Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
The Schmooze

Debra Messing’s Powerful Message To Ivanka ‘One Jewish Mother To Another’

Debra Messing had a strongly-worded message for Ivanka Trump during the GLAAD Awards on Saturday.

The actress, who was being honored with the Excellence in Media Award, spoke to the president’s daughter, “one Jewish mother to another.”

“It’s not enough to simply say that women’s issues are important to you,” Messing said. “It’s time to do something. Ivanka, you can change the lives of millions of women and children just by telling your dad stories about real people who are suffering.”

She then challenged Trump’s #womenwhowork, explaining that just using the hashtag isn’t advancing feminism. Instead she suggested: #saywhatyoumeanandmeanwhatyousay.

“Don’t let [your father] separate immigrant mothers from their American-born children,” Messing said. “Don’t allow him to make trans kids like Gavin [Grimm] fight in court for their basic human dignity.”

She added that Trump should think about her next Passover seder, and how she would feel telling her children that she fought for “justice and freedom.”

“Ivanka, please stop blindly defending your father and start defending what you say you believe in,” Messing said.

Watch her full speech below:

Thea Glassman is an Associate Editor at the Forward. Reach her at [email protected] or on Twitter at @theakglassman.

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 [email protected], 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.