— Hurt CoPain (@SaeedDiCaprio)
July 18, 2023
In tweets seen by millions of users, Schnapps was accused of supporting apartheid and 'pinkwashing Israel' by being an LGBT person in the country
Schnapp, who plays Will Byers in Stranger Things, said he was “in love with” Tel Aviv in a post on Instagram yesterday. He also visited Jerusalem, where was seen wearing a kippa and tefillin at the Western wall. He said he was “learning so much about [his] culture” and that it was “so inspiring”.
The actor was born to Morrocan and Russian Jewish parents, who raised him in the religion. He celebrated his bar mitzvah in Israel in 2020, an experience which he called “really cool”. He also added that his family celebrates “Christmukkah” - a blended celebration of Christmas and Chanukah often celebrated by Jews in mixed faith households.
His stranger things character may not be Jewish – although Winona Ryder, who plays his mum in the Netflix show, is also Jewish – but Schnapp has played Jewish characters throughout his career.
He played a young Jewish boy in the 2019 film Abe, who cooks to unite his half-Israeli and half-Palestinian family. and he also played a young shepherd smuggling Jewish refugees across the border in Nazi-occupied France in Waiting for Anya. He told the JC while promoting the 2020 film, “I really resonated with it,” he said, “being Jewish”.
