Hollywood stars read letters linking Jews to Israel at Los Angeles unity fundraiser

Dustin Hoffman, Gene Simmons, Jon Voight and Bob Odenkirk were among the Hollywood names who gathered at UCLA’s Royce Hall on Monday night for “Letters, Light and Love,” a theatrical production celebrating the centuries-old connection between the Jewish people and Israel through letters written by historical figures and ordinary people.

The sold-out Oct. 19 event, organized by Jewish Federation Los Angeles, blended readings, music and storytelling to trace that relationship across generations, from Maimonides and Julius Caesar to Golda Meir, Albert Einstein and Leonard Bernstein. The evening also featured personal accounts of people whose lives and families have been intertwined with Israel.

All ticket proceeds will benefit the Sha’ar HaNegev Resilience Centre, which provides emotional and therapeutic support to individuals and families in southern Israel as they work to recover and rebuild after the  Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks.

For Rabbi Noah Farkas, president and CEO of Jewish Federation Los Angeles, the event carried particular significance because of its setting.

UCLA goes from encampment site to Letters, Light and Love gathering 

Less than three years ago, UCLA was the site of a pro-Palestinian encampment where Jewish students reported feeling unsafe. The campus became a flashpoint in the national debate over antisemitism and anti-Israel activism, with buildings and property damaged during the demonstrations.

“This place [Royce Hall] was inundated with protesters during the encampment,” Farkas told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “It was boarded up. Its windows were broken. There was graffiti everywhere.”

On Monday, the hall had been restored as a gathering place, with UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk and his wife, Felicia Knaul, among those attending and participating in the staged readings.

“The fact that the chancellor himself is here tonight is, I think, really restorative,” Farkas said. “It’s almost like teshuvah for the campus.”

The evening’s celebrity readings offered moments of humor alongside more solemn reflections on Jewish history and the enduring ties to Israel.

Simmons, the KISS co-founder who was born in Israel, introduced himself with a joke that played on the name of the late television personality Richard Simmons.

“Hello, my name is Gene Simmons. I know some of you were expecting Richard Simmons,” he said, before adding, “And I’m a Jew. I was born in Israel, but more importantly, I’m a human being.”

Simmons later sang Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” and read a letter by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, the late British chief rabbi.

Jon Lovitz drew laughs with his comic delivery of a letter written by David Ben-Gurion recounting his arrival as a young adult on the shores of Jaffa. Bob Odenkirk, whose wife is Jewish and whose children are being raised Jewish, read a letter by Bernstein, the conductor, about performing in Israel.

Former hostage Eliya Cohen appeared with new bride

The celebrity appearances brought an element of Hollywood spectacle to the production, but the evening’s most emotional moment came when Eliya Cohen, a former hostage who spent 505 days in captivity, appeared alongside his new bride, Ziv Abud, a survivor of the Oct. 7 Nova music festival massacre. The appearance of the two 29-year-olds drew the night’s only standing ovation.

Abud – who traveled the world lobbying for Cohen’s release while he was held in Gaza – highlighted the shared struggle facing Jews in Israel and those living in the Diaspora.

“Our story is different, our challenges are different, but we are not separate stories,” she said at Royce Hall. “The fight for Israel, for the right of a Jewish homeland, is connected to the rights of Jews everywhere to live openly and safely in the countries they call home. A Jew should be able to live safely in Tel Aviv, London, Los Angeles, Paris or Sydney.”

Musical performances reinforced the production’s themes of Jewish identity, resilience and hope. Distant Cousins performed Bob Dylan’s “Neighborhood Bully,” a song widely interpreted as addressing the international criticism directed at Israel, before closing the show with Matisyahu’s “One Day.”

Produced by Michal Noé and Sarah Sultman, with Lawrence Bender and County District Attorney Nathan Hochman as co-producers, the Los Angeles presentation followed productions at London’s Theatre Royal Haymarket in 2024 and New York’s Carnegie Hall in February.