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Shari Redstone and Gelila Assefa Puck to Host ‘Rebuilding Bridges’ Event to Encourage Dialogue Between Black and Jewish Communities
Shari Redstone and Gelila Assefa Puck have joined forces to host an event designed to bring together members of Black and Jewish communities for dialogue and solidarity at a time of extreme polarization across the U.S.
The Oct. 17 event, “Rebuilding Bridges Between the Black and Jewish Communities Through Art and Conversation,” will be held at Spago Beverly Hills and emceed by Spectrum One news anchor Giselle Fernández. Redstone is chair of Paramount Global; Puck is a partner and global creative director for The Wolfgang Puck Group of Companies, which owns the Spago brand. The event has been long in the works and predated the outbreak of deadly violence this weekend with Hamas attacks in Israel.
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“Rebuilding Bridges” will spotlight an art exhibition curated by Puck and Megan Steinman, executive director of the nonprofit artists support network Denniston Hill in upstate New York. The exhibition features new works from Jewish and Black artits. It will also include pieces from the Skirball Cultural Center’s current exhibition “This Light of Ours: Activist Photographers of the Black Freedom and Civil Rights Movements,” emphasizing Jewish photographers who were involved in the right for Black rights. Ben Crump, prominent civil rights attorney, will also be among the event’s speakers. Multi-hyphenate entertainer Ben Vereen is set to perform.
We had the privilege of sitting down with one of our newest Board members, Ariff Sidi, former GM & Chief Product Officer at Edgecast, a division of Verizon Media. During our conversation, Sidi shared some of his major career accomplishments and his convictions as a father and how these experiences led him to join the Board at Children’s Institute.
Ariff, you’ve had quite an impressive career – from engineering to product management to media and tech! Could you walk us through your professional journey, highlighting some of your achievements?
I started off in software engineering at Qualcomm, having graduated from the University of California, San Diego. In the beginning, my work was hands-on, writing code. While it was intellectually challenging, it was also a bit removed from the consumer experience, and I wanted to create products that touched people’s lives more directly. That led me to Disney, where I began migrating from engineering to product management.
During my 12-year tenure at Disney, I built a variety of products and technology that people were using and enjoying daily, which I loved. I also played a central role in the development of ABC’s industry-first video streaming platform, which my team built in only 62 days, and kicked off an entire industry transformation that is still ongoing today! In the process, I filed 10 patents, won an Emmy award and two additional Emmy nominations. I also earned an MBA from UCLA during this time.
After my time at Disney, FOX and a couple of start-ups, I went on to become the Chief Product Officer at a division of Verizon During my time at Verizon, I led the business through two private equity transactions, after which I decided to take some time out to spend with my family.
Wow, what an incredible impact you’ve made across multiple industries! It must’ve been a rollercoaster of an adventure to be part of an unprecedented transition from traditional media to streaming, and congrats to you!
Can you shar Paramount Global chair and National Amusements president Shari Redstone is one of the most powerful people in Hollywood. She is also an observant Jew and a supporter of Israel who has been reeling over the days since Oct. 7, when Hamas terrorists attacked the Jewish state, she told The Hollywood Reporter on Tuesday in a corner booth at Wolfgang Puck’s Spago. The Beverly Hills restaurant was closed to the public for the evening in order to host “Black & Jewish Conversations,” an event that Redstone and Gelila Assefa, Puck’s Ethiopia-born wife, began organizing well before the Hamas attack in order to foster increased conversation and partnership between members of Hollywood’s Black and Jewish communities. “Look, I’m not doing well, to be honest,” Redstone acknowledged. “I think there are no words to describe what took place, and all I do every day is try to do something that’s going to make a difference and help people.” She said of Israel, “It’s really important to me personally, it’s really important to the Jewish people and it’s really important to the world. They’re one of the few nations that really represent a democratic society, and I think when you look at what’s going on in the world, we have to protect countries like Ukraine and Israel. It’s not just about these individual countries and people. It is about the world in which we are living. That’s what’s really scary to me.” As for what inspired “Black & Jewish Conversations,” Redstone explained, “I get involved in things when I see that there’s something that needs to be addressed. I taught my grandchildren civics when they were 5 and 7, so they could debate the Bill of Rights. Why? Because I think our d Shari Redstone and Gelila Assefa Puck took over Spago Beverly Hills Tuesday night to host an event to help rebuild bridges between Black and Jewish communities. Hollywood industry and arts heavyweights including producer Darren Star, talent manager Benny Medina, gallerist Jeffrey Deitch, Roc Nation cofounder Jay Brown, hotelier Jeff Klein, TV journalist Don Lemon, UTA chairman Jay Sures, model Beverly Johnson, rapper LL Cool J and more came out to listen and learn at a time of intensifying war in Israel and Gaza. “Shari Redstone and I had a conversation about antisemitism and racism a year ago. I called her up and said, ‘my platforms are the walls of my restaurants worldwide. I can put up an art show which guests can enjoy, and it will spark conversation.’ Then, after the week we’ve had…for me to cancel this event when I need to show up and show support….I had to stay core to what I conceived of a year ago. But it was a heavy week,” said Puck. The fashion designer and philanthropist noted the message in her outfit for the evening, a striking red Schiaparelli blazer with black embroidered ants. “Ants are messengers of change in a spiritual context,” she said. The hope for change was the message of speeches by Redstone, civil rights attorney Ben Crump, and Rabbi Dave Sorani, among others. “Sadly, this war is not unique to the Middle East. It’s a war based on hatred, a war that’s being fought day after day as we experience the terrifying rise of antisemitism, racism and other expressions of hate,” said Redstone, chair of Paramount Global. “There’s a danger to silence today which unintentionally encourages evil to flourish,” she said, invoking Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech upon accepting the American Liberties Medallion from the American Jewish Comm Shari Redstone Emotionally Speaks About Israel, Antisemitism and Racism at Gathering of Jewish and Black Hollywood Power Players
Shari Redstone and Gelila Puck Take on Racism, Antisemitism at Hollywood Event