Skip to main content
Lake Oswego’s downtown movie theater regularly enjoys attention for the cheeky and pointed messages it posts on its marquee. But its latest signage has baffled passersby—and drawn allegations of antisemitism, both on social media and in more than 100 emails to the business.
The marquee at Lake Theater & Cafe reads, “Before there were the Jews, there was…The Odyssey.”
That message has been met with bewilderment on social media threads, given that there’s not an obvious connection between the events of Homer’s poem and Jewish people. (Odysseus and Moses both wandered for a long time.)
Theater manager Jordan Perry tells WW over email that his intention was not antisemitic but rather a commentary on the timeline of human mythology. The Greek poet Homer wrote The Odyssey around 750–650 B.C., with the formal founding of the Jewish religion following a couple of centuries later during the Babylonian exile (586–538 B.C.). That date is debatable, though, since Jewish people existed before the concept of formal religion, but that’s neither here nor there.
“This marquee message is not antisemitic, unless it is somehow antisemitic to not take the events of the Bible, particularly the Old Testament, as fact,” Perry says. “The stories in the Bible…in my estimation, didn’t happen, just as what’s written in The Odyssey didn’t happen. Opinions may differ, mine is a valid one.”
Perry says mentioning “the Jews” on the marquee was his way of “making light for those whom everything supposedly is being blamed on Jewish people and its counter, that any criticism of something even tangentially Jewish is antisemitic.”
The Lake Theater & Cafe has already gotten into hot water this year twice over its signage. In late January, the theater posted the following joke on its marquee: “To defeat your enemy, you must know them. Melania starts Friday.” Amazon noticed and pulled the documentary from the theater.
In April, the marquee said, “Wouldn’t it be great if Michael Jackson hadn’t groomed boys? Come see Devil Wears Prada 2 instead!” in a dig at the competing film that week, the biopic Michael. That one also got attention on social media and in local news.
The Odyssey marquee has inspired comments on social media ranging from calling the marquee strange and hard to understand, to long discussions about the timeline of the Old Testament, to why the phrase “the Jews” reads as accusatory.
Perry has been surprised by the criticism this time, he says.
“Jokingly disparaging Melania, actually disparaging Michael Jackson, I can understand attracting ire there,” Perry says. “But here?”
The Odyssey is a big-budget epic directed by Christopher Nolan and featuring Zendaya, Matt Damon, Tom Holland and Anne Hathaway. It comes out in theaters today.
In response to the backlash, Perry intends to change the marquee July 17. As of July 16, one side still had the message about Jewish people, and the other said, “Do you watch TV w/ subtitles? We’ve got The Odyssey w/ subtitles! (Not always, but sometimes.)”
He says he is “not especially proud of this one,” but struggles to figure out the takeaway.
“I’m still in a bit of a daze as to what I’ve learned this time other than a renewed feeling that we’re all being played the fool,” Perry says. “And that a lot of people think it’s spelled ‘marquis.’”
