Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
News

Sheryl Sandberg Mum on Trump, Broadcasts Immigrant Background

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is outspoken about his disapproval of President Donald Trump, and especially the executive order that has disrupted the flow of highly-skilled tech workers into the United States. But Sheryl Sandberg, his COO, is pulling her punches. Or is she?

“The president has said he’s going to do the right thing, and we’re all looking for that to happen,” Sandberg said on Wednesday at the Watermark Conference for Women when asked about immigrant issues.

The Trump administration is still in its “early days,” she added.

Yet on Tuesday, Sandberg used the story of her immigrant great-great-grandmother as a segue into an explicit condemnation of the executive order, which she said contradicts the “heart and values” of the United States.

Chana Bassa, Sandberg wrote on Facebook, escaped religious persecution by emigrating from Vilnius, Lithuania to America in 1889.

“If Chana had not taken that difficult journey, I would not be here today – my family would almost certainly have perished in the concentration camps of World War II. Her courage – and the fact that this country welcomed her – created my family’s future,” wrote the Facebook tycoon.

The Facebook executive and best-selling author of “Lean In” donated $1 million to Planned Parenthood on Wednesday, according to Renfinery29.

At the conference, when Sandberg was asked if she would throw her hat in the Democratic presidential ring in 2020, she replied to the many hopefuls of her running, “I have said no, and I’m going to continue to say no.”

Contact Andrea Cantor at cantor@forward.com

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly. 

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at editorial@forward.com, subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.

Exit mobile version