Meryl Streep Honors 'Lion-Hearted Friend' Steven Spielberg in Powerful Speech at His Shoah Foundation Gala

Mar. 15, 2025

Meryl Streep and Steven Spielberg at USC Shoah Foundation 30th Anniversary Ambassadors for Humanity Gala at New York Hilton Midtown on Sunday, Oct. 13.Photo:Noam Galai/Getty

Noam Galai/Getty

Meryl Streepis honoring her friendSteven Spielberg.

Speaking at Spielberg’sUSC Shoah Foundation30th Anniversary Ambassadors for Humanity Gala at New York Hilton Midtown on Sunday, Oct. 13, the actress, 75, said kind words about the filmmaker, 77, at his event which remembers the Holocaust.

“I am honored and I’m humbled to be here in the presence of survivors of the Shoah and in the company of some people who have dedicated their lives, heart and soul, to preserving the memories of these people and honoring their lives,” Streep said.

Speaking of her friend, she went on to say, “30 years ago, my lion-hearted friend, Steven Spielberg, oppression artist with an unmatched gift for storytelling, saw that the defense of the truth was very, very important.”

She added, “And together with some visionary partners, they collaborated, founded the USC Shoah Foundation, and they laid down a living memory, a living library of thousands of firsthand eyewitness accounts of what really happened, established 30 years before the digital manipulations of today.”

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Meryl Streep onstage as USC Shoah Foundation Hosts 30th Anniversary Gala ‘Ambassadors For Humanity’ at New York Hilton on October 13, 2024.Noam Galai/Getty

“This vault of irrefutable truth has a living mission, and 80 plus years after the Holocaust,” Streep continued. “The spoken words of the survivors are more crucially important than ever to bring us face to face with what hate can do and where it can lead us, to remind us of the consequences if we do nothing, and to keep alive the memory of what actually happened. Not just to chronicle the unspeakable acts of the past, but to inspire us with the vivid counts of courage that are lying within them, that they reveal to us, and that very courage is something we’re all going to need in the very near future.”

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From Left: Carol Folt, Wendell Pierce, Whoopi Goldberg, Meryl Streep, Steven Spielberg, Drew Barrymore, Debra Messing, Alex Edelman and Robert Williams attend as USC Shoah Foundation Hosts 30th Anniversary Gala ‘Ambassadors For Humanity’ on October 13, 2024.Kevin Mazur/Getty

Kevin Mazur/Getty

Spielberg founded the USC Shoah Foundation in 1994 after the release of his 1993 historical drama filmSchindler’s List.

Streep’s public tribute at her friend’s event comes after the pair were snappedposing together at the AFI Awardsearlier this year.

The duo both sported suits as they smiled at Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles on January 12, 2024.

More than 60 Holocaust survivors attended the gala, which took place at the New York Hilton Midtown. Other star attendees includedWhoopi GoldbergandDrew Barrymore.

source: people.com