I guess this is Ambiguous Bigotry Sunday.
Following a theme that began with this morning’s ethics quiz, we now have the viral controversy over the obnoxious Lake Aswego (Oregon) Theater and Cafe marquee for “The Odyssey.”
On social media (and elsewhere), the theater’s owners are being accused of “disgustingly blatant antisemitism” as Hen Mazzig, an Israeli writer and senior fellow at the Tel Aviv Institute put it on “X.” I’m sorry I haven’t kept up on Lake Oswego movie theater marketing trends: apparently this one makes a habit of cheeky, politically provocative or otherwise controversial marquee messages. In February, for example, the theater’s message promoting “Melania,” the Amazon MGM documentary about First Lady Melania Trump, read, “To defeat your enemy, you must know them. Melania starts Friday.” Amazon pulled the movie from the theater, and the proprietors reacted with a “Who, us?” shrug.
That example is not irrelevant: Lake Oswego is heavily Democratic, reliably voting for Democratic candidates for all federal and state offices. The last time a Republican was favored by voters was in 2016, when it narrowly favored Republican Secretary of State candidate Dennis Richardson while the city and the state went into Hillary Clinton’s column in the Presidential race. Lake Oswego is in Oregon, one of the most fanatically progressive, Democratic and woke states in the union. 80% of Democrats, the Pew Research Center says, hold “an unfavorable view of Israel” as of June 2026, an 11-point increase from 2025.
How likely is it that the marquee in a place like Lake Oswego, was deliberately praising “the Jews” (You know, as in “the Jews made a heroic odyssey”to Canaan”) as opposed to cheekily denigrating them? Not bloody likely at all. Is the message an innocent comparison of the endless warring between Israel and Palestinians to the Trojan War? If so, then why only mention “the Jews”?
The online debate has seen a suspicious effort to deflect the real issue by arguing over whether “the Odyssey” was really before “the Jews.” Does the theater mean the actual voyage (there probably wasn’t one), or Homer’s poetic description of it? That’s not the real issue, and the debate over it is pedantic sophistry. The issue is whether the marquee is anti-Semitic, designed to appeal to anti-Semites (you know, progressives and Democrats), and cleverly composed to do so while giving the theater and fans of the smear plausible deniability.
The answers are yes, yes, and yes.
Ethics Alarms 
My quick internet research reveals Judaism began in the Middle East about five centuries before the Trojan War (1800 B.C. compared to 1300 B.C.) Homer lived around 800 B.C. So, Judaism existed well before the subject matter of the Odyssey and even further before Homer composed and recited it.
So, the sign just threw me. It just seems stupid. I didn’t get the notion that the Jews were to be analogized to the torments Odysseus and the crew faced. I’d have to say that’s at least too clever by half. I’m sure they were fully engaged in Jew hate, but I’m not sure it was terribly effective.
The Rabbi is particularly articulate and remarkably calm. Kudos to her and the publishing paper. Unethical is putting it mildly.
Honestly, I do not get the joke. I do not know what they are trying to say, or whether it even negatively characterizes Jews. I can’t even guess what aspect of Jewishness is implicated. It would seem more likely that it relates to them wandering in the desert for 40 years than to comparing them to monsters. But, even that is inaccurate history. So, antisemitic? I don’t know. But, I do agree with this part of the Rabbi’s critique:
“A joke about the age of The Odyssey could have been written in countless ways. Instead, someone chose to make an entire ethnic and religious group the point of comparison. Why? Why use “Jews” as the punchline? Ironically, the joke wasn’t even particularly clever. It relied on a simplistic and historically questionable premise while sacrificing accuracy for a punchline. More importantly, it unnecessarily brought an entire people into a joke that had nothing to do with them.”
-Jut
Yeah, the marquee is someone trying to be clever sticking a foot in their mouth. Sir, this isn’t a Wendy’s.
The Melania one is also completely non-sequitur. It’s a quote from Star Wars, a simplified version of a Sun Tzu principle. How does a biographic of a political leader’s spouse help you “know the enemy?”
Isn’t that one clear, though? It’s pure Trump Derangement. The President of the United States, and hence his wife, are “the enemy.”
Correct. Anyone connected to Trump is the enemy. This is pure political commentary and, since they set a precedent for doing that, it’s easier to believe that this newest message is also politically-motivated.
I understood the Melania joke.
-Jut
“Amazon pulled the movie from the theater, and the proprietors reacted with a “Who, us?” shrug.”
This is an example of #55 “The Joke Excuse”. Like the comedians who skirt boundaries by making vicious statements only to rationalize them as jokes when people get upset, this theater is engaging in political commentary under the guise of unorthodox marquee messages. The people who agree with them nod their bobble heads and laugh while rolling their eyes when their opponents complain and lecturing them about not getting the joke.
It’s absolutely unethical.
“This is an example of #55 ‘The Joke Excuse’. “
AKA: Schrödinger’s Douchebag
PWS