How LA Photographer Zusha Goldin Is Rallying Celebrities To Fight Antisemitism

“Kill yourself…”

“Warm up the oven…”

“Gas the Jews…”

Those are just a few choice selections out of hundreds of Antisemitic comments on social media received by Zusha Goldin, a celebrity photographer based in Los Angeles.

Over the last four-and-a-half years, the 25-year-old Goldin (youngest of 11 children from an ultra-Orthodox family in Brooklyn’s Chabad Lubavitch enclave) has steadily built up an impressive reputation in the exclusive world of entertainment, brushing shoulders with the likes of Ben Stiller, Selena Gomez, Courtney Cox, and Bryan Cranston. “I wanted to tell stories and create art in a very powerful, big way,” he tells me over Zoom. “That’s why you go into Hollywood.”

One thing he wasn’t prepared for, however, was the amount of anti-Jewish vitriol he and his photographic subjects would face online. “Anyone who’s showing up visibly Jewish, whether it’s with a kippah on their head or if they [wear] a Star of David — or if they just present as Jewish — they’re receiving these type of comments,” he explains. “I’ve been receiving this ever since I’ve been on social media.”

Of course, such heinous remarks aren’t exclusive to TikTok and Instagram. “I was sitting at a coffee shop with my [religious] friend … someone came and told us, ‘A second Holocaust is coming for you, Jews,’” Goldin remembers. “Or being on the subway in New York City and somebody’s trying to punch me in the face because they see that I’m Jewish … People are telling me to my face, ‘Boo-hoo, get over Antisemitism.’ People don’t realize what Jews are dealing with on the daily.”

While he never planned on getting into the world of activism, Goldin couldn’t sit idly by as anti-Jewish rhetoric and incidents began to rise exponentially throughout the globe since the Israel-Hamas war broke out in the wake of the Oct. 7 terror attack.

“I was like, ‘This is unacceptable,’” Goldin says. “Because if I’m feeling this way, what about all the thousands Jewish teenagers all around the world who are 15-years-old and are receiving these comments?”

As such, the photographer hatched a plan to leverage his industry connections, carefully cultivated since March 2020, to push back against the growing tide of bigotry. The result was Artists Against Antisemitism, “a coalition of artists and celebrities and influencers and athletes … using their art and their influence, and coming together to combat hate and Jew hatred.”

The goals of AAA, he continues, are to “raise awareness about the global [rise of] antisemitism, normalize celebrities, especially non-Jewish celebrities, standing up against antisemitism and de-politicizing standing up against Jew hatred. It shouldn’t be political to combat any form of hate.”

Easier said than done. It took Goldin around half a year to get the initiative off the ground, with plenty of rejections along the way from high-profile individuals — both Jewish and non-Jewish. “I’ve had few A-list celebrities tell me to my face, ‘I support you, but I don’t think it’s smart for me to do this right now,’” he notes.

“But because it’s so scary, it’s never been more imperative to stand up. The time when you can have the biggest impact is when you need to be the most brave … I see that people are detaching themselves from me a little bit. It’s scary, but you’ve gotta stand up for what’s right. Do you want to be liked or do you want to be right?”

Thanks to some good ol’ fashioned chutzpah, Goldin never once gave up in frustration. Having come from “absolutely nothing — complete poverty — no connections, no anything,” he knows a thing or two about realizing a dream in the face of adversity. The tenacious photographer continued to reach out to publicists and agents until he had a solid roster of actors and influencers willing to pose with blown-up screenshots of blatantly Antisemitic comments taken from social media.

After six months of hard work and perseverance, Artists Against Antisemitism held its debut exhibition in Los Angeles this past May with involvement from Ginnifer Goodwin (Once Upon a Time), Tiffany Haddish (The Afterparty), Paul Walter Hauser (Fantastic Four: First Steps), Julianna Margulies (The Good Wife), Debra Messing (Will & Grace), and more. “Seeing other people stand up empowers me and inspires me and gives me a sense of community,” Goldin says. “My hope is to keep it very social media-oriented and continue empowering and making an impact.”

The invite-only event (organized in collaboration with Shanni Suissa, Siri Garber, Menachem Silverstein, Marla Friedson, Mimi Nadelle, Avi Peress, and Anna Platen) raised funds for Kavod Shef, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping Holocaust survivors living in poverty. “I didn’t make any money from this. I lost money, actually,” Goldin admits. “I put work on hold, but to me, this is work.”

Looking ahead, Goldin is gearing up for a second gallery exhibition in New York City dubbed “Comments for Peace,” which will feature “celebrities from diverse cultural backgrounds sharing pro-peace messages promoting coexistence and unity.”

The ultimate achievement would be to bring the initiative to major cities all around the world — from Miami to Tokyo. “It’s really to normalize being Jewish and normalize standing up for Jews, because it shouldn’t be this scary. It really shouldn’t,” he concludes.

“I want to build a community. It’s not just going to be exhibits, it won’t just be me as an artist. We can create room for all types of artists to come together to contribute their own work. I believe you can do anything you set your mind to. I’ve seen my life [and] it’s a miracle. Obviously, you need to have an element of luck, but you also create your own luck and really can do anything you set your mind to. You have the capacity to create the life you want to live and be the change you want to see in the world. I firmly believe in that. I’m doing it, so I know it’s true.”