Naomi Foner Gyllenhaal, the grandmother of Ramona Sarusgaard—who’s made headlines as the “Ivy Nepo Baby” and is the daughter of actors Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sartusgaard—has her own radical past. This week, Ramona was involved in an anti-Israel protest at Columbia University, where both her parents were arrested.
Naomi, a screenwriter, reflected on her time at Bernard University, a sister institution to Columbia, in a 2004 interview with the New York Times. She described her youth as wild and mentioned her best friend, Eleanor Stein, who became linked to a notorious radical group responsible for various attacks, including an accidental bombing in Greenwich Village back in 1970.
“We still thought we could create change through the system,” said the 79-year-old Naomi, who drew from her experiences for the film “Running on Empty” in 1988.
Coming from a progressive Jewish family in Brooklyn, Naomi’s influence appears to echo through her children. Maggie and her brother Jake’s mother was notably supportive of filmmaker Jonathan Glaser’s controversial Oscar speech, wherein he drew parallels between Nazi Germany and the Israeli situation in Gaza.
Over a thousand Jewish creatives criticized Glaser’s remarks, yet Gyllenhaal was among the 300 who signed a supporting letter championing the need to address issues like Israeli apartheid authentically.
Stephen Gyllenhaal, Maggie’s father and a director himself, revealed to the Post on Saturday that he and Naomi are no longer together. “We’ve got divorced,” stated the 75-year-old from his home in Los Angeles. Asked about Ramona’s recent arrest, he said, “They will speak for themselves.”
Ramona, now 18 and attending Columbia College, received a ticket for trespassing during the protest, according to reports. Efforts to contact her for a statement were unsuccessful.
As for her father, Peter Sarusgaard, he declined to comment when approached outside their family home in Cobble Hill, simply stating, “I have nothing to say.”
