full list of Jewish actors/actresses! (some surprises for me!)

[EricW]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of..._and_actresses


Some names that shocked me were:

Scarlett Johansson
Amanda Bynes
Jake + Maggie Gyllenhaal
Evan Rachel Wood
David Beckham
Orlando Bloom
Neve Campbell
Joaquin Phoenix
Kerri Russell
Cindy Margolis
Katie Couric

Is it just me, or are none of these names really traditional Jewish names?

[Golden_Rhino]

David Lee Roth lights the menorah.
So do James Caan, Kirk Douglas, and the late Dinah Shore-ah.

Guess who eats together at the Carnegie Deli?
Bowser from Sha Na Na and Arthur Fonzarelli!
Paul Newman's half Jewish, Goldie Hawn's half too.
Put them together, what a fine lookin' Jew.

You don't need "Deck The Halls" or "Jingle Bell Rock",
'Cause you can spin a dreidel with Captain Kirk
and Mr. Spock -- both Jewish.

Put on your yarmulke
It's time for Hanukkah
The owner of the Seattle Supersonicahs
Celebrates Hanukkah

O.J. Simpson - not a Jew.
But guess who is? Hall of famer Rod Carew -- he converted
We got Ann Landers and her sister Dear Abby.
Harrison Ford's a quarter Jewish -- not too shabby!

Some people think that Ebenezer Scrooge is
Well he's not, but guess who is -- All Three Stooges!
So many Jews are in showbiz,
Tom Cruise isn't - but I heard his agent is.

Tell your friend Veronica
It's time to celebrate Hanukkah.
I hope I get a harmonicah
Oh this lovely, lovely Hanukkah.
So drink your gin and tonicah
And smoke your marijuanikah.
If you really, really wannakah
Have a happy, happy, happy, happy Hanukkah!
Happy Hanukkah!"

[Newtown]

[ QUOTE ]
David Beckham

[/ QUOTE ]
Umm...

[EricW]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
David Beckham

[/ QUOTE ]
Umm...


[/ QUOTE ]


Reference cited from wiki: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3122672,00.html

[diebitter]

[ QUOTE ]

Is it just me, or are none of these names really traditional Jewish names?

[/ QUOTE ]

That's cos you forgot Whoopi Goldberg.

[EricW]

Here's the complete list of Jews in all notable fields:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Jews

3 cheers to the most elite group of people in the world!

[jdock99]

To the best of my knowledge Judaism is a religion and not a "race," or a "people," but this distinction seems very cloudy, especially in how liberally people throw around the word "Jew." I have a few scenarios and maybe someone could tell me whether these people would be considered "Jewish" or not, and maybe that would help clear things up.

1. Male boy born of "Jewish" parents who do not practice at all, and never had a bris or practiced Judaism?

2. Male who was born as a Jew to a Jewish mother and father, possibly even went to Sunday school and got a Bar Mitzvah, but has since outwardly converted to another religion, ie Buddhism.

3. Male or female who was born to a Jewish father but not mother. Practices Judaism (in reformed synagogue)

4. Male or female born to a Jewish father but not mother who does not practice and (in the male's case) never had a bris.

5. Someone whose grandparents on one side were Jewish, but they are brought up w/o any religion. Also, does it matter if it is mother or father's side? Or whether they had a bris or not?

6. Someone who states they had one Jewish grandparent and has a tattoo in Hebrew that is a common Jewish "oath of fidelity" that you see on wedding cards all the time but probably also has other tatoos espousing other faiths, and appears to be "spiritual" but practices no religion (this appears to be the case with Beckham as far as i can gather from Wikipedia)

7. Someone who converts to Judaism in adulthood or marries a Jewish person and practices with them. Also, would the sex of the convertee change the answer?

8. Born to Jewish mother but not father. Did not have a bris (in males case), and does not practice any religion. If they had a bris and everything else stays the same does this make a difference?

These are just some of the examples of questionability I am curious about. It seems that in these online lists of people matching to religion (especially Judaism) half of the people on these lists are about as Jewish as a Foxwood Indian is a native american.

For the record here are my credentials (I obviously fit into the Jew category better than most of these people)== Born to Jewish mother, not father so do not have Jewish last name. Had a bris. Went to Sunday school up to my Bar Mitzvah, basically because my mother's parents are religious and payed for it. Neither me, my siblings or my mother practice except sometimes going to High Holidays and Passover with my grandparents (in my case I would average I do this about 1/2 the years for each one). \

Despite not having a Jewish last name, I am what you would consider phenotypically Jewish (white, medium height, large nose, dark brown curly hair, thin, gets good grades in school, etc.) and many people assume I am Jewish before even asking me and are genuinely confused when they hear my last name. \

Then when I explain it they start to tell me what a bad country Israel is because of something they read on Yahoo news that came from AP or Reuters, and they ask me when my ancestors came from Israel, and I have to explain they are all from Eastern Europe and came over before Israel was founded and in reality I am probably as racially semetic as your average neo-nazi. For the record, I do not think Israel is a bad country but I am not going to blindly support all their actions like it seems most American Jews do (and to be fair all Muslims blindly support the Palestinian "cause", so at least it is balanced in that respect, except for the fact there are 1 billion Muslims in the world and 15 million Jews (or something, I guestimated both those numbers but you get the point)


Also, I am engaged to a girl who is not even white, much less Jewish, and she says she wants to raise the kids Jewish (Is this possible, considering as far as I am concerned maternal lineage seems to be important?), but she does not really understand what Judaism is really about (of course I am not sure I do either) and I think she just wants to do it in theory to be unique. Anyways, I am rambling and I will stop. I guess the botom line is I was never super comfortable with where I personally stood on the spectrum of Jewishness, and where my kids are gonna stand, so I wanted to get some opinions about what is a Jew, at least as far as other people are concerned.

[ahnuld]

my general rule of thhumb is if hitler would have killed you, you're jewish enough for me.

and none of the people on OP's list are at all jewish

[Banditgberg]

[VNV]

Why is Scarlet Jewish just cos her mum was? She looks pretty Aryan to me.