“I didn’t expect to get emotional,” Gal Gadot said, pausing as she grew tearful onstage at the Beverly Wilshire on Wednesday evening. “I’m sorry.”
A few seconds before, the Wonder Woman star was smiling, relaying a story to the crowd at the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Humanitarian Award Dinner about how the evening’s honoree, Skydance co-CEO Ynon Kreiz, 61, had delivered his baby daughter in a car pulled over on a busy London street.
But Gadot, 41, grew somber when the subject turned to the Oct. 7 massacre and the war it incited.
“I’m frightened by how quickly hatred of Jews is spreading — and how openly it is expressed and accepted,” Gadot said. “If people get used to hearing and seeing hatred and looking the other way, then where does it end?”
Before the ceremony, Kreiz told The Hollywood Reporter he agreed with the Ellisons’ response to an Instagram post by Mark Ruffalo criticizing the merger and Israel. The company said the post traded in “antisemitic tropes.”
“I very much agree with what the Ellisons put out,” Kreiz told THR. “Wholeheartedly.”
Pressed on whether he would work with Ruffalo — whose HBO procedural Task now falls under his purview — Kreiz deflected.
“This is not about one actor or one story,” Kreiz said.
Before Gadot took the stage, remarks were delivered by Jeffrey Katzenberg, 75, and David Ellison, 43, who shares stewardship with Kreiz of Skydance.
Former DreamWorks Animation CEO Katzenberg introduced Ellison, tracing his Hollywood path from “a young producer with a pilot’s license” into a media mogul now overseeing Paramount and Warner Bros. as well as “HBO, CBS, CNN, and so much more all under one roof.”
Of Ellison’s choice of Kreiz to help him run his new entertainment goliath, Katz said, “David Ellison chose well.”
Addressing the crowd, Ellison said he and Kriez were not yet colleagues when he agreed to speak at the ceremony.
“He was a good friend,” Ellison said. “What I didn’t know then was that I would soon have the privilege of calling him my partner — and for that I could not be more grateful.”
Jim Berk, the CEO of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, told THR that Kreiz was months away from his Skydance offer when he was selected for the evening’s honor by the board of trustees.
“We knew of none of this,” Berk, 67, said of the appointment. “It was for his lifetime of work.” What appealed to the board was his unapologetic honesty about his identity as both an Israeli and a Jew. “It is who he is,” Berk said, “and he’s unafraid to state that.”
In accepting the award, Kreiz thanked Ellison for his “bold stand for Israel and the Jewish people.” He said the U.S.-Israel relationship “must remain unshakable” and echoed Gadot’s sentiments in denouncing rising antisemitism around the globe since Oct. 7.
“Disagreement with the policies of the Israeli government cannot become an excuse for the hatred of Jews,” he said.
Kreiz described how his mother was just nine months old when she and her older sister hid in a closet during a Nazi raid. Their parents were out of the house seeking visas. The family escaped that night, finding refuge in Scotland.
The evening also included remarks from Iranian advocate Elica Le Bon, 28, and TV news anchor Bianna Golodryga, 48, who received the Jewish Heritage Award. A recorded video from Israeli President Isaac Herzog offered well wishes to Kreiz.
Also in the room was Noa Argamani, 29, who was kidnapped from the Nova music festival and rescued by Israeli forces in June 2024.
Kreiz relayed an anecdote from Argamani’s time in captivity: She and three other hostages held in Gaza would fantasize about what they would do if they ever made it out alive.
“The first thing they wanted to do was see Barbie,” Kreiz said, referring to the blockbuster film he championed during his time at Mattel.
