Jewish-born American actress Natalie Portman said members of her community should take a long, hard look at how much emphasis they put on the Holocaust, because there are other equally horrific atrocities that have happened in the world.

Speaking to the UK's Independent, the starlet said:

I think a really big question the Jewish community needs to ask itself, is how much at the forefront we put Holocaust education. Which is, of course, an important question to remember and to respect, but not over other things.

Portman explains that she reached this conclusion after directing and starring in the recent film A Tale of Love and Darkness based upon Amos Oz's memoir and about the birth of Israel. She also had visited a Rwandan Genocide museum and wondered why this wasn't taught to her in school even though it was happening during that time:

I was shocked that that was going on while I was in school. We were learning only about the Holocaust and it was never mentioned and it was happening while I was in school. That is exactly the type of problem with the way it’s taught. I think it needs to be taught, and I can’t speak for everyone because this was my personal education.

In the end, Portman believes that it's empathy that is needed as opposed to paranoia. "We need to be reminded that hatred exists at all times and reminds us to be empathetic to other people that have experienced hatred also, not used as a paranoid way of thinking that we are victims," she said. "Sometimes it can be subverted to fear-mongering and like ‘Another Holocaust is going to happen.’"

The Oscar-winning actress has been very public about her dislike of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in other interviews, even finding his "racist comments horrifying." But that's democracy for you, she said:

It’s the thing about democracy, it happens in the US, in France, everywhere, sometimes people get elected that you wouldn’t elect yourself and you have to live with it. So you raise your voice, you need to speak out, protest when things are going wrong, but that is being part of a democracy. Of course, it’s also depressing when people think different than I do, but that is also the joy of humanity.