Does Steven Spielberg Support Israel?

Noa Cohen Feb 20, 2025 3 min read

Short answer: As of July 2026, yes. Steven Spielberg is a strong, publicly documented supporter of Israel and of Jewish life, though he pairs that support with a stated wish for peace. He founded and funds major Jewish and Holocaust remembrance institutions, accepted Israel's Genesis Prize in 2021, and after the October 7, 2023 attacks he condemned the "unspeakable barbarity against Jews" and launched a project to document them. His posture is pro-Israel and Jewish-identity-forward rather than partisan or triumphalist: in March 2024 he condemned Hamas terror while also mourning civilian deaths in Gaza.

What Steven Spielberg has actually said and done

1994: Spielberg donated his profits from Schindler's List and founded the Righteous Persons Foundation, to strengthen Jewish life, and the USC Shoah Foundation, which records tens of thousands of Holocaust survivor testimonies, as documented by International March of the Living.
2005: He released Munich, about Israel's response to the 1972 Olympics massacre. Per Wikipedia, the film was attacked as both too Zionist and not Zionist enough, and Spielberg framed his intent as opening dialogue toward peace, an early sign of his nuanced approach.
February 10, 2021: Spielberg was named the 2021 laureate of Israel's Genesis Prize, the so-called Jewish Nobel, honored for his cinema, philanthropy, and Holocaust-memory work, as reported by the Times of Israel and The Hollywood Reporter.
March 25, 2021: He donated his $1 million Genesis Prize, plus a matching $1 million from him and Kate Capshaw, to 10 US nonprofits fighting racial and economic injustice, citing Jewish values of dignity and liberation. Notably, he directed the money to justice groups rather than Israel-based causes, per The Genesis Prize Foundation and The Hill.
December 10, 2023: In his first public statement after the October 7 Hamas attacks, Spielberg said he "never imagined" seeing "such unspeakable barbarity against Jews," compared the openness of current antisemitism to 1930s Germany, and the USC Shoah Foundation began recording survivor testimonies from the attacks, reported by the Times of Israel and CNN.
March 25, 2024: At the USC Shoah Foundation's 30th anniversary ceremony, Spielberg warned that "the machinery of extremism" is stirring antisemitism on US campuses since October 7, and said, "We can rage against the heinous acts committed by the terrorists of October 7, and also decry the killing of innocent women and children in Gaza," per the Times of Israel and Deadline.

Jewish identity, and a record built on institutions

Spielberg's ties to Israel and Jewish life are deep and documented, not incidental. Raised in a Jewish family and, by his own account, self-conscious about his Jewishness after childhood bullying (International March of the Living), he has said, "As a Jew, I am aware of how important the existence of Israel is for the survival of us all." Schindler's List (1993) was, in his telling, the film that confirmed his Judaism to himself and his family, and he plowed the profits into the Righteous Persons Foundation and the USC Shoah Foundation, both aimed at Jewish continuity and Holocaust memory. Israel formally honored him with the 2021 Genesis Prize, whose foundation praised his "unparalleled contribution to teaching the post-war generations about the horrors of the Holocaust." His public voice is pro-Israel and unabashedly Jewish-identified while also peace-seeking: his 2005 film Munich was designed to spark dialogue and drew fire from both directions, and his March 2024 USC speech condemned Hamas terror while mourning Gazan civilian deaths. One nuance worth flagging: when he won the Genesis Prize money, he redirected all of it, plus a personal match, to US racial and economic justice groups rather than Israeli charities.

The bottom line

Steven Spielberg is a clear and well-documented supporter of Israel and of Jewish identity, expressed mainly through institution-building (the Righteous Persons Foundation and the USC Shoah Foundation), accepting Israel's Genesis Prize, and forceful post-October 7 statements condemning antisemitism and "barbarity against Jews." He is a peace-and-coexistence voice, not a hardliner: he condemns Hamas terror while also decrying civilian deaths in Gaza, and there is no record of him supporting any boycott of Israel. Anyone looking for either an anti-Israel critic or an uncritical cheerleader will find neither.

Wear your own answer

Spielberg answers the question through institutions, films, and public words. You can answer it in your own everyday way. At Shop Israel, our Support Israel collection is full of pieces that say where you stand without a speech: an IDF t-shirt, a Star of David necklace, or an "Am Yisrael Chai" design you can wear on any street. Every order backs Israeli-made craft and Israel-forward design, a small, concrete way to put your own support on the record.

Last updated July 2026. We update these profiles as the record changes.