Short answer: As of July 2026, Paul Reiser (the Jewish American actor and comedian best known for "Mad About You") has a warm, personal connection to Israel through family ties and a documented 2009 visit, and he briefly served on the OneVoice Movement's Entertainment Council promoting Israeli-Palestinian coexistence work. He has not made overtly political statements about Israel, has not signed the major post-October 7, 2023 Hollywood pro-Israel open letters, and there is no public record of him participating in or refusing any boycott. The record supports "quietly supportive and personally connected" rather than "an outspoken advocate."
What Paul Reiser has actually said and done
- 1984 (approximately, per a 2009 account): Reiser first visited Israel roughly 25 years before 2009 to see his then-girlfriend, later wife, Paula Ravets, who was studying for a semester at Tel Aviv University, according to the Jerusalem Post.
- April 2009: Reiser and his family visited Israel over Passover, touring Haifa, the Dead Sea, Masada, and Jerusalem. He was profiled by Haaretz and the Jerusalem Post under near-identical "Mad About Israel" headlines, telling reporters the country "looks younger, snappier" than the headlines suggest.
- April 2009: During that same trip, Reiser met with youth leaders from the OneVoice Movement and is described as a member of its Entertainment Council, an Israeli-Palestinian coexistence advocacy effort founded by Daniel Lubetzky, according to ISRAEL21c.
- Ongoing (through 2025): Reiser is Jewish, from a Romanian Jewish family, and attended the East Side Hebrew Institute. Jewish outlets such as San Diego Jewish World continue to feature him as a Jewish cultural figure.
- October 2023 to September 2025: Hollywood circulated several open letters on Israel, including a October 2023 Creative Community for Peace letter, which Variety counted at roughly 700 signatures at the time and which the organization now lists at more than 2,000, Creative Community for Peace letter after the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack, reported by Variety. A check of that October 2023 signatory list found no "Reiser" entry, indicating he did not publicly sign it. His status on later 2025 letters could not be independently verified.
- December 2017: A Times of Israel profile calls Reiser a "Jewish Renaissance man" but contains no statements from him about Israel specifically, underscoring that most of his public Jewish-identity coverage is cultural and comedic rather than political.
Jewish identity, a coexistence project, and where the record goes quiet
Paul Reiser's connection to Israel is real but modest and dated. It rests almost entirely on one well-documented 2009 family trip, covered near-simultaneously by Haaretz, the Jerusalem Post, and ISRAEL21c, and a related, brief stint on the OneVoice Movement's Entertainment Council, a coexistence-focused nonprofit that has since disbanded (2025). There is no evidence in the public record, through July 2026, of Reiser making a statement about the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack, the war that followed, or Israeli politics. There is also no evidence of financial donations to Israeli causes or event appearances tied to Israel advocacy since 2009, and his name does not appear on the 2023 Creative Community for Peace letter that roughly 700 entertainment figures signed. Reiser is Jewish by upbringing (a Romanian Jewish family, a Hebrew day school education) and is regularly featured in Jewish community media for his comedy work, but that coverage is cultural rather than political. Nothing in reputable sources suggests he has criticized Israel, joined a boycott, or distanced himself from it either.
The bottom line
Paul Reiser supports Israel in a personal, low-key way: family ties, a 2009 visit, and brief coexistence-advocacy involvement, rather than as a public political stance. There is no evidence he has weighed in publicly on Israel since 2009, including through the October 7, 2023 war, and no record of him signing the major Hollywood pro-Israel letters or engaging in any boycott activity in either direction.
Support Israel directly
Whether or not a celebrity has spoken up, plenty of people want a simple, visible way to show where they stand. Shop Israel's I Stand With Israel collection carries apparel, jewelry, and accessories designed for exactly that, including pieces like the I Stand With Israel t-shirt, that let you wear your support the same way Reiser once wore his connection to Israel: quietly, personally, and without needing a headline to back it up.
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Last updated July 2026. We update these profiles as the record changes.
