the journey was November 14th, which was the date of the rally in DC, which you went to, and you talked to me about what you were planning to do at that rally, and what you ended up doing at that rally. So can you tell us a little bit about that?
MR: So, up until the 14th at DC Rally - first of all, I had never been to any kind of rally. No rally, like, and obviously the Knicks haven't won since I've been - so I, there's no Yankee Parade, no rallies, no nothing, no anything. Social, nothing. President, nothing. Never. I had been talking a lot, very adamantly, on social media and on my podcast. You know, very pro Jewish, pro Israel, pro Zionist, in the way that I do, which is confrontational in a way.
DS: You're confrontational?
Laughter
MR: Yeah. I give the appearance that I am. Yeah. And they had asked me about speaking at the rally and, you know, me and my wife were like - ‘speak at the rally?’ Like, they were, you know, calling my agents, ‘you speak at the rally’. And I got the first list of people that were going, and originally it was a lot of politicians and Biden's name was up there. And Kamala Harris was going to speak and I was like, ‘I'm not speaking at this sh*t. I'm not even going.’ Like, what am I gonna do? Like, I'm not going up there with - what am I going to say? Then I wasn't going to go. And then my friend and my wife were like, let's just go. Let's just go and watch. And I was down there and bop, bop, bop, bop, bop. I'm watching and it was very beautiful. But the vibe, and the conversation, and the speakers were not saying what I felt like needed to be said. And I went backstage cause I was close and they were like, ‘are you speaking?’ I was like, no. And then, you know, a lot of people were coming over to me. ‘Are you speaking?’ And then my wife and my friend were like, ‘you should speak.’ So I said, you know, I'll speak. And, you know, this is like two and a half hours into a long rally. And, but I just wanted to say - the thing that wasn't being said was, and then I said this, and I realized how crazy it was to say it, but I said it in front of the 500,000 people that turned up there and I said, ‘there ain't going to be no ceasefire until the hostages are returned.’
Applause
And I said that out loud, and I said, ‘the world will thank us later.’ And, you know, I said some other things and I cursed and you know, it was cool and I was like, oh, that was crazy. But the thing that I left with and my wife, when we were talking, we were like, ‘why am I talking?’
DS: Like, ‘who am I?’
MR: Like, I understand there's a pedestal of Hollywood celebrities, actors, who have made their career and their bones off of presenting themselves as Jews. Why am I the only male from my business, which is a Jewish - you know, like so many Jewish celebrities, why am I talking?
Applause
And I was glad I spoke, but we walked away, I was like, there's no one that could come up here and like, just, they don't have to be as bombastic, but can sing a song? And just, you know, ‘I'm here for you guys, I'm with you.’ You know, something. And that was another sort of step in this journey. And then a week later, 10 days later, we were in Israel, for the very first time in my life. I had never been to Israel, never been to Israel.
DS: So wait, what date, roughly? That was late November?
MR: November 20 something.
DS: Yeah. So I remember seeing footage of you there, and I'm thinking, wow, he's there quickly.
It was barely a month after October 7th.
MR: And I was rocked by that. And my wife and I originally, we had a plan to go in December after October 7th. We're like, we're not going. And then, you know, even before the DC rally, we were like, we have to go. We have to be with our people. We have to go.
Applause
And we went and Dan, you know, what I saw in November, it rocked me top to bottom. It rocked me. It inspired me. It was shocking to see that. It was shocking to see what I saw in the kibbutz. And as soon as I got there, you know, I landed like 4:30 in the morning and we drove by hostage square, which became this place. And we stopped at 4:30 in the morning and to see no one there, but to feel the horror and the sadness when no one was there, that was just the beginning of a crazy two week trip. And then that same day, you know, we went from the hostage square. I went back to the hotel and took a shower and had some coffee. And then we went right down south to Kibbutz Be’eri and, you know, everybody has seen it. I don't need to go into - I saw everything. And smelled everything. And, that whole trip was, it just hit me in my heart so badly. You know, and then I've been back two other times since we've been there, six weeks total. And we have another trip planned. You know, as much time as I spent not going to Israel, I know that Israel going forward will be such a big part of my life going forward.
Applause
DS: Obviously, you've become a real persona in Israel. And you are celebrated for everyone you've locked arms with. You've spoken at the hostage families’ rallies. You've - you can applaud, that's alright.
Applause
But one thing I think you have done that very few others have done, is, you've become a real ally and champion for the local creative arts industry in Israel, particularly the TV industry, particularly Eretz Nehederet, which is Israel's version of Saturday Night Live, and they heard you were in town, and what? Keep in mind, for those who don't know Eretz Nehederet, it is literally Israel's Saturday Night Live, but much better - because it's actually funny.
MR: And they got balls. They got balls.
DS: They got balls. Alright, they go places that no one over here will go, and they are extremely tough on their government, at peacetime and at war. And yet they were shocked by what they were seeing was happening over here.
MR: They were shocked by what they were seeing over here, and then the week before I got there, Saturday Night Live did a shit job of the context hearings, the famous context hearings. So it was just timing, they found out the day before I was going, and they sent me a script, and I said, I'll do it, I'll do it, because I saw what they had done, and I didn't read the script, I said, you know, I'll do it. And I actually did that, that was actually, we did that the first day also. It was actually Hostage Square, Eretz Nehederet, and then Be’eri.
DS: Right. A typical itinerary for people who travel to Israel.
Laughter
MR: Yeah, and we did this incredible, funny skit based on… what is the name of those movies?
The JK Rowlings?
DS: Harry Potter.
MR: Which I've never seen. I didn't even know the references, I've never seen any of them.
Laughter
Listen, I didn't read the books either. So let alone - so, but you know, just to tell you, you know, when you, a production in America, even a small, I've done some small independent films, you know, when you walk into a production in Israel, you're in a soundstage. There's a guy at the top smoking a cigarette, in the soundstage.
Laughter
You know, the trailer that you're getting the makeup on is like, literally slanted like this. It's a whole other thing. But we knocked it out, and it was, it was, really, really, really, really, really, really good, and really well received, and really hard hitting. And it was in English obviously. And it just smashed that whole context thing. I was so glad that there was a voice for it because, you know, it used to be that Saturday Night Live was the voice for that. And they really f*cked us badly on that, and they f*cked the Jews, and they f*cked Israel, and it was weak and it was embarrassing the way they did it. That being said, I was glad I did it, and then I did another skit.
DS: So that was on another trip.
MR: That was my third.
DS: About the Oscars. So that one, have you guys all seen the Oscars?
Applause
So it was before the Oscars.
MR: We shot it two weeks before the Oscars.
DS: So you're coming to Israel, and they say, ‘hey, can we do another one?’
MR: Yes.
DS: Okay, so what was it?
MR: I go to the soundstage, the same guy smoking in the soundstage.
Laughter
Which is, you gotta understand, that's like not allowed. This guy was up there. I think he had been there the whole time since I came back. At this point, this is February, I believe. There had been award shows. There had been the Golden Globes. There had been the Emmys. There had been, maybe the People's Choice Awards. And, I think I might have said something about it on social media, but at one of the bigger award shows - the Emmys, you know, and we know traditionally in Hollywood, from all the way back, from when Marlon Brando spoke about the Native Americans, to recently… You know, show business, we talk about women's rights, LGBTQ, Black Lives Matter, pigeons dying, trees getting cut down… rambling on about everything. Some Americans, sometimes they'll be like, a Japanese director, you know, going, making a speech. And, you know, it's part of artists speaking out. Whether it's musicians - no musicians spoke out at the Grammys, which was during the same time. And not one person, up until the Oscars, said the word ‘hostages’. And after, I believe it was the Emmys, I was embarrassed. I was embarrassed, man. I was embarrassed that no one said anything. And by the time I got to do this second trip, this was the second trip. They said, ‘we're going to do something for the Oscars. It's beforehand.’ But you saw the writing on the wall. And we knew who needed to be, you know, sort of hit with the jokes, and we did it, and it was awesome and it was fun and it was great. And, you know, and it was just, you know, like a little bit of levity and a little, you know, humor for something, but it was stinging and biting and I was honored to do it.
Applause
DS: Douglas Murray, who, you know, he gave this extraordinary talk a few weeks ago at the Manhattan Institute and he had this one line that - it has stuck with me. Where he said some version of, and I'm not gonna do it exactly as he did it, because I don't have Douglas’s, I don't have that voice. But he said, there are moments in history where a flame goes up, a flash goes up, and everything is illuminated. And in that moment, in that flash of illumination, you can look all around you and you actually see in that flash where everyone stands. And that October 7th was one of those moments where the flash went up, and you looked around and you're like, ‘whoa, I now know where he stands. I know now where she stands.’ Some of them are surprising in a positive way and some of them are really surprising in a disappointing way. And when we first had lunch -
MR: That was like a three hour epic sushi lunch.
DS: It was, it was.
MR: Dan paid. That's why it was three hours.
DS: It was like, he kept going. I was like, sashimi again? We really went after it at that lunch, but you, and I'm not gonna ask you to name names now, but at the lunch, you did name names. And you talked a little bit about - you really couldn't believe who had disappointed you. And ,can you talk a little bit about that? Because I know you referenced it earlier, but Scott Galloway, who was on our podcast, he talked about that too. He said he was going to the CEOs of investment banks, he was going to the CEOs of talent agencies, and saying - who are Jewish - why aren't you… like, you have so much influence. Why aren't you doing this or that? And they all have unsatisfactory answers.
MR: You know, I won't say names because I have made a pledge to myself. Cause I say a lot, I say a lot about a lot of people. I've tried to, 99%, to not publicly disparage any Jewish people, even if I don't agree with them. That's why I'm not naming names and all that stuff. And I just don't want to do that because we're being disparaged enough by everybody else. So, you know, the actors, people know who they are. You know, it is what it is. But it wasn't just that. You know, I'm a huge sports fan, the whole - Colin Kaepernick in the NFL. I'm a ginormous NBA fan. I've been on all the sports shows, ESPN.
DS: You have a huge sports podcast, sports focus.
MR: Across the board, and for nothing to be said… and knowing that when Brittany Griner - who f*cked up, she made a mistake, but she shouldn't have been held in jail that long. But every day on ESPN, every single day, they said, ‘free Brittany Griner’, WNBA, NBA, ‘free Brittany Griner’. Nobody is saying, nobody is saying anything, just about the hostages, or about the American hostages. It doesn’t have to be Jewish or Israel. You can say ‘free the hostages’ and want peace. But just the fact that no one was saying any of this. And just see what was going on on social media, to see these marches, and to see the antisemitism and to see what was going on against Israel. And listening to your podcast - I mean, I told you this, and listening to other people's podcasts and really, you know, really informing myself as an adult when I'm looking to learn and getting everything clear. And also… that one big thing that my father always told me was, ‘don't be a p**** Jew.’ And that doesn't just mean physical, you know. It sounds like it means like, you know, physical - it's a mentality, you know, and it's an emotion. And all those things combined, and the trip to Israel was really like - I mean, I was already all in at that point. But after all of seeing all that, and meeting the people that I met, and reading and listening and understanding… I'm a Jew, you know. And we are under siege.
Applause
And Israel's under siege. And to see Jews say nothing, it was disappointing, and embarrassing, and concerning.
DS: So, and I know this is not a happy topic, but it's important for people to know. You've been on tour, you're selling out these venues. And you've had two events, one in Michigan, in suburban Detroit, and one outside of Chicago, that have just been canceled, even though there was huge demand for the events.
MR: Yeah.
DS: The venues, at the 11th hour said, ‘We're canceling.’ Tell us about that.
MR: The shows in Royal Oak, Michigan, you know, I don't know exactly how it works, but they were calling the club… you know, Michigan, Dearborn, that place is like a, um, somebody's going to get elected or not at this point. It's that much relevance. The kowtowing and the Rashida Tlaib of it all and all that sh*t. But the club was getting threatened. ‘We're going to do this to the club. We're going to do this to your workers. We're going to - f*cking Michael Rapport.’ The way it works is you get a phone call from your agent. They're scared. I go, I'm going.
DS: How soon before the event?
MR: This is about two weeks before.
DS: And the agent is saying, ‘Hey, we really should rethink this’?
MR: He's kind of feeling me out. And I'm like, ‘we're going. We're going. I'm going.’
DS: And he's like, ‘you need a new agent.’
MR: Yeah. No, he's just checking your pulse, you know, checking your temperature. And then we told the club, ‘we're going, we're not canceling.’ And then the club finally said, ‘we're canceling it. We'll pay you, but we're canceling it.’ That's how serious it was. So, I was really disappointed about that. I was embarrassed. You know, I was talking to my wife, and she's like, ‘why are you embarrassed?’ I was like, because they f*cking got what they wanted. You know, they canceled the show. And they threatened and - you know, it's not a precedent to be set. And I haven't done anything wrong. That's what I know about this whole canceling thing.
Applause
Like, I know that in my guts, I haven't done anything wrong - even though I'm bombastic and confrontational the way I defend Israel and the way I defend being Jewish and the way I defend my Judaism. I know that I haven't said anything that I need to apologize about. So, I told my agent, and I said it out of my pocket, ‘I'm not canceling sh*t. I'm not canceling anything going forward. I don't care if it's just me. I'm doing my f*cking shows.’ And I was really adamant about that. And I made that pledge, and I told my agent, I said, don't cancel any more f*cking shows. It's not happening. Couple of days later he goes, ‘Batavia, Illinois,’ which, I didn't even know Batavia, Illinois was a place.
Laughter
The club, which was very supportive, they were like, ‘we're getting threats, they're threatening the club, they're threatening the staff.’ Which, you know, they're waitstaff, they're young, they don't want the shit. They were contacting people that work, waiters and waitresses, they were threatening them: ‘we're gonna kill Michael Rapaport.’ This is what they were saying. And I said, I'm going to f*cking Illinois and doing these f*cking shows. I don't care. He said, ‘well, the police -’ honestly, you don't, you don't even have to clap, because in my gut, I know that it's right. In my gut, I know that it's right. And I'm not a tough guy. I sound tougher than I am because of my accent. But I was, you know, this is already seven months into this sh*t. So this is two, three weeks ago. So I reached out to somebody, an Israeli security service said, ‘we'll do private security. We do it for big shows and live events and festivals, we'll do it.’ So I put him in touch with the club. You know, it's all sort of getting lined up. Finally, the club's like, ‘we're canceling the show. We're rescheduling it.’ And they were supportive, I believe it was a Jewish woman. But she didn't feel right about it, so we're rescheduling. So I was like, alright, f*ck, we're canceling the show. And I never ever think that these things will come in the media. I thought, alright, they're going to cancel it, I'm just going to have to eat my words. It's out of my control, they're refusing to let me perform. And then it gets in the media. I don't know how it got in the media and I really felt embarrassed again. I felt embarrassed. And almost like, you know… I woke up, this was Thursday. And I woke up, you know, and I got on my phone and I saw that it was in the press. I don't think I had slept good and I just was like - it was really upsetting to me. Because again, they got what they wanted. And they were taunting on social media: ‘We canceled your shows, we canceled this f*cking Zionist’s shows, we canceled these shows.’ And it was in NBC Chicago. And it wasn't the shows, it wasn't the money. What concerned me and what really was bothersome - Friday, it was Friday, it was this past Friday. Was that if they're gonna cancel me, and I know that people are already hesitant and concerned about speaking out, and they're doing that, and it's become a public thing - what's gonna happen to the people that are already on the fence and freaked out and concerned? Like, I didn't want other people to be concerned and scared about them getting canceled, or them not being able to say anything, because they're going after me. And they're going after people bigger than me. They want to, like, shut you up. And that will not shut me up. You know, my wife, when we talked about it, she goes, you know, ‘Where are you at?’ I said, I'm, intuitively, in my blood, in my guts, there's not going to be anything that's going to make me back away or to take a step backwards in where I am as a Jewish person and where I am as a Zionist and where I am as a person. Like that's not happening.
DS: All right, so I want to talk about you as a Jewish person. You and I have talked about this. I think there's a tendency since October 7th for a lot of Jews - you know, sort of ‘October 8th Jews’. You know, Jews who on October 8th were awakened - but so much of their Judaism is now expressed solely in terms of fighting anti semitism - which is important, by the way, that we're fighting anti semitism. But I’m often amused, we're all in these WhatsApp group chats now. I tell Campbell, I call them the ‘can you believe’ WhatsApp groups. Because all they are is people circulating different articles and saying, ‘can you believe?’ ‘The New York Times said this?’ ‘Can you believe - the Guardian, the BBC, Christiane Amanpour, can you believe?’ And then all everyone does is they take it and they send it to all their other WhatsApp groups and say, ‘can you believe’. Which is important, because it's community building and it's energizing. But the sole expression of one's Judaism cannot be, ‘can you believe’ - right? There's gotta be more to it. And we haven't survived thousands of years solely by fighting anti semites. We fight anti semites. But we also live Jewish lives. And that's actually the real way. It's not just the burdens of Judaism, but the joy of Judaism, the rituals of Judaism, the community of Judaism, being Jewishly literate.
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That is something the Jewish people have maintained and had continuity and had commitment to throughout the centuries. Literally, every century you can find insane antisemitism. We're experiencing some of it right now, and yet Jews haven't stopped being Jews. Tell me about your Jewish life, because you're not just yelling on Instagram at the anti semites. You also have been trying to learn.
MR: That's been sort of the last six years, eight years I would say. You know, my wife is a big part of that. We started doing our little Shabbat stuff, or going to Shabbats. When we moved, we, you know, put mezuzahs all over. You know, the Shabbats, for someone who didn't grow up going to a lot of Shabbats - and we do, a lot of times, we do the Park Avenue Synagogue, like a Zoom Shabbat. It’s a lot, it's tough, it's long, and you know, it's - but it's also important. So that had been going on, you know, before October 7th.
DS: I see you put on Tefillin now.
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MR: Every morning. Yeah, every morning. And I love doing that, and I love learning more about, just, you know, what it means to be Jewish, and what it means, what my Judaism is, and just getting a better and deeper understanding of so much of it. Because the thing that's clear - you know, we talk about these ‘as a Jew’ Jews.
DS: By the way, just before what Michael's talking about - he and I joke about this offline. The Jews, every week: the CNN's basically person of the week is some Jew who's criticizing Israel, right? In so many words, right? And they're always: ‘as a Jew, I am deeply worried about this,’ you know, Israel's campaign in Rafah. ‘As a Jew, I…’ And so, as you know, Eli Lake, who has a fantastic podcast called ‘The Re-Education’, did a whole podcast and wrote a piece for Commentary called ‘The history of ‘as a Jew’’. And ‘as a Jew’ has existed throughout like Jewish history. There are always ‘as a Jew’s. And they're always a tiny, tiny, tiny percentage of the Jewish people, but they have an outsized microphone because the antisemites -
MR: They love 'em.
DS: Right. They wanna credential them because they get to say, ‘as a Jew, I hate Israel as much as the CNN interviewer does’. So, go ahead, ‘as a Jew’.
MR: No, and Eli, because he said you talk about this all the time. And I was like, what the f*ck is an ‘as a Jew’ Jew? And he [told me] and I said, oh, that's it. And the thing that I was seeing on social media, and on CNN or wherever, it was like - ‘as a Jew’. And one of the things that I ranted about was: you can say ‘as a Jew’, this, you could say ‘as a Jew’, that, and you could put up watermelons and ‘free Palestine’ and explain all this bullsh*t you want. But just know that if you were in Israel on October 7th, you would be treated… ‘as a Jew’.
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Like, you would be treated just like us. Like all of us. And your f*cking flags, and your watermelon posts, and what's on your shirt, and that sh*t's not - they don't give a f*ck about any of that. And, you know, these have been sort of like, just steps and bridges. And it's been a lonely time. You know, one of the things is that, you know, it has been lonely. Because I have lost friendships with non Jews that have, you know - 20 something year friendships, people have disappeared, literally disappeared. So it's just been this storm of all these things that's gotten me to this place where I am.
DS: Before we bring up a couple of the special guests I want to bring up, for a few minutes. We've talked about how inspired you have been, not just by, at Eretz Nehederet, the guy who's doing the lighting who's smoking. But just Israelis you have come across that have, like, you're blown away by these people. They really do - it's a nation and a people that has been shattered, and out of that shattering, there's these incredibly inspiring people.
MR: I mean, I could go on and on and on about the people that I've come across in Israel, just at the coffee shops, the Hatzalah gentlemen, my friend who was shooting video content of me who's in the north who I'm worried sick about, it's this beautiful Druze man named Emil. To a couple of people that I met, this good looking guy, almost looks like a George Clooney, he has a tech company, startup company in Israel. ‘Startup Nation.’ You know, he was in the reserves and he just had a baby four months before he went in. Baby, coincidentally, was named Be’eri. And I met him at the Sheba Hospital because he was friends with my friend. And he told me about his story and it was literally like a movie. It was like, what he was telling me was literally - and the way he was telling it to me was literally like a movie. When he was in Gaza, he had gotten shot and shrapnel all over him and he couldn't breathe and he couldn't breathe. And they were trying to get him to speak. And the first thing that came out of his mouth was ‘Be’eri’, his baby's name. And you know, and I met him four months later, he's doing so much better. To the lone soldiers that I've met from New York, which really tripped me out, man. They tripped me out. Like, this one kid, Aaron, who's got a very good social media presence, from Long Island. And my mother's from Long Island. And, you know, I'm from the city, so I'm always like - Long Island, you know, it's Long Island. You know, but to find these people, these kids, this young kid, that went back into Gaza - you know, a reservist who decided on his own to go back in, and he got injured too pretty badly. And I met him when I was at the Sheba hospital. He was on crutches and you know, his leg was - and he just started talking sh*t to me about the Knicks. You know, and we've become friends. So there's been so many people like that. And women, and obviously hostage families. This one young man, Ofir Engel, who I met, his aunt because she had reached out to me about being on the podcast because he was one of the first released hostages. And when I met her, when she did my podcast, I just tried to help get the word out. And then my first trip to Israel, he had gotten out and I never met him - and I was crying, meeting him because I was like, there he is. And his aunt was like a different person. The distress and the demoralization and the worry that she had had.
DS: Yeah. You know, Bill McGurn, who writes a column for the Wall Street Journal, wrote a piece around the State of the Union address, right before the State of the Union address. He interviewed in that piece Ruby Chen, who's the father of Itay Chen, who tragically died on October 7th at the time they thought he was still being held hostage. He was killed. He was killed in his tank on October 7th. And Bill McGurn said - and there were families, American families of these Israelis, parents of Israeli Americans, American Israelis that were being held hostage, who attended the State of the Union as guests of members of Congress, Republican and Democrat. But the president acknowledged them, not by name, but acknowledged that they were in the hall. But he kind of made the point, McGurn in this column, which is a very good column, it's worth pulling up, that Michael made - why aren't these people household names? They're American citizens, and the reason, the reality is, they're not American citizens, you can come up with a number of reasons, not the least of which is - it's just anti Semitism. It's, what you're saying, Michael, which is like, it's qualified American. You know, ‘well, you're American, but you're also a dual nationality.’ So it's like it's a qualified Americanism. But American or not, these people are also on the front lines of a civilizational war. So, these Israelis, whether they're Israeli Americans or they are single nationality Israelis, they are on the front lines of a civilizational war whose outcome matters a lot to the United States, right? We have, for three administrations, right? Obama, Trump, and then Biden gradually have been withdrawing from the Middle East. Which means we really depend on Israel, and we really depend on the IDF, and we really depend on Israel's intelligence services to play a role for us in the Middle East generally. And these people were massacred because they live in Israel. And they are on the front lines. So, of course the Americans should be household names in America, but it's also outrageous that we even have to have this discussion, because these Israeli soldiers are on the front lines of a war that matters to everyday American life.
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MR: You know, being from Long Island, to talk to him, they sound like me. His family sounds like me. That really - to me, it should be every baseball team, every news local news, it should be every single day.
DS: You were telling me earlier today that the back of football helmets, even now, the NFL, it's like - they still have political slogans.
MR: They still have political slogans, but like, you know, being from Long Island and not - it should be all the Americans. At least the American hostages. But it's just not the case. It's because they're Jewish. And the more rational reasons you have to not let it really resonate in your heart, the better it is, you can just keep pushing it away and pushing it down.
DS: I remember someone, a British journalist said to me, who's Jewish, what was most striking to him when he went to Israel - around that time actually, a little after you were there on your first trip. And he said the most eerie thing for him, and I guess in a positive way, but in a tragic way, was when he walked around Tel Aviv, what he was so struck by is that the posters of the hostages were fully intact.
MR: 100%.
DS: They were like, wow. Like, this is not controversial here.
MR: Dan, after 9/11, you know, I was in New York, like I'm sure most people were in New York. There were missing posters all over the city. Thousands of them. You wouldn't make it out alive if you breathed on one of those posters, let alone ripped it down or defaced it. That wouldn’t even be a thought in your head to defame one of those posters in New York. And that poster ripping down thing was shocking.
DS: Yeah.
MR: And to have it in New York of all places was crazy to me.
DS: Yeah. I interviewed - this is sort of like previewing a future episode. I interviewed, the other day, Tzipi Livni, the former foreign minister of Israel, which will, I don't know, Ilan can tell us. It'll air in a, it'll post in a couple of days. And she said, which I'll say now, I was surprised she said this: she was a huge advocate for releasing the 47 minute video very publicly soon after October 7th, even though the government was against it. At this point she's out of government. And she wanted that video released. She understands why there was pushback on releasing it, and I was arguing in the podcast, well you can still release it now, it's not too late. And she said something - she says, after these events, there are these images that become iconic in the best and worst possible ways. So 9/11 you mentioned, the person falling from the, jumping from the Twin Tower: that was like an image that seared in our minds how desperate people were as those planes destroyed those buildings. She said, ISIS, we have the image of that video where they slice the guy’s, they slice his neck. That image, and it went viral, that image. And she said, ‘where were our images after October 7th?’ And they were there, and they weren't really released. And then recently, that video of the four young women, the four girls at the army base - which is brutal, but even now it gets, like, a 40 second play on BBC. And then that's it. And then we've, you know, we've kind of lost that.
MR: The fact that people will go, ‘Well, it's resistance.’ And then make all these excuses for the sh*t is… it goes to show. It shakes my head up, because that's like, there's an excuse for that kind of violence.
DS: Michael, you do talk a lot about the people you would, I don't know, ‘kill’, maybe too strong a word. But you do, in your social media, you express a lot of hostility. And I respect that. You know, FDR famously said, ‘I want to be admired for my enemies.’ I admire you for your enemies, Michael Rapaport.
Applause
Yeah.
MR: Absolutely.
DS: That is Michael Rapaport. So listen to his podcast, and if you don't already, follow him on social media. And just get ready for a lot of stuff. But you'll like it. Because actually, the truth is, we all want to be angry. And he can be angry for you. You don't have to be angry. He's like, he can… Michael is so talented at being angry that he can be the vessel for your anger. Michael Rapaport. Thank you everyone.
That's our show for today. To keep up with Michael Rapaport, you can find him on X at Michael Rapaport. You can find him on Instagram, Michael Rapaport. You should subscribe to his podcast, which is a lot about sports, but also a lot about issues we discuss in today's conversation. It is called ‘I Am Rapaport’, and you can find it wherever you find podcasts. Call me Back is produced and edited by Ilan Benatar. Our media manager is Rebecca Strom. Additional editing from Martin Huergo. Until next time, I'm your host, Dan Senor.