Michael Douglas Reveals Anti-Semitic Attack On His Son

Michael Douglas has spoken about how his teenage son Dylan was verbally abused in an anti-semitic rant while on holiday.

Douglas confronted a man at a hotel in southern Europe, after he reduced the 14-year-old to tears with a tirade of unprovoked abuse.

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Though the 70-year-old actor was not raised Jewish, his father Kirk Douglas is, and Dylan had been exploring the religion.

He was wearing a Star of David necklace when the incident happened.

In an opinion piece written by Douglas for the New York Times, Douglas said that he told his son: “Dylan, you just had your first taste of anti-Semitism.”

Dylan had returned to the family’s hotel room visibly upset after visiting the swimming pool, upon which a man had ‘hurled abuse at him’ for no reason.

“I stared at him. And suddenly I had an awful realization of what might have caused the man’s outrage: Dylan was wearing a Star of David.” he writes.

“After calming him down, I went to the pool and asked the attendants to point out the man who had yelled at him.

“We talked. It was not a pleasant discussion.

“Afterward, I sat down with my son and said: ‘Dylan, you just had your first taste of anti-Semitism.’”

Douglas goes on to say that he too had encountered casual anti-semitic behaviour while in high school.

“A friend saw someone Jewish walk by, and with no provocation he confidently told me: ‘Michael, all Jews cheat in business.’

“’What are you talking about?’ I said. ‘Michael, come on,’ he replied. ‘Everyone knows that.’

“With little knowledge of what it meant to be a Jew, I found myself passionately defending the Jewish people. Now, half a century later, I have to defend my son. Anti-Semitism, I’ve seen, is like a disease that goes dormant, flaring up with the next political trigger.”

He goes on: “So that is our challenge in 2015, and all of us must take it up. Because if we confront anti-Semitism whenever we see it, if we combat it individually and as a society, and use whatever platform we have to denounce it, we can stop the spread of this madness.

“My son is strong. He is fortunate to live in a country where anti-Semitism is rare. But now he too has learned of the dangers that he as a Jew must face. It’s a lesson that I wish I didn’t have to teach him, a lesson I hope he will never have to teach his children.”

Image credit: Rex Features/Hurriyet

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