Moni Ovadia is a renowned Italian actor, musician, playwright, and writer. Born into a Jewish family in Bulgaria and later moving to Milan, his career has been dedicated to the revival and dissemination of Yiddish culture and Klezmer music, making him one of the most recognizable figures on the contemporary Italian stage.
Ovadia is famous for his narrative theater that deeply integrates humor, philosophy, and Jewish tradition, with Oylem Goylem being his most representative work. He explores the spiritual world of the Jewish Diaspora through artistic means while fostering cross-cultural dialogue. For his outstanding contributions to cultural dissemination, he has received numerous arts awards and is regarded as a bridge connecting Central European and Mediterranean cultures in Italy.
Ovadia is one of the harshest critics of Israeli policy within the European Jewish community. He explicitly states that he is a “Jew, not a Zionist,” and in 2013, he resigned from the Jewish Community of Milan in protest against what he saw as its blind defense of Israeli policies. He frequently participates in rallies for Palestinian rights, publicly supports the BDS movement, and has described the situation in Gaza as an “open-air prison.” He once stated: “As a spiritual descendant of Holocaust survivors, I refuse to accept any ‘sense of security’ built upon the suffering of others.”