Short answer: Yes. Scarlett Johansson has a long public record of standing by an Israeli company against a boycott campaign, and in recent years she has spoken openly about her Jewish family history and rising antisemitism, though she has made few direct public statements specifically about the Israel-Gaza war. As of August 2026.
What Scarlett Johansson has actually said and done
- January 11, 2014: SodaStream, the Israeli seltzer-maker whose main factory was then located in Ma'ale Adumim in the West Bank, announced Johansson as its first-ever global brand ambassador, timed to a Super Bowl ad campaign, according to PR Newswire.
- January 29, 2014: Facing pressure from BDS activists and from Oxfam over SodaStream's West Bank factory, Johansson stepped down from her eight-year role as an Oxfam global ambassador rather than drop the SodaStream deal, saying she and Oxfam had "a fundamental difference of opinion in regards to the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement," as reported by CNN and France 24.
- February 2, 2014: SodaStream's Johansson-fronted ad ran during Super Bowl XLVIII after an earlier cut referencing "Coke and Pepsi" was rejected by the network; the campaign proceeded despite the boycott controversy, per The Times of Israel.
- October 31, 2017: On PBS's "Finding Your Roots," Johansson learned through DNA and archival research that her mother's family (originally surnamed Schlamberg) were Ashkenazi Jews who had fled Poland and Russia, and that relatives had been confined to the Warsaw Ghetto during the Holocaust; she was later shown to be roughly 49 percent Ashkenazi Jewish by ancestry, according to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
- 2025 (film release and press through November 2025): Johansson directed her feature debut "Eleanor the Great," centered on a 94-year-old Holocaust survivor, and saying she "wouldn't have felt comfortable telling this story" if she weren't Jewish herself, per The Jewish Chronicle.
- November 6, 2025: In an interview with Israel's Channel 12 (N12) tied to "Eleanor the Great," Johansson said Jewish people are living through "very scary times," describing the bind of choosing whether to speak up against antisemitic comments directed at her or stay silent out of fear of provoking violence, as reported by The Jerusalem Post and The Jewish Chronicle.
Understanding the two chapters of her connection to Israel
Johansson's connection to Israel is best understood in two distinct chapters. The first, in 2014, was a business and boycott controversy: as SodaStream's global brand ambassador, she publicly sided with the company over its West Bank factory rather than bow to BDS pressure, costing her an eight-year humanitarian-ambassador role with Oxfam. She was praised at the time by Israeli officials, including then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, for not caving to the boycott campaign, though outlets critical of Israeli settlements framed her stance differently. Worth noting: SodaStream relocated its main manufacturing from the West Bank to Israel's Negev desert (Lehavim/Rahat) in 2015, after Johansson's ambassadorship ended, so her original stand predates that shift.
The second chapter, from 2017 onward, is about Jewish identity rather than Israeli politics as such. Johansson is Jewish through her mother, Melanie Sloan, an Ashkenazi Jewish family with roots in Poland and Russia; her Danish father, Karsten Johansson, is not Jewish. She discovered the extent of her family's Holocaust history on "Finding Your Roots" in 2017 and has since become more vocal about that heritage, culminating in her 2025 directorial debut about a Holocaust survivor and interviews, including with Israeli media, about antisemitism she has personally encountered. Unlike some Jewish celebrities who posted directly about the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack or the hostages, available reporting does not show Johansson making a comparably direct public statement specifically on the Gaza war. Her most substantive recent remarks focus on antisemitism and Jewish identity rather than Israeli government policy or the conflict itself.
The bottom line
Scarlett Johansson supports Israel in the sense that mattered most publicly: in 2014 she chose an Israeli company over a boycott campaign and a longtime NGO relationship, and in recent years she has spoken candidly, including to Israeli media, about her Jewish identity and about antisemitism she has faced. She has not, however, made frequent or high-profile political statements specifically about the Israel-Gaza war, so she is better described as a longtime, identity-rooted supporter than as an activist voice on the current conflict.
Wearing your own answer
Whatever side of a boycott campaign a celebrity lands on, plenty of people want a simple, everyday way to say where they stand. Shop Israel's Star of David jewelry collection is a quiet, wearable version of the same idea Johansson found her way to through family history: identity worn openly, not argued for.
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Last updated August 2026. We update these profiles as the record changes.
