Paulina Porizkova Reflects On Gaza: ‘Never Again May Be Now’

Model Paulina Porizkova is opening up about antisemitism and how it applies to today’s current events.

The Czech-born model, 58, has seen a lot in the world and is no stranger to giving candid takes on how she truly feels.

On Wednesday, November 1, the author of “No Filter: The Good, The Bad, and The Beautiful” reflected on the current events in Gaza with a candid selfie that featured her resting her head in her hand as she reflected on current events. “Never Again may be NOW,” she warned in black text written above the photo.

“Antisemitism seems to be cropping back up like poisonous mushrooms after a rain,” she wrote in the caption of her lengthy Instagram post. I was born in a country with virtually no Jewish people, because they had all been exterminated by the Nazis. When I moved to Sweden, we were all taught about the Holocaust in school. Shown movies that made a lot of the kids cry.”

“The movie Sophie’s Choice came out, and everyone was sensitive to the Jewish plight. But there were very few Jewish people in Sweden. Then, I moved to NYC,” she recalled. “Most of my friends were Jewish. Once in a while, they’d share a snippet about hatred directed at them- but I didn’t believe them. I thought they were too sensitive. Being Jewish was obviously totally cool.”

“It wasn’t until I started dating a Jewish screenwriter(a certain famous and lovely man) a few years ago, that I began to see puzzling comments on my feed,” she continued. “Puzzling, I say - because I had never seen this sort of comment before. No one had ever said ‘You still married to that Christian dude?’ ‘You sure like them Catholics.’ ‘Protestant whore’. I was suddenly witnessing antisemitism - first hand.”

“And when I, shocked by the comments, showed them to my Jewish friends, instead of the righteous outrage I expected, they shrugged. ‘Yup, that’s pretty much my whole life,’” she recalled. “That, THAT was the worst part of it to me. That they were used to it. That they expected it. That floored me. That my best friends, people I thought I had everything in common with but for the celebration of certain holidays, in fact carried an invisible burden I had no awareness of. My naïveté in assuming that because I hadn’t experienced it- it didn’t exist.”

“As many of you keep pointing out- I should just shut my mouth when it comes to politics of something I don’t know everything about,” she confessed. “So- this is not a post about my political beliefs. Saying I stand by the Jewish people, that I have my Jewish friends backs, that I condemn antisemitism - has nothing to with governments and politics.”

And it in no way means I do not also care for the plight of the innocent Palestinians and likewise condemn- and always have- Islamophobia,” she concluded. “All my donations are currently going to charities whose priority are the people of Gaza.”

Many fans thanked Paulina for speaking up about the topic, even though her comments caused division. “Thank you. Not many find the courage to stand by Israel these days,” one fan commented. “The Palestinian people are not their government, and they need help- just as Jewish people are not the Israeli government and need standing up for,” Paulina replied, although she received backlash for that comment as well.

“You are a woman of class and intelligence. Always open, curious, and willing to learn. I am stunned, saddened, and angry with all the poisonous hatred as you said rearing its ugly head in this world. No matter what ridiculous comments you get continue to speak your truth which is spot on,” another follower wrote, to which Paulina responded with a single red heart emoji.

This is not the first time that Paulina has spoken up about the incident. On October 10, she took to Instagram to remind her followers that “staying silent is not an option” following the Hamas attack on Israel.