It's hard to believe that as a Gen Xer who consumed his share of TV in the '80s and '90s, I've never watched an entire episode of Seinfeld. My viewing tastes leaned more toward family-centered sitcoms like Family Ties, Silver Spoons, and Diff’rent Strokes. The "show about nothing" never pulled me in, no matter how many times I tried to give it a shot.
Jerry Seinfeld's stand-up never clicked with me either, even if his observational comedy is often sharp and insightful. I've laughed out loud much more while reading a Stephen Kruiser or Kevin Downey Jr. column here at PJ Media than I do when I stumble on an old clip of Seinfeld on The Tonight Show.
But the 72-year-old comic isn't exactly hurting for my support. He remains one of the most successful comedians working today, even more than 25 years after Seinfeld ended. Pollstar reported that his solo shows grossed $18.2 million during its 2025 reporting period, while his shows with Jim Gaffigan earned another $15.1 million. His “Jerry Seinfeld Live” tour has taken him across the U.S. and Canada in 2026.
Seinfeld has made headlines because of his willingness to stand up to anti-Israel protesters who heckle him on these tours. During a 2024 show in Australia, a man stood up and shouted, "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free." Seinfeld responded to the mindless “From the river to the sea” chant that zombie-like pro-Palestinian protesters repeat at demonstrations around the world by calling the heckler a “genius” and brilliantly mocking him, saying he'd surely solve the Middle East crisis "100%" by criticizing a Jewish comedian performing in Australia. It’s heartening to hear the crowd enthusiastically applaud Seinfeld as he skewers the man:
Seinfeld was called a "genocide supporter" at a 2024 show in Norfolk, Va., just days after dozens of Duke University students walked out during the commencement speech he delivered at the university. As we saw this month when pro-Palestinian protesters hurled epithets like “F*** you, b**ls**k Zionist!” at Brad Lander, the Jewish Democratic candidate for New York’s 10th Congressional District who has falsely accused Israel of “genocide,” being Jewish alone is enough to make someone a target of this hatred. But Seinfeld's crime in these Israel haters' eyes isn't simply that he's Jewish; he has also bravely stood up for Israel since the Oct. 7, 2023, attack, the worst slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust.
Related: A Primer on What Genocide Is — and Isn't
Seinfeld traveled to Israel in December 2024 to show his support for the country during its war against Hamas. He wore a “Bring them home” dog tag around his neck and met with families of Israeli hostages, freed hostages, and October 7 survivors. In an interview with Bari Weiss for The Free Press, he called the trip “the most powerful experience" of his life.
Weiss asked Seinfeld about being called "Nazi scum" and a "genocide supporter" when leaving one of her events in New York in 2024:
Pro-Hamas terrorism supporters are heckling @JerrySeinfeld as he leaves a @bariweiss speech in New York.pic.twitter.com/sUptxkRPVW
— Israel War Room (@IsraelWarRoom) February 26, 2024
You'll notice Seinfeld, smiling throughout, doesn't seem bothered by the harassment. He told Weiss he actually enjoys it. “It’s so silly," he said. "They want to express this sincere, intense rage but again, a little off target. So that’s to me comedic.”
He's probably laughing at the performers who just pulled out of a festival in Lisbon, Portugal, because he will be headlining it. The Times of Israel reports on the all-too-predictable "off-target" explanations from the artists:
Actress Inês Aires Pereira wrote on Instagram Saturday: “A festival includes many artists, and in this case, one of the names insistently defends ideas and actions that I consider indefensible.”
“We cannot relativize or normalize genocide,” she said. ...
Comedic duo Cebola Mol, in a post that included a watermelon-themed graphic (frequently used as a symbol of the Palestinian cause) wrote: “Hello, friends. Our show on October 31 will not take place. We will celebrate justice, freedom, and joy at a future opportunity.”
They will surely bask in the attention the majority of the world's media will give them for their "brave" stance, but as a truly brave artist, Boy George, wrote on X regarding the American rapper Macklemore saying "Free Palestine" when opening concerts for Ed Sheeran this weekend in New Jersey, “It’s important to note that slogans such as ‘Free Palestine’ offer the appearance of moral courage without requiring much political knowledge.”
Jerry Seinfeld has demonstrated that kind of moral courage since October 7. He told Bari Weiss that he never thought about the "Jewishness" of his hit television show when it ran, but that his first trip to Israel changed that: "The first time I went to Israel after I finished the show and saw the way they reacted to me, and I realized this is not just normal interaction of celebrity public interface, this is different. I meant something, which I never knew and it gave me a wonderful feeling, like, oh, I didn’t realize what I was doing had another value that I didn’t know about, and I of course loved it.”
I'll end with another man who had a change of heart about Seinfeld. Seth Forman, an editor at The American Spectator, posted on X that it took 154 episodes for Seinfeld to mention that he was Jewish and wrote that he wasn't sure about Seinfeld because of that. As I mentioned at the top of this piece, I've never watched an entire episode of Seinfeld, so I didn't know that fact about the 154 episodes. I share Forman's final assessment. He finished the post: "But now, when the chips are down, he's stepped up like a man in defense of Israel, and in the face of real danger. A man in full."
Maybe it's time for me to binge Seinfeld. Better late than never.
