Guns & Moses director Sal Litvak highlighted the importance of his new film’s theatrical release, noting the rise of antisemitism and hate against people of faith.

The film is an action thriller that details the journey of a Hasidic rabbi who learns how to use a gun in order to defend his community after it is violently attacked. Litvak told the Washington Examiner that Guns & Moses was inspired by recent attacks against Jewish people and their communities, specifically the 2019 Chabad of Poway shooting in California and the Oct. 7, 2023, attack in Israel.  

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Litvak said his hope is that Guns & Moses will inspire resilience and action against hate.

“People with guns should have a lot of training and know how to use them,” Litvak said. “It is very difficult to shoot straight and safely and accurately and defend yourself and your community under pressure when an emergency is actually happening. Just owning a gun is not enough. People who have guns really need to practice and have proper training.”

Litvak told the Washington Examiner that his mother and grandmother were Holocaust survivors from Hungary. He recounted how they warned him that a similar hate-filled saga of violence could happen again anywhere, including America.

“We knew attacks on Jews would always be relevant, sadly, but that this kind of open, you know, ‘shouting it from the rooftops’ antisemitism that we’ve seen since Oct. 7, it’s just incredible,” Litvak said. “And you know those killings in Washington, D.C., and this terrorist who threw a Molotov cocktail at an 88-year-old woman in Boulder.”

“And all these protests that have erupted on the college campuses and all around the country saying, you know, globalize the intifada. I mean, that is a call to murder Jews,” he added. “And these useless idiots think that they’re striking a blow for goodness when they do that. They’ve been thoroughly brainwashed. Sadly, our movie could not be more timely.”

Litvak noted he is not only concerned about the threat level to Jews, rebuffing a growing social narrative that calls people of faith the “problem.”

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“I think other faith groups, you know, definitely our Christian brothers and sisters,” he said. “They’re taking security very seriously in their churches and their houses of worship. We need to stand side by side defending people from crazies. We’re told by the media that we’re the problem.”

The film features Mark Feuerstein, Neal McDonough, Alona Tal, and Christopher Lloyd. 

Guns & Moses will open in theaters on July 18.