Jewish businesses have been boycotted many times in the past. Every Jew knows the history of that. But for me, since October 7 this is no longer history.
As a proud Jew and Israeli who grew up in the Soviet Union, I have always stood with Israel during wartime. This time is no different. I returned to Israel from the US as soon as I could after October 7, bringing donations for the IDF. Since arriving, I have seen the aftermath of the atrocities of October 7. Like most people across Israel, I have sat in shelters as Hamas rockets have flown overhead.
That is why one day when a friend in the army said that the IDF wanted to thank me for my support, I was very touched. She wrote my name on a bomb destined for Hamas and sent me a photo. A short time after, when a vicious online antisemite and homophobe was busily spreading lies online, I responded with a photo of the bomb with my name on it, proud that it should be used against the terrorists whom he supported. I thought nothing more of it until I discovered that my reply had gone viral.
Jewish-owned gay porn company faces organized boycott amid Israel-Hamas war
I am the only Jewish owner of a gay adult film company, and in no time I became the target of an organized boycott campaign. An Iranian gay porn star (imagine the problems there) led the campaign, as did a number of other antisemites and Hamas supporters.
They began to intimidate people in my industry. Soon model after model was being pressured to denounce me publicly and assert that they would never work with me again. I was called a child killer, a murderer, and much more.
Some of these people are simply racist against Jews, and yet most have no idea what they are talking about. They have never been to Israel, know nothing about this country, and understand even less about the threats that the Jewish state faces. They are either ignoramuses or just very easily intimidated.
Like so many people in society today, they mistake their online bubble for the real world. They feel that if they don’t denounce me, they will be next in the sights of the mob.
(Of course, it is pretty funny that gay porn stars would rather be against Israel than against Hamas.)
These are people who normally cry “homophobia” over everything. If a politician or a pastor in the United States were to say something homophobic, they would be condemned. But a group that would murder you in the most savage way for being gay, even if you weren’t a porn star?
Apparently, they can be given a free pass. This fact amazes me. And yet, I have seen these tactics before.
I grew up in a family of Holocaust survivors in the Soviet Union. There I learned plenty about playground bullying. It wasn’t the easiest thing to grow up Jewish and gay. But I never seek pity and never complain, which is one reason why people who I have worked with seem to know so little about me. Some probably didn’t even know that I am a proud Israeli and that I have family here. Whose side did they think I’d be on in this war?
Not one of the people now denouncing me had anything to say about October 7 and all the torture and rapes and murders committed by Hamas. Not one reached out to express sympathy or empathy. Of course not. Because with Jews, it’s different.
Well, I didn’t back down and accept being bullied when I was a kid, and I won’t now.
I don’t need the approval of people who know nothing and care less. I only ever needed the support of my friends and family and people I think well of. They have all been amazingly supportive, as have people in Israel and Jews around the world.
The attempts to destroy me and my business may seem a little niche. But to me, they are a microcosm of something that is going on everywhere.
The people of Israel are facing those who do not just say they want to kill us, but who have done so and want to keep on doing so. We cannot live with Hamas. But much of the world sits in the comfort of their homes, far away from the bunkers of this country, and think they understand the region.
They use terms like “genocide.” Not about what has been done to us but about what Israel is doing to rid Gaza of Hamas. They don’t know what genocide means. They know nothing of the Holocaust, the Armenian Genocide, Rwanda, China, North Korea, or anywhere else. Yet they get swayed by racist anti-Israel online mobs.
They use “Zionist” against me as if it were an insult.
Yet they know nothing of what Zionism is. Or that it is the means by which Jews are allowed to protect ourselves in a world which repeatedly fails us. If we didn’t have the IDF and the ability to protect ourselves, I have no doubt that we Jews would be on the receiving end again of actual genocide. And neither I – nor any Jew I know – can accept that.
So, although the online hate mobs rage and try to destroy my business, I will not back down. I know that it is the right of Jews to defend ourselves against whoever aims to destroy us.
I would urge my boycotters to do something brave for once.
Come to Israel.
See what a free, tolerant, and open society it is.
And then look at our neighbors, and wonder which place you would like to live in. Which you would want to defend.
Which side – Hamas or the IDF – you would support. And which army you would want to win.
The writer is CEO of Lucas Entertainment.