Another Hollywood star has discovered and converted to Judaism, but it is not clear if the change was carried out according to Jewish law.
Zooey Deschanel revealed she converted, shortly before giving birth to a baby girl, at the request of her husband, Jacob Pechenik in June, while she was pregnant. Pechenik is producing an upcoming movie in which his new wife stars.
A wild guess is that it was not an Orthodox conversion, which means that their child is not recognized as Jewish by traditional Jewish law.
Her mother is a Catholic, and her father is a Quaker, but she said they did not object to her conversion.
The star of the New Girl sitcom was quoted by US Weekly as having said:
I don’t attach myself to any one religion. My family is liberal. I was raised in the ‘you can be whatever you want’ kind of way. And in the end, I was like, ‘Eh.’
Zooey, 35, and her husband named their daughter “Elsie Otter,” which sounds as Jewish as “Zooey.”
She said on the Today Show:
We just really liked the name Elsie and then we both love otters, they’re very sweet and they’re also smart. They use tools…they hold hands while they sleep…They’re wonderful animals.
Zooey previously was married to a non-Jew and divorced after two years.
Why between the brackets ?
Why be nasty to her? Her geirus is what it is but why be nasty?
Does that count?
Why are we putting quote around the word Judaism?
She is as Jewish as Santa Claus.
according to halachah ,for the child to be jewish ,the mother would have had to convert before the child was conceived. the child can convert. it is the law. the law is not personal or pc.
Before conception?! I’ve never heard that. Before birth, yes… but people often wind up pregnant unexpectedly.
in other words the mother has to be jewish or convert before the child has been conceived. doesn’t matter whether the pregnancy is expected or unexpected. apparently in this situation the mother converted during pregnancy.
Speak for yourself Pinchas. We welcome and congratulate you, Zooey.
she looks Jewish. If she has the conversion papers than she is Jewish. Zooey, welcome to the family.
check strict orthodox halachah which is the actual law. I understand that this is complicated, but it is the law. in doubt contact an orthodox legal scholar.
Now hopefully she will
Clean up her image. She is talented and needs to find a different platform
She may or not be halachically Jewish, but the nasty, snarky comments have no place in a news article. They demean the paper and the student whose callous editor has now allowed this unfortunate piece of slander and Loshon Horah to be permanently attached to his name. I can only hope that this student journalist will learn to treat his future subjects with more respect, whomever they are.
That's a bit simplistic, don't you think? As an Orthodox Jew, I do not accept conversions from Conservative or Reform judaism. And she seems about as interested in Judaism and living a Jewish life as, say, an otter might be.
Alan Kardon Pinchas and I speak as Orthodox Jews. I don't care if she has a flamethrower designed to look like a Chanukah menorah. If she's converted by the Coservative or Reform movements, then she is not Jewisdh. But hell, throw her a parade if you like. Don't let anything stupid like religious technicalities get in your way.
And BTW what exactly does a Jew look like????
To each their own. I'm just kind of shocked that someone who was in a famous christmas movie, and put out a Christmas cd would so easily drop something they obviously love.
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