After months of escalating antisemitic sentiment consuming America’s cities and campuses, Hollywood heavyweight Ben Stiller has broken his silence in defense of Israel in an open letter to Time Magazine.

“Saying nothing at this point feels like I am betraying my own conscience. But what do you say? How does one express the complicated and very real feelings in this scary world of social media, where it seems any sentiment opens you to online vitriol from one side or another?” Stiller begins.

Though Stiller leaves no ambiguity in condemning the “unconscionable and reprehensible” acts of Hamas on October 7, he does not hesitate to denounce “bigotry of all kinds” fueling rising global hatred.

“There is a frightening amnesia for history in the air. We must remind ourselves that we can only manifest a more hopeful, just, and peaceful future by learning from the past,” the Zoolander star writes. “Antisemitism must be condemned whenever it happens and wherever it exists. As should Islamophobia and bigotry of all kinds.”

Stiller peppers his letter with frequent allusions to his Jewish ancestry, recalling how his parents fled Poland and Ukraine in the wake of pogroms preceding the Holocaust. The 57-year-old describes how growing up in an inclusive New York household he never experienced antisemitism as a child, only to find it metastasizing faster than ever since Hamas’ brutal massacre against Israel.

“Where we find ourselves now is a place I never thought I would be,” Stiller laments. “I am seeing it myself, on the streets of the city I grew up in. It isn’t right and must be denounced.”

Unlike the parade of celebrity voices who fuel today’s cycle of misinformation and cancel culture mobs, Stiller deserves immense credit for his candor on antisemitism’s insidious rise.