So, which well-known people are "halfJewish'?
You may be surprised to learn about the following:
Actress Sarah Jessica Parker and
actor Matthew Broderick (both
half-Jewish/half-WASP), married to
each other. Their wedding took
place in a dilapidated Lower East
Side New York synagogue. His sis-
ter, an Episcopal minister, officiated.
Authors Daniel Klein,
right, and Freke Vuijst, left,
with their "half-Jewish"
daughter, Samara.
back to Holland each night, said she has
not experienced such resentment in the
small western Massachusetts burg where
the authors, married 24 years, now
reside.
Vuijst grew up in Holland, where she
earned a college degree in journalism;
her father was a minister. Klein was
raised in Delaware and New Jersey; his
father was a chemist for DuPont. The
family was not very religious, but Klein,
who majored in philosophy at Harvard,
had a bar mitzvah.
"When Daniel came to Holland to
ask my father for my hand in marriage,"
Vuijst recalled, "my father was interested
in his Judaic roots and asked him to read
something in Hebrew, but he couldn't.
My father married us using a liturgy in
Dutch, Hebrew and English."
A Different Sensibility
In The Half-Jewish Book, Vuijst and
Klein explore what it means to be half-
Jewish, opposing those who insist: "You
are either Jewish or you are not."
"We feel a person is half-Jewish if one
of his or her parents is ethnically Jewish
and one is not. It doesn't matter which
parent is Jewish and which parent is not.
And it doesn't matter if the Jewish par-
ent is observant or not," write the
authors.
"It doesn't even matter if the non-
Jewish parent converted to Judaism
upon marriage. It also doesn't matter in
which — if any — religion the person
was brought up, or which religion he or
she has chosen to follow. In other words,
a person is half-Jewish if half of his
genetic/cultural makeup is Jewish and
half it not. That's it."
The authors suggest there is some-
thing unique and remarkable about the
half-Jewish mind and the half-Jewish
face — in the art and wit created by
half-Jewish sensibilities, and in the ethi-
cal, literary and political ideas produced
from the half-Jewish perspective.
There is a kindred spirit half-Jews
share, explain the authors. A sort of
unofficial network of bonding based on
shared injustices and cultural ambiva-
lence. "One thing that all [the intervie-
wees] spoke about was a heightened
sense of duality," said Klein. That, say
the authors, leads to half-Jews being
more tolerant of other cultures and
points of view."
Yet, Klein believes, many "half-Jews
are more likely to get a Jewish education
than those with two Jewish parents,"
who might take their Judaism for grant-
ed.
Klein and Viujst have pretty much
followed the tenets of Judaism in raising
their daughter, Samara, giving her a
complete religious education, including
Hebrew school and a bat mitzvah.
(Although they define her as half-Jewish,
she could be considered, according to
Reform Judaism, a full Jew.)
"We felt it was important for her to
have a strong ethnic identity, going to
the synagogue regularly, participating in
seders and other Jewish traditions and
visiting Israel," said Viujst. "We live in a
Actor Daniel Day-Lewis (half-
Lithuanian Jewish/half-Irish
Protestant) and actress/film director
Rebecca Miller (half-American
Jewish/half-German Protestant),
married to each other. She's the
daughter of Jewish playwright
Arthur Miller.
Writer J.D. Salinger (half-
Jewish/half-Scots Irish). He carried
on an affair with the much younger
writer Joyce Maynard (half-
Jewish/half-WASP).
Actress Gwyneth Paltrow (half-
Jewish/half-Scots Irish German).
Daughter of actress Blythe Danner
and producer Bruce Paltrow,
Gwyneth is the descendant of a
dynasty of renowned Russian-Jewish
rabbis going back to the 17th cen-
tury on her father's side.
Actress Paulette Goddard (half-
Jewish/half-French Catholic). One
of the top beauties of 1930s
Hollywood, she was denied the part
of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With the
Wind by producer David Selznick
because he didn't want a Jew in the
role.
"
Actor Paul Newman (half-German
Jewish/half-Hungarian Catholic).
Although non-religious, he consid-
ers himself "just plain Jewish
because it is more challenging."
Actor Michael Douglas (half-
Jewish/half-WASP). His father,
actor Kirk Douglas, said: "Michael
is very Jewish — he feels as a Jew."
Actor Michael Landon (half-
Jewish/half-Irish Catholic). Sent by
his mother to a Catholic school, he
was taunted by schoolmates whom,
he said, "touched my head to see if I
had horns."
Actress Goldie Hawn (half-
Jewish/half-northern European).
With a Jewish mother, she always
identifies herself as a Jew.
Actor Harrison Ford (half-Russian
Jewish/half-Irish Catholic). This son
of a Jewish mother is always named
as one of the sexiest leading men in
Hollywood.
Actor David Ducliovny (half-
Russian Jewish/half-Scots
Presbyterian). Star of TV's The X-
Files, he describes his parents' match
as "the Highlands meets Coney
Island."
Tennis player Boris Becker (half
Czech Jewish/half-German
Catholic). He says he identifies
strongly with both sides of his her-
itage. "My mother was interned in a
concentration camp during World
War II."
New York Mayor Fiorello La
Guardia (half-Italian Jewish/half-
Italian Catholic). The "Little
Flower" spoke Yiddish and was in
the forefront of Americans who
publicized and protested the suffer-
ing of European Jewry under
Nazism.
Sen. Diane Feinstein (half-Polish
Jewish/half-Russian Orthodox). As
part of a double life, the California
Democrat attended Convent of the
Sacred Heart High School during
the week and went to Sunday
school at Temple Emanu-El on
weekends.
U.S. Secretary of Defense William
Cohen (half-Jewish/half-Protestant).
He was told at age 13 by a rabbi
that he was ineligible for a bar mitz-
vah because his mother wasn't
Jewish -- and that either she would
have to convert or he would have to
be circumcised. Infuriated and
frightened, he announced he no
longer considered himself a Jew —
and he has stuck to his word. He
subsequently married an African-
American TV talk-show host.
— From "The Half-Jewish Book:
A Celebration."
12/8
2000
85