Giant star Elliot Levey blasts UK’s antisemitism,…
One of the British stars of the Tony-nominated show “Giant” is battling antisemitism in artwork and in life — and he has a dire warning for New Yorkers.
Elliot Levey performs Jewish writer Tom Maschler reverse John Lithgow’s Roald Dahl in the critically acclaimed Broadway hit, a drama about the well-known kids’s creator’s antisemitism.
The show originated in London where Levey lives with his household.
‘Giant’ star Elliot Levey worries about the rising antisemitism in the UK. FilmMagic
There, the actor would have to dodge mobs of rabid anti-Israel protesters waving Palestinian flags and keffiyehs every Saturday on his manner to the West End theatre where the show was staged.
“[There were] thousands calling to globalize the intifada, which means to kill Jews around the world,” Levey, a self-proclaimed “proud Jew,” told The Post.
Working on Broadway has been a welcome reprieve.
“New York is the safest place for Jews on the planet,” he said.
It acquired so dangerous in London that Levey, a 52-year-old who was raised Orthodox and is now a secular Jew, would decide to bike to work from his home in the suburb of Muswell Hill just to keep away from the Tube-bound, keffiyeh-wearing mobs pre-show.
The Leeds native, who was once the only Jew in college, mourns for his mom nation, where the Jewish population is “dwindling.”
“It’s a numbers game – here you’re safe. You have numbers,” said the married father-of-three, noting that there’s just an “insignificant rump” of Anglo Jewry left in Britain.
Levey (far proper) stars in “Giant” with John Lithgow (from left), Aya Cash and Rachael Sterling.
According to the UK’s 2021 census, less than 300,000 people in the nation recognized as Jewish.
In the UK, antisemitism has struck too close to home.
Last 12 months, his 21-year-old son, Jacob, was called a “f–king Jew” for sporting a Star of David necklace on a “posh” London road.
In April, the synagogue in north London where his oldest son, Samuel, was bar mitzvahed – Finchley Reform Synagogue – was focused in an tried firebomb. Thankfully, the molotov cocktail failed to ignite.
Levey is particularly involved after last week’s council elections in England noticed good points for the far-left Green Party, which has focused Muslim voters and been accused of “Islamofascism.”
Levey received an Olivier Award for his work in the UK manufacturing of “Giant.” Getty Images
“Once there’s Islamofascism in power, then it’s time to quake,” he said. “People on the campaign openly call[ed] for the destruction of Jews [and celebrated Oct. 7, 2023] … People not just liked those posts, but wrote those posts.”
In late April, two Green celebration candidates had been arrested “on suspicion of stirring up racial hatred online,” according to Metropolitan Police. One reportedly shared photographs that included an armed man in a Hamas headband with the slogan “resistance is freedom” and another posted video claiming that an assault on a synagogue was “revenge” and “not antisemitism.” (A Green celebration spokesman said the posts didn’t replicate the celebration’s views.)
“The people have resurrected the blood libel,” The Oxford-educated actor said. “It’s alive and well in the voting booths and across the country.”
After the savage stabbings of two Orthodox males in a closely Jewish north London Golders Green neighborhood last month, Green Party chief Zack Polanski posted to social media criticizing arresting officers for their treatment of a suspect. After criticism, he apologized for writing the post “in haste.”
“The UK is in trouble, and we know what happens to countries in decline,” Levey said, alluding to a financially ailing post-WWI Germany that set the stage as a precursor to the rise of Hitler.
Living in a London suburb, antisemitism has hit close to home for Levey and his three sons (pictured). Courtesy of Elliot Levey
Just like some excessive factions believed Americans “had 9/11 coming. In the UK, despite the pieties, people do not care about the persecution of British Jews,” the actor asserted. “There’s a genuine feeling we had it coming.”
He cautions Jews in New York to defend the relative haven they’ve right here.
“Don’t let it go. Look after it,” he said. “You have this magic city. You’re safe and proud and confident. You can live a full open American life.”
“New York is the most secure place for Jews on the planet,
Elliot Levey
Without calling out any American politician by identify, the 2025 Olivier Award winner said he’s cautious of “slick American politicians” but “you guys like your slick suits and smiley faces.”
He quotes the great thinker and Holocaust survivor Primo Levi who said, “Be careful of charisma. It’s lethal.”
In the play, Levey’s character, Tom, is requested rhetorically, “If they came for you again, where would you go?”
Tom replies, “Provence,” a line that attracts enormous laughs.
Levey (heart) celebrated “Giant” and its Olivier Award wins with Mary Yeager (from left) and John Lithgow, his spouse Emma Loach, and Amy and Mark Rosenblatt. Courtesy of Elliot Levey
But the query is hardly theoretical for the actor who said industry mates have been swept up in “the barrage of Hamas propaganda.”
Rather than head to the south of France, Levey said that if “it all goes to shit,” he’d transfer his household to New York for good.
“America is still in its pomp, in your heyday,” said Levey, whose grandparents survived Eastern European pogroms before emigrating to England. “America is still Zion, the city on the hill.”
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