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Jessica Seinfeld is better known as a cookbook author than an activist. Her popular books include 2007’s “Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food” — a bestseller — and, most recently, “Vegan, at Times: 120+ Recipes for Every Day or Every So Often.”
Last October, however, in response to a spate of antisemitic incidents that began with rapper Kanye West’s antisemitic tweets, Seinfeld shared an Instagram message of solidarity with her 580,000 followers. “I support my Jewish friends and [J]ewish people,” it read. “If you don’t know what to say, you can just say this in your feed.”
The post went viral and was shared by a number of celebrities, including comic Amy Schumer and three members of the Kardashian/Jenner clan. The post also earned praise from her famous husband, comedian Jerry Seinfeld: “She found a simple, and I thought non-aggressive, way to say something that, as we said, unfortunately needs to be said,” he told the “Today” show. “I thought that was a very special and fantastic thing to do.”
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In February, Jessica Seinfeld spoke up again after white supremacists and other fringe groups called for a “Day of Hate,” using her social media platform to ask friends of the Jewish community to once again “counter this idea with their love and light.” Among her suggestions: join a Jewish friend at synagogue for Shabbat in order to “fill our sanctuaries with courage and friendship” and “call or text your Jewish friends and simply say ‘I’m here.’”
Seinfeld, 51, is a mother of three and has a home in Manhattan. She runs the GOOD+ Foundation (formerly Baby Buggy), a NYC-based nonprofit that aims to dismantle multi-generational poverty.
“Hateful words turn to hateful violence. Reinforcing that message on your own platform, big or small, means everything, and it’s already making a difference,” she wrote last year.
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