Is Benjamin Millepied Jewish? That seems to be the question everyone wants to know. Natalie Portman, the Jewish actress with Israeli roots who started dating the French Millepied during filming of the film "Black Swan," plans to marry Benjamin Millepied in the near future. The two became parents of a baby son named Aleph in 2011.
Millepied was born in Bordeaux, France and raised in Dakar, Senegal. He is the youngest of three sons.[3] His ballet training started at the age of eight with his mother, Catherine Flori, a former ballet dancer. His father is Denys Millepied. Between the ages of 13 and 16 he studied with Michel Rahn at the Conservatoire National in Lyon, France.
Benjamin Millepied was not born Jewish according to reports, however it is rumored that he converted to Judaism before the couple's August 2012 wedding (see update below regarding Benjamin Millepied's conversion to Judaism). The wedding was reported to be a Jewish ceremony and took place in a private residence in Sag Harbor, NY.
UPDATE: On January 29, 2014 JTA.org posted the following news about Benjamin Millepied:
French choreographer Benjamin Millepied, the husband of Jewish actress Natalie Portman, told an Israeli newspaper that he is converting to Judaism.
Millepied told the Hebrew-language Yediot Acharonot in an article published Wednesday that he is “in the middle of the conversion process.” He added that he hopes the process will “come to an end soon and I will become a Jew.”
Becoming Jewish is “very important for me,” Millepied told the newspaper.
The couple is in Israel through March as Portman casts the movie that she is directing based on “A Tale of Love and Darkness,” a book by Israeli author Amos Oz.
The couple will relocate to Paris, where Millepied will work as director of dance at the Paris Opera Ballet
Portman said in September in an interview with the French magazine Madame Figaro that she is interested in becoming a French citizen.
“I don’t have the French nationality, but I would be love to get it. But I don’t know if it’s possible because I already have an American and an Israeli passport,” she said.
Portman and Millepied, who have a son named Aleph, were married in a Jewish wedding ceremony last year.
Millepied was born in Bordeaux, France and raised in Dakar, Senegal. He is the youngest of three sons.[3] His ballet training started at the age of eight with his mother, Catherine Flori, a former ballet dancer. His father is Denys Millepied. Between the ages of 13 and 16 he studied with Michel Rahn at the Conservatoire National in Lyon, France.
Benjamin Millepied was not born Jewish according to reports, however it is rumored that he converted to Judaism before the couple's August 2012 wedding (see update below regarding Benjamin Millepied's conversion to Judaism). The wedding was reported to be a Jewish ceremony and took place in a private residence in Sag Harbor, NY.
UPDATE: On January 29, 2014 JTA.org posted the following news about Benjamin Millepied:
French choreographer Benjamin Millepied, the husband of Jewish actress Natalie Portman, told an Israeli newspaper that he is converting to Judaism.
Millepied told the Hebrew-language Yediot Acharonot in an article published Wednesday that he is “in the middle of the conversion process.” He added that he hopes the process will “come to an end soon and I will become a Jew.”
Becoming Jewish is “very important for me,” Millepied told the newspaper.
The couple is in Israel through March as Portman casts the movie that she is directing based on “A Tale of Love and Darkness,” a book by Israeli author Amos Oz.
The couple will relocate to Paris, where Millepied will work as director of dance at the Paris Opera Ballet
Portman said in September in an interview with the French magazine Madame Figaro that she is interested in becoming a French citizen.
“I don’t have the French nationality, but I would be love to get it. But I don’t know if it’s possible because I already have an American and an Israeli passport,” she said.
Portman and Millepied, who have a son named Aleph, were married in a Jewish wedding ceremony last year.
Actually Aleph is a boy!
ReplyDeleteI now have more respect for the Israeli born Natalie Portman!
ReplyDeleteReally? He is not sephardic jew?
ReplyDeleteIs Natalie Portmann Jewish? I mean, is her mother Jewish?
ReplyDeleteYes. Her whole family is from Israel, she's 100%.
DeleteHer whole family "is from israel" because they moved there, not because they originate from there. It is more accurate to claim they are american of eastern european origin than to claim they are israeli. Israel was created by european ashkenazi non-israelite jews in 1948. These jews started arriving to Palestine in large amounts when britain brought them in during their years of colonialization. After that jews of other ethnic origins were brought in. Israeli is not a race, neither is jewish. Natalie portman and her family are of ashkenazi (russian-eastern european origin).
Deletebless you truth you are absolutely correct..simply true :)
Deletealthough an evangelical cabinet of britain opened the door for the re-establishment of the israeli state in the land of palestine, where there had never been any other sovereign country before, it is quite clear that after this brief time of favour and especially on the ground, the brits did anything but "bring in the jews". Britain in fact in the years running up to WWII, severely restricted the emigration of European Jews, even in the face of Hitler's rising anti-semitic oppression. Instead it was the Arabs from the surrounding nations who were allowed to flock in to Palestine from far and wide, attracted by the economic opportunities that followed the development spurred by the Jewish battle and indeed victory to make the desert bloom. The abiding feeling of anti-semitism in the British army ran so strong, that in the war that started on the day that a UN-ratified Israel was formed, after 5 surrounding countries attacked the fledgling state with the aim of destroying it completely, many of the invading troops were led or trained, and indeed armed, by British officers. The majority of incoming Arabs were from Syria and the Arabs in Palestine were often known as Palestinian Syrians. The Jews were commonly known as Palestinians until at least the early 1970s. While Britain tried to keep tabs on every Jew coming in, putting illegal immigrants, even after the Holocaust, into concentration camps as far afield as Mauritius, Arab immigration went unchecked. This fact is shown by the special definition given to the Palestinian Arab refugees who fled Palestine during the attack by the 5 surrounding Arab countries, up until today by the UN. They, unlike any other refugee in the world, only have to have lived in Palestine for two years before 1948, and are uniquely allowed to pass refugee status onto their descendants ad infinitum. The secret history is that there were a greater number of Jewish refugees subsequent to the 1948 attack on Israel, as all Muslim countries literally kicked out up to 1million Jews, out of a religious anger in having to allow a Jewish state in the region.
Deleteand although Britain suggested a two-state solution in 1937 (the proposed Jewish state being miniscule even compared to todays borders), which the Arabs rejected based on their continuing desire to not have any Jewish state in the MidEast (even in the region from which Jews get their very name - Judeah!), at the time of the UN voting for the 1947 formation of the Israeli state, Britain abstained.
DeleteOn another question of outside assistance, the US only started to give arms after the 1973 surprise attack by the surrounding Arab countries on the Jews holiest day of the year, when the entire country is shut down. And US aid up to that point, 4x less than aid to the Arabs, was mostly in the form of loans.
Can you show me on a map where the nation of Palestine was? There has never been a nation called Palestine. The "Palestinian People", the Local Muslims, are Jordanians, Syrians and, Lebanese. The Romans called the area of what was Judea, Palestina, from the ancient Philistines. Even durind the period of Muslim rule there was never Palestine.
DeleteAlso,There has been a unbroken Jewish presance in the region for thousands of years.
'
So Orthodox can marry a Reform?
ReplyDeleteAnyone can marry anyone... Jews stick to Jews generally. Who is orthodox in that relationship?
ReplyDeleteAccording to all Jews, anyone born to a Jewish mother can marry any other person born to a Jewish mother. Reform, Conservative, Orthodox - all Jews.
ReplyDeletenot true. some sects only believe in patrilineal descent.
Deleteyeah those sects decided that on their own. not at all based on jewish law, just on what they felt like in that moment
DeleteWow . . . amazing how folks who have mistaken information make authoritative-sounding assertions in comment sections on the internet.
DeleteThere is no bona fide "sect" of Judaism which "only believe[s] in patrilineal descent." And matrilineal descent is an innovation in Judaism, if you place it in the context of the full sweep of Jewish history to its origins in antiquity. So to say that patrilineal descent it "not at all based on Jewish law" is inaccurate and misleading.
What's true is that matrilineal descent has been the norm in Jewish law for many centuries. One major movement (Reform Judaism) restored matrilineal descent over 20 years ago.
whether jewish or not, best wishes to both
ReplyDeletecock
ReplyDelete:)
Delete:)
Deletewhence Benjamin?
ReplyDeleteTo claim natalie portman has israeli roots is wrong. Her family moved there and have no roots there at all. Israel was created in 1948 by then recently arrived eastern european immigrants. Nobody has "israeli roots". Its like me being russian ethnicly and moving to china and then to the US, i would be described as an american of russian origin and nobody would claim i have chinese roots. Enough of the deliberate attempt to portray todays jews as a single race.
ReplyDeleteBullshit
Deletewhats fantastic is that ALL Jews today, have been shown to have a common genetic thread, unique to them, and revealing an origin in the Near East! Its really sad that Muslims could not have obeyed another section of their Koran (as opposed to the angry section), which stated that the Muslim God had given the land to the Jews. Indeed the Middle East would be a blossoming region if the MidEast countires had embraced the innovation and cosmopolitanism of the Jews, which make Israel today such a object of desire for technology and entrepeneurship, providing countless breakthroughs to the rest of the world. :)
DeleteOver 75% of Ashkenazi Jewish men show direct patrilineal ancestry from the Near East. The remainder having at least one European (presumably) convert in their male lineage. Its ok to convert to Judaism, right?
DeleteBadda
bing
I like the apartheid arrangement of israel, and wish it could be done all over the world!
DeleteWell then you are a disgusting human being. I don't understand why some people, I.e you, have a problem with difference, people can have different religions or set of beliefs, yet still get on, a Muslim and a Jew can get on perfectly fine, it's just people in the world with backwards mentality and mindsets that are preventing peace, tolerance and acceptance from prevailing. So please, take you and your fascistic ideals elsewhere.
DeleteNot truth.
ReplyDeleteYou only went one generation back. Jews are very inbred. They may have come from different countries, however, the law that a jew marries a jew has been a long tradition (even more than today). Meaning they all came from one genetic pool. Hence, one "race".
1] DNA tests have proven a definite link between Jews of all areas of the diaspora & those whose families never left the land of Israel; & that the link is rooted in the original Mid-East Jewish gene-pool-stock.
ReplyDelete2] The new state of Israel (vis a vis the ancient kingdoms of Judea/Israel) was re-populated by a combination of East Middle & West European, Russian, British, American, Greek, Persian, Iraqi, Syrian, Moroccan, Lubian, Tunisian Jews. (Yemenites & Hindis came later) The formation of a proto- government to establish a state was pushed & run by European & Russian Jews who still hold sway of the state.
3] The return of Jews to Israel actually began in relatively small groups, ranging from 50 to a few hundred at a time, several centuries before. It was the horrors of WW1 & the infamous Holocaust that triggered the massive return of the 40's.
4] Maternal line status of being Jewish is a generations long basis. This is one of several examples which evidence the importance which Judaism gives to women (as opposed to others religions & nations). The Paternal line determined the tribe to which the person belonged.
Truth: You better learn the truth.
ReplyDeleteI find it odd that any of these celebrities with Christian roots decides to stay Christian? If you love somebody regardless of their religion you shouldn't insist that they convert for you that's simply ridiculous if you want to be married to a Jew you should look for one. They are a proud race of people they should stick with their own and Christians do the same.
ReplyDeleteEverybody should stay with their own religion, make it simple and uncomplicated. Stop marrying out of your race. Christian should stay with themselves and not be forced to give up their religion you can't go from being a believer in the Messiah to all the sudden not? Stay with your own.And the Jews stay with their own race. Everyone will be much happier.
ReplyDelete