Marlon Brando, who died last Friday at age 80, got his start in a pro-Zionist fund-raising play but later charged that Hollywood was “run by Jews.” The young Brando starred in 1946 in “A Flag is Born,” a Ben Hecht play that raised $400,000 for Jewish settlement in Palestine. In later years Brando blamed Jews for negative portrayals of blacks and American Indians in movies, though he acknowledged that the same moviemakers often portrayed Jews in a negative light as well. He later apologized for telling Larry King that Hollywood was “run by Jews.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.