Roseanne Barr on Israel, BDS, Portman, and Jewish food
Roseanne Barr, star of the hit revival “Roseanne” on ABC TV, talked on Sunday about wanting to move to Israel and potentially run for office there.
“I want to move to Israel and run for prime minister,” Barr said during a discussion on stage at the annual Jerusalem Post conference in New York. “In 2012, I said I was gonna run for president of the United States and prime minister of Israel, a twofer. But I do have that fantasy, [and] if G-d calls me, I’ll go, of course.
“I want to make aliyah, I do, and before all the stuff is sold—all the real estate. I wanna get a nice house. … I still have the fantasy of being an old Jewish lady living in the Jewish homeland. Someday, I will do it.”
Barr, 65, mentioned getting a phone call from President Donald Trump, who congratulated her on the successful reboot of her ABC sitcom, in which she plays the Trump-supporting matriarch of the Conner family.
“I said, Mr. President, on behalf of my mother, I want to thank you, and all the Jewish people too, for moving the embassy to Jerusalem. Thank you so much,” Barr said she told Trump. She added that he replied, “a lot of presidents have promised it, but I wanted to get it done.”
Barr said she believes that moving the embassy is “the first step to peace in the world.”
She was ill on Sunday but still attended the conference, noting that she promised she would and “because it’s a great chance to [show] how much I hate the BDS.”
“I hate everything that’s a lie based on anti-Semitism, and I’m a Jew” she said. “Jews who are against other Jews have always been a problem since the first story in Torah. So maybe this time, we can do something about it and change it. We need to love each other. Jews need to love each other, and it has to stop because it threatens our existence.”
Barr, who has been to Israel three times, additionally reflected on the recent controversy surrounding actress Natalie Portman’s decision not to attend the upcoming Genesis Prize awards ceremony in Jerusalem. She said it “wasn’t the bravest way” to take a stance on something, and that it played into the hands of the BDS movement.
Barr said that if she was to speak with Portman (one Jewish actress to another), “first, I would make her a lovely meal — that always starts everything peaceful — and then I would talk to her about Jewish history and Torah. I think those are the things that bring people back and wake people up.”
During her time on stage, Barr discussed her love of studying Torah and how being a Jew is “really fun.” She also mentioned growing up as the oldest daughter in an Orthodox Jewish home and her skills cooking “good Jewish food.”
In fact, she said, she “always” thinks about doing a cooking show—and who knows? It could very well be filmed in Israel.
