15 Celebrities You Might Not Have Realized Are Jewish
Or at least Jew-ish. Happy Hanukkah, guys!
1. Paula Abdul
Her father is a Syrian Jew whose family immigrated to Brazil, and her mother is Canadian with Jewish roots.
3. Lenny Kravitz
Speaking of Lisa Bonet, her ex-husband Lenny Kravitz also happens to have one Jewish parent, his father. Though he has spent much of his life practicing Christianity, he has described himself in interviews as “half Jewish.”
4. Daniel Day-Lewis
Oscar winner Daniel Day-Lewis has a Jewish mother, although in a 2002 interview he identified as Agnostic.
5. Dianna Agron
The Glee starlet grew up in a Jewish household, with her father having been born Jewish and her mother having converted to Judaism
7. Kat Dennings
Born into a Jewish family as Katherine Litwack, the Two Broke Girls star currently identifies as culturally Jewish more than religiously Jewish.
8. Joseph Gordon-Levitt
JGL’s parents are both Jewish, though his family was “not strictly religious” according to a 2010 profile in Paste magazine.
9. Jake Gyllenhaal
And also sister Maggie. Their mother comes from a Jewish family.
10. Scarlett Johansson
ScarJo has a Jewish mother and considers herself Jewish, although growing up, she celebrated Christmas as well as a nod to her Danish father’s heritage.
11. Mila Kunis
Kunis was born in Ukraine and has cited anti-semitic sentiment in her native country as one of the reasons her family moved to the US when she was seven.
12. Justin Bartha
The Hangover and The New Normal star grew up in a Reform Jewish household.
13. Emmanuelle Chriqui
Chriqui is of Moroccan-Jewish descent and has noted that she grew up in a kosher household.
14. Winona Ryder
Ryder was born Winona Horowitz to a Jewish father. However, her family incorporated various religions into their spiritual practices, and Ryder has stated that she practices Buddhism.
15. Rashida Jones
Jones has a Jewish mother and attended Hebrew school growing up.
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- ADoA thinks 15 Celebrities You Might Not Have Rea... is Win
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heatherkhouryl 5 months agoUm, the pic leading me to the story was of Neil Diamond. He’s not even on the list (although he is Jewish). Funny considering he has 3 of the most popular Christmas albums of all time ;) LOL
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jessicaspidergirlr 5 months agoMadisone, I have to agree…it’s just not possible…right? If you’re not a troll, debanzle, I’ll reiterate for you that Judaism is both a heritage and a religion.
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benjaminc5 5 months agoIt’s the law in the Torah. You aren’t in by birth unless your mother is a Jew. This is why Howard Stern claims he’s half Jewish, because his mother is allegedly Italian.
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Lesley Hauler 5 months agoReform Judaism has begun to open lineage to the father’s side too now.
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WhatTheHolyHeck 5 months agoIt’s matrilineal because in the old days you couldn’t conclusively prove paternity.
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madisone 5 months agoBoth. The religion carry’s through the mother exclusively, like with Islam and the father.
Other religions have a distinct culture as well, and it’s like you have the religious belief and the culture or only the culture. The point is when you grow up you grow up differently because of a distinct heritage. A lot of the cultural things come from the Torah, but it doesn’t mean that if you don’t believe in G’d you can’t acknowledge or celebrate the heritage.
Somehow I think Christianity is the only one where heritage and religion are so separated. I really don’t see Jews as being the anomaly.
And there really is no accepted reason for it besides the fact that Jewish texts state to follow the women. The reasons the apply to other societies in Anthropology don’t necessarily count for Judaism.
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WhatTheHolyHeck 5 months ago
It’s considered a lineage, not just a personal religious choice. That’s why certain diseases have a higher or lower incidence in, for instance, Ashkenazi Jewish families; there was a lot of social insulation for generations that created a very distinct genetic pool.
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