By EMILY BURACK<\/p>\n
(JTA) \u2014 When Adam Sandler was shut out of this year\u2019s Academy Award nominations for \u201cUncut Gems,\u201d the Oscars lost out on the chance to have an acceptance speech as hilarious as the one Sandler delivered Saturday at the Independent Film Spirit Awards.<\/p>\n
But this year\u2019s Oscars had some pretty wonderful Jewish moments nonetheless. Here\u2019s a roundup.
\nM\u0101ori Jewish director, writer and actor Taika Waititi had a big moment<\/p>\n
Waititi, 44, took home the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for \u201cJojo Rabbit,\u201d his first Oscar win and the first ever by an Indigenous director. Waititi\u2019s \u201canti-hate\u201d satire about a boy who has Adolf Hitler as an imaginary friend, was up for six awards, but Waititi\u2019s win was the only one for the film.<\/p>\n
The director dedicated the award to \u201call the Indigenous kids in the world who want to do art and dance and write stories. We are the original storytellers and we can make it here as well.\u201d Waititi\u2019s father is from the Te Wh\u0101nau-\u0101-Apanui, a M\u0101ori tribe.<\/p>\n
He also shouted out his Jewish mom: \u201cThank you for being my mother, and for many other reasons, but for giving me the book that I adapted. This film wouldn\u2019t have existed without you doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Waititi\u2019s mom, Robin Cohen, told her son to read \u201cCaging Skies\u201d by Christine Leunens \u2014 the story that Waititi adapted into his satirical film.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday, we know Hitler as the evil madman who engineered the torture and murder of millions of people,\u201d Cohen told Variety. \u201cBut if we don\u2019t think more deeply about how he convinced half the world to help him, we leave the door open to a repeat performance. When Taika depicts him as the affable hero of a small boy\u2019s imagination, our idea of Hitler is skewed like a needle scratching across a record. This imaginary Hitler reminds us of an uncomfortable reality \u2014 that in the right climate, what we come to imagine can be deadly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jewish actress Natalie Portman and Jewish actor Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet presented Waititi with the award.<\/p>\n
In the press room after winning, Waititi echoed his mother\u2019s sentiment on the prescience of the film. He said he made the film in response to a \u201cresurgence of hate and intolerance and hate speech.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the end of the war, there was a very clear rule: if you were a Nazi, you went to jail. Now, the rules have changed a bit: if you\u2019re a Nazi, feel free to have a rally down in the town square and you can invite all your mates. So, something\u2019s changed and something\u2019s not right.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n#JoJoRabbit<\/a> director Taika Waititi says he doesn't understand why Nazis are allowed to hold rallies these days when they used to be thrown in jail #Oscars<\/a> https:\/\/t.co\/tU5RoHIcJU<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/7fHAVjazIO<\/a><\/p>\n
— Variety (@Variety) February 10, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n