The Odyssey is best known as a “hero survives dangerous people, creatures and monsters” story. Odysseus’s crew is repeatedly threatened and ultimately wiped out by a parade of horribles—-the Sirens, a sorceress who turns the hero’s crew into pigs, a cyclops, and two sea monsters. I am not Jewish nor am I hypersensitive to anti-Jewish slurs (unlike Woody Allen’s character in “Annie Hall”) but I do know my mythology, and I immediately read the intent of the marquee to communicate, “If you think the Jews are bad, wait ’til you see what Odysseus had to contend with!”
If the owners never contemplated that their message would be read that way by Jews who would be insulted by it and anti-Semites who would smirk at it, they are stupid, but they can’t deny violating Kant’s edict against using human beings as a means to an end. The theater is using an entire people (and people who have enough working against them already) as a means of selling movie tickets, not caring how the stunt will affect them. That is reckless, inconsiderate, ruthless and wrong: in short, unethical.
Let’s do utilitarianism. Is there any argument that society, the nation, or even Lake Oswego is better off on balance if more tickets to “The Odyssey” are sold by pandering to anti-Israel and anti-Jewish bias in order to generate social media buzz? Easiest of all is the reciprocity calculation: would you want a group you identify with exploited in a wink-wink. nudge-nudge manner on a marquee that way?
In the end, The Lake Oswego Review registered a clear, reasonable condemnation of the episode, writing in part,
“A photo of the marquee and its message quickly spread through the local Jewish community and across social media this week. Rabbi Eve Posen of Congregation Neveh Shalom wrote to her congregants, “In a moment when antisemitism is already at historic levels, casually inserting Jews into a narrative where we do not belong doesn’t feel harmless.”…The theater has welcomed (and benefited from) the support of the very community it chose to make the butt of a joke….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. At a time when antisemitic incidents continue to rise, using Jews as the punchline is not clever. It is unnecessary, hurtful and dangerous.”
Yeah, I’d call that “unethical.”
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.”
“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