Julianna Margulies Apologizes for Offending Black and LGBTQ Communities: ‘I Am Horrified’

“The Morning Show” star Julianna Margulies apologized Friday that a series of statements she made last week on “The Back Room with Andy Ostroy” podcast had offended minority communities.

“I am horrified by the fact that statements I made on a recent podcast offended the Black and LGBTQIA+ communities, communities I truly love and respect,” the Emmy winner said. “I want to be 100% clear: Racism, homophobia, sexism, or any prejudice against anyone’s personal beliefs or identity are abhorrent to me, full stop.”

On the podcast, Margulies slammed pro-Palestine Black and LGBTQ+ Americans who don’t support Israel following Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attacks on civilians.

“​The fact that the entire Black community isn’t standing with us, to me, says, they don’t know, or they’ve been brainwashed to hate Jews,” Margulies said while being interviewed on “The Back Room” podcast.

“But when you’ve been marginalized so much as a community, the way I feel we have, isn’t that when you step up?” she added.

In her statement, she also said that she had not intended to “sow further division.” The rest of the statement reads, “Throughout my career I have worked tirelessly to combat hate of all kind, end antisemitism, speak out against terrorist groups like Hamas, and forge a united front against discrimination. I did not intend for my words to sow further division, for which I am sincerely apologetic.”

The actress, who portrays Laura Petersen in the second two seasons of Apple TV+ drama series “The Morning Show,” appeared on the podcast to discuss her work on Season 3 of the show, which has been renewed for a fourth season. After briefly discussing her time working on “The Morning Show,” the “ER” and “The Good Wife” Emmy winner spoke at length and with passion about her perspective as a Jewish woman in Hollywood.

She expressed frustration that other marginalized communities, by her estimation, weren’t supporting Israel during its military action in Gaza.

“Hitler got his entire playbook from the Jim Crow South. The Nazis were watching how the Jim Crow South were treating slaves and said, ‘Oh, great call. Let’s do that playbook. That’s what we’ll do to the Jews,’” Margulies said, drawing comparisons between the Black and Jewish communities. She added that “the Jews were the ones that walk side by side with the Blacks to fight for their rights” during the Civil Rights Movement.

“And now the Black community isn’t embracing us and saying, ‘We stand with you the way you stood with us.’ Jews died for their cause. Where’s the history lesson in that? Who’s teaching these kids?”

Blaming the spread of anti-Israel sentiment in the aftermath of Oct. 7 on TikTok, Margulies argued that the social media platform should be banned. She noted that much of the sentiment online is coming from young Black and LGBTQ+ users.

“[LGBTQ+ kids] who are spewing this antisemitic hate have no idea, if they stepped foot in an Islamic country, these people who want us to call them ‘they/them’ or whatever they want us to call them — which I have respectfully really made a point of doing — like, be whoever you want to be. It’s those people that will be the first people beheaded and their heads played [with like] a soccer ball. … This is who you’re supporting?”

She also noted a story out of Columbia University — one of several Ivy league schools where anti-Israel protests have become especially pronounced — in which Black lesbian club LionLez denied Zionists from a movie night, posting a sign that read, “No Jews Allowed.”

“As someone who plays a lesbian journalist on ‘The Morning Show,’ I am more offended by it as a lesbian than I am as a Jew, to be honest with you,” Margulies said, calling the group “f–king idiots.”

“I’m the first person to march [for] Black Lives Matter,” she said. “When that happened to George Floyd, I put a black screen on my Instagram, like I ran to support my Black brothers and sisters.”

Margulies continued: “When LGBTQ people are being attacked, I run. I made a commercial for same-sex marriages with my husband in 2012. Like, I am the first person to jump up when something is wrong, as I think most Jews are, because we have been persecuted from the beginning of time — not just World War II, but literally from the beginning of time when we first lived in Israel way before anybody else.”

Margulies wrote a somewhat less controversial opinion piece published the day before this podcast was released, titled, “My non-Jewish friends, your silence on antisemitism is loud.”

The actress’ podcast episode came out Nov. 21 but began going viral online Thursday. Listen to the full episode below.

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