Tony Kushner is one of the most prominent contemporary American playwrights and screenwriters. Born to a Jewish family of musicians in New York and raised in Louisiana, he developed an interest in politics and policy in his youth, draws on the Jewish tradition of intellectual debate, textual interrogation, and social justice (Tzedek) to examine history, political power, and identity in his work.
Kushner won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and two Tony Awards for his two-part play, “Angels in America,” a landmark work of late 20th-century American theater. As a collaborator with director Steven Spielberg, he wrote the screenplays for “Munich,” “Lincoln,” and “The Fabelmans,” earning multiple Academy Award nominations. In 2013, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts.
Kushner’s stance on Palestine is characterized by his honest and painful moral struggle. A member of the Advisory Board for Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), he co-edited “Wrestling with Zion: Progressive Jewish Responses to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict,” a collection exploring progressive Jewish perspectives on the conflict. While he deeply values the status of Israel as the world’s only Jewish state, his moral convictions compel him to frequently critique the Israeli occupation, arguing that systemic oppression undermines Jewish ethical traditions and calling for an end to the occupation alongside the recognition of Palestinian rights.