Short answer: As of July 2026, the public record on Rob Reiner (1947-2025), a proudly Jewish filmmaker, is genuinely mixed. Days after October 7 he wrote, "As a Jew...Hamas is the epitome of evil," and near the end of his life he recorded a video message for a Holocaust survivors' event that ended with survivors lighting candles at the Western Wall. But his sympathy did not extend to Israel's claim on Jerusalem: at the 2017 Dubai film festival he called President Trump "a moron" for recognizing the city as Israel's capital and signed a petition standing "in solidarity with the Palestinians in Jerusalem, the capital of Palestine." He was also a progressive who defended the right to protest, including anti-Israel demonstrations. One note before the record: Reiner and his wife Michele were found dead at their Los Angeles home on December 14, 2025, so his record is now closed.
What Rob Reiner has actually said and done
- December 2017: At the Dubai International Film Festival, Reiner sharply criticized President Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital, calling him "a moron" with "no concept of geopolitical events." At the same festival he signed a petition led by Palestinian director Annemarie Jacir that read, "We stand in solidarity with the Palestinians in Jerusalem, the capital of Palestine, and an open Sacred City that belongs to all Muslims, Christians and Jews." A December 2025 profile in The National noted he "won plenty of friends in the region" for backing that petition.
- October 11, 2023: Days after the Hamas massacre, Reiner posted on X: "As a Jew, I don't care if you're pro Palestinian or pro Israeli. Hamas is the epitome of evil. And anyone who condones their barbarism is evil." It is his clearest and most-cited statement on the conflict, quoted by Fox News.
- August 20, 2024: In a Fox News interview at the Democratic National Convention, Reiner praised the Harris campaign and the DNC for "protecting" the right of anti-Israel protesters (some carrying Hamas flags and chanting "global intifada") to demonstrate. He framed it as a constitutional free-speech and pro-democracy stance rather than an endorsement of their views. The exchange was reported by Fox News.
- October 2025: Reiner recorded a video message, aired that December, for the Claims Conference's International Holocaust Survivors Night, an event that ended with about 100 survivors lighting candles at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. Citing his wife's family's murder at Auschwitz, he urged, "if ever we needed to be resilient, it's now," per Times of Israel.
- December 14, 2025: Reiner and his wife Michele Singer Reiner were found dead of sharp-force injuries at their home in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles. The deaths were ruled homicides, and their son Nicholas (Nick) Reiner, 32, was arrested the same day and charged with two counts of first-degree murder. Reiner was 78, as reported by CNN.
- December 16, 2025: In its obituary, Times of Israel described Reiner as a "Jewish comedy giant" and documented his self-affirmed Jewish identity, framing his life and activism within a Jewish sensibility.
A Jewish sensibility behind the films
Rob Reiner (born March 6, 1947) was the son of comedy legend Carl Reiner and an openly, self-identified Jew. In a 2017 interview reprised in his Times of Israel obituary, he said, "I'm a Jew. I was raised a Jew. I value honesty and integrity and knowledge and education," calling it his "sensibility." He had a bar mitzvah, his family observed Passover, his grandmother spoke Yiddish at home, and his sister-in-law is a rabbi. His late wife, Michele Singer Reiner, had deep family ties to the Holocaust: as he noted in his final recorded remarks, her mother survived Auschwitz and much of her family perished there. Reiner was best known for films like "The Princess Bride," "When Harry Met Sally...," "Stand by Me," "A Few Good Men," and "This Is Spinal Tap," and in later life for outspoken progressive, anti-Trump activism. On Israel specifically, his strongest words came after October 7, when he condemned Hamas as a Jew, while his broader politics stayed firmly on the liberal left.
The bottom line
Rob Reiner's record does not fit neatly on either side. His Jewish identity was central and public, and after October 7 he named Hamas "the epitome of evil" in the plainest terms, then honored Holocaust survivors near the end of his life. Those are real, pro-Jewish, pro-survivor acts. But he was no defender of Israel's sovereignty claims: at Dubai in 2017 he did not just criticize Trump, he endorsed a petition calling Jerusalem "the capital of Palestine," and he consistently defended protest rights, including for anti-Israel demonstrators. There is no record of him visiting Israel or holding any pro-Israel organizational role. The fair summary is a liberal, Jewish-identified American who condemned Hamas on moral grounds while breaking with Israel on Jerusalem, not a reliable pro-Israel voice. He and his wife were killed in December 2025, so nothing further will be added to that record.
Wear your own answer
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Last updated July 2026. We update these profiles as the record changes.
