Harvey Weinstein Urges Jews to Take on Anti-Semites: "Kick These Guys in the Ass"

"We're gonna have to get as organized as the mafia," the mogul told the audience at the Simon Wiesenthal Center's national tribute dinner, where he was introduced by friend and competitor Jeffrey Katzenberg as "a really nice Jewish boy."

AP Photo/Joel Ryan

"We better stand up and kick these guys in the ass," movie mogul Harvey Weinstein said about present-day anti-Semites as he accepted the Humanitarian Award at the Simon Wiesenthal Center's National Tribute Dinner on Tuesday night at the Beverly Hilton. "We're gonna have to get as organized as the mafia," he continued. "We just can't take it anymore [from] these crazy bastards."
At the conclusion of a ceremony that celebrated four Jewish and gentile heroes (several posthumously), and at which more than a dozen Holocaust survivors were asked to stand and be applauded, Weinstein was introduced by his longtime friend and competitor Jeffrey Katzenberg — the event's master of ceremonies — and Christoph Waltz. The actor has twice won the best supporting actor Oscar for roles in Weinstein films, the first time for portraying a Nazi in Inglourious Basterds. Weinstein said to hearty applause, "Too bad movies can't all be like Inglourious Basterds, where Hitler gets what he deserves." 
Weinstein, 63, then went off-script to speak about his father, who was a sergeant stationed in Cairo during World War II. The elder Weinstein aided the Haganah (the precursor to the IDF before Israel was a state) and later taught his sons about anti-Semitism. Weinstein emphasized his concern about anti-Semitism around the world, which Wiesenthal Center studies indicate is at its highest levels since the end of World War II.

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