OK, the source for this is Page Six, so consider it when you’re rejoicing over this one. Gwyneth Paltrow, who just separated from husband Chris Martin after almost 11 years of marriage, is converting to Judaism.
We think it’s a big deal. Because we like Gwyneth.
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And, as far as we’re concerned, she’s always been part o the tribe. A little bit. Except when she made those luscious cheeseburgers.
Gwyneth Paltrow was born in Los Angeles, the daughter of actress Blythe Danner and film producer and director Bruce Paltrow, who was Jewish. Gwyneth was raised with “both Jewish and Christian holidays.” In fact, her brother Jake had a Bar Mitzvah ceremony.
Her father’s Ashkenazi family immigrated from Belarus and Poland, while her mother’s people came from Pennsylvania. Her paternal great-great-grandfather, whose surname was “Paltrowicz, ” was a rabbi in Nowogród, Poland. is the half-cousin of actress Katherine Moennig, and a second cousin of former U.S. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (AZ-08). Her uncle is opera singer and actor Harry Danner.
So Gwyneth is quietly converting, after years of learning the Kabbalah, as a friend of Michael Berg, co-director of the Kabbalah Center.
In 2011, Gwyneth appeared on NBC’s “Who Do You Think You Are?” which described how her family came from East European rabbis.
After the show, Gwyneth said that she wanted to raise her daughter Apple, 10, and son Moses, 8, in a Jewish environment, even though their father was Christian. She made the comment at a London event hosted by Community Security Trust, a Jewish charity (kind of).
Last year, while touring with her cookbook “It’s All Good, ” Gwyneth declared herself “the original Jewish mother, ” because she enjoys cooking for people.
“Creating a meal for my family and friends, sitting together, eating, laughing and talking, that’s when I’m happy, ” she told You magazine. “Oh my God, if you saw the amount of food that I do. I am the original Jewish mother. I make meals from these new recipes that look, smell and taste like the food I always cooked, but are also super healthy. That is an additional joy.”
OK, so we have Kabbalah and cooking, and a long line of Polish rabbis. What more do you want, people? We declare her a Jew already. Just jump in the mikvah and do a couple strokes, and do all your walking on the Sabbath.
