A comedian/actor has been dumped from hosting a pub trivia night after he made several references to Nazis and mocked the grandson of a Holocaust survivor.
Jarred Keane told his social media followers that Zionists and conservatives were ‘not welcome’ at the trivia nights he hosted at the Iron Duke Hotel, in inner Sydney suburb of Redfern.
He also said Zionists were ‘disgusting people’ and should ‘f*** off’.
The shocking video posts were uploaded after last week’s trivia night, where Keane was accused of making references to Nazis.
Keane did not respond to a request for comment when contacted by Daily Mail Australia.
Jonathan Sankey, whose grandmother was an Auschwitz survivor, was in the audience and was deeply upset by the performance.
In a recording revealed by Sky News, Mr Sankey’s fiancée, Zoe Booth, was heard telling Keane: ‘I haven’t heard Nazi mentioned so many times in one night.’
Keane replied to her: ‘Don’t blame me, blame Elon Musk.’
Jarred Keane told his social media followers that Zionists and conservatives were ‘not welcome’ at his trivia nights
This was a reference to a gesture the X owner made at the US President Donald Trump’s inauguration, which Mr Musk denied was a Nazi salute.
Mr Sankey, who lost hundreds of ancestors in the Holocaust, told Keane: ‘Nazis killed my whole family, so I don’t want to particularly come to my trivia night and be hearing, ‘Nazis, Nazis, Nazis.”
Keane was then heard on the recording saying: ‘Sorry, I’m really sorry’, but within hours, he started posting videos to Instagram, talking about the couple and Zionists.
In one, Keane ridiculed Mr Sankey and Ms Booth, saying: ‘They started sort of fake crying and being like, ‘you know who the Nazis killed? My entire family. My family were killed by the Nazis, OK?’
‘I was like, ‘yeah, I know. The Nazis are bad. Like, I’m not saying they’re good. Like, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have brought it up.’
‘These guys are, like, in their 20s. I’m like, ‘oh I’m sorry I brought up something that happened to your great-grandparents.”
In another clip, Keane said: ‘Zionists, don’t come to my trivia. You’re not welcome. You will be made to look a fool.
Jonathan Sankey is pictured with his grandmother, Holocaust survivor Olga Horak
‘I will spit facts at you and trust me, I got a lot of facts to spit at you. Just f*** off. Zionists are just disgusting people.’
In a third video, Keane said: ‘My trivia’s really, really fun, unless, you know, you’re a conservative or a Zionist, in which case, I will brutally mock you relentlessly and make you look f***ing stupid.
‘Because you pretty much always are. Stupid and hateful – that’s the conservative, Zionist way.’
Ms Booth called the Iron Duke to make a complaint after getting home from the trivia night and seeing Keane’s videos.
The couple also wrote to the pub by email, saying Keane’s ‘obsession with Nazis warrants further investigation, as it is both creepy and inappropriate’.
‘This excessive, flippant use of the word ‘Nazi’ trivialises the atrocities of the Holocaust and diminishes the seriousness of the term,’ they wrote.
‘Given the rise in violent anti-Semitic attacks across the country, including in local schools, preschools, and synagogues, we urge you to take this situation extremely seriously.’
Ms Booth called the Iron Duke (pictured) to make a complaint after getting home from the trivia night and also seeing Keane’s videos
Mr Sankey said his grandmother’s work in educating people about the Holocaust prompted him to go public about what happened on the trivia night and afterwards.
‘It was a very hard trivia to sit through, so then to raise it and then to be mocked and then to be threatened after that, I’m not going to stand for that,’ he said.
‘It just feels like everywhere we turn now at the moment, even things that are sacred like your local pub, you go as a Jew and you experience these things in Sydney and it just has to stop.
‘As my grandma said, you can’t even give these people even one millimetre. You have to stand up each time.’
The Iron Duke’s owners said they would not be hiring Keane anymore, and one of the owners, Nik Kritikos, wrote to Mr Sankey to apologise.
‘We would like to state from the outset that the hotel does not share the views expressed by Jarred on social media with respect to sections of the Jewish community and hope that he retracts those comments,’ the letter read.
‘We also disapprove of Jarred’s use of the topic of Nazism in some of last week’s trivia questions to evoke humour, in light of current domestic and international events.
‘We sincerely apologise for any intended or unintended offence caused by his actions last week … we do not exclude any guests based on race, gender, religion or any other discriminatory practice.’
Mr Kritikos also said that Keane had previously been warned about ‘touching on serious political and social topics in a way that could potentially offend customers. The night is supposed to be a fun event to entertain guests while they unwind over dinner and drinks, not a stage for political discourse.
‘Accordingly, we advise that Jarred’s contract to host Trivia at the hotel has been terminated and (Wednesday’s) event will be cancelled.’
Daily Mail Australia has contacted Keane and the Iron Duke for further comment.
