Is Julian Edelman Jewish?

Yes. Julian Edelman is Jewish. Edelman, the NFL football player for the New England Patriots, was born in Redwood City, California, the son of Angie and Frank Edelman, who owns a small business. He has Jewish ancestry on his father's side, but was raised a Christian. More recently on a NFL Network interview, Edelman stated that he is Jewish. Edelman played in the 2015 Super Bowl.

From JTA: During the Super Bowl Sunday night, many Jews across the country had the same question: Is that wide receiver Julian Edelman Jewish?

Edelman had an excellent game Sunday night, catching nine passes for 109 yards and a touchdown in the Patriots’ dramatic comeback victory over the Seattle Seahawks. He also happens to have a very Jewish-sounding name.

While his father has Ashkenazi roots, this is what Edelman had to say on the topic on a media day before his previous Super Bowl appearance with the Patriots in 2012:

“Well, I’m not completely Jewish, if you know what I mean. I know people want me to be. My father is Jewish. My mother isn’t. I’ve been asked this before. I guess you could say I’m kind of Jewish but not really.”

For the record, while traditional Jews believe one must have a Jewish mother or convert in order to be considered Jewish, both Reform and Reconstructionist Jews recognize patrilineal descent.
In an interview with the NFL Network last season, Edelman asserted more clearly that he is in fact Jewish. When asked for some “good Christmas answers” to questions from one broadcaster, Edelman said: “Well, I’m Jewish, but I’ll try to keep it to Hanukkah presents even though Hanukkah’s over.”

Here are a few facts about the Patriots’ Jewish (or not) star receiver:

He played quarterback in college.

Before playing wide receiver in the pros, Edelman played quarterback for a year at the College of San Mateo and three years at Kent State. During his senior year at Kent State, he also led his team in rushing yards. No word on whether he also showed up at the campus Hillel. He was not expected to do well in the pros. Scouting reports from 2009, the year Edelman entered the NFL draft, called him too small and said that he would not be a high-impact player. Edelman was not even invited to participate in the NFL Combine, a show of physical tests for professional scouts. His father (not exactly your stereotypical American Jewish dad) became an auto mechanic at age 14 but pushed him to succeed.

After his Super Bowl win Sunday night, Edelman told reporters:

“My dad was just a little trailer trash white dude that worked his tail off, didn’t have a dad. He started at working at 14, didn’t get to play sports. He dedicated his life to his kids to let us live our dreams. I love my dad.”

ESPN ‘s Jackie MacMullan expanded on the influence of Edelman’s father, who pushed the future star to tears while training him. His teammates nicknamed him “squirrel.” Not much to explain here, except that Edelman is noted for his constant hustle and energy. It is worth pointing out that Edelman is not even the most Jewish player on the Patriots — backup safety Nate Ebner’s father was a Sunday School principal at Temple Shalom in Springfield, Ohio.
Who knows? Maybe Tom Brady’s menorah will inspire Edelman to become more involved with his Jewish side.

Is Andre Tippett Jewish?

Yes, Andre Tippett is Jewish. The former NFL player for the New England Patriots is a member of the National Football League Professional Football Hall of Fame as well as the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.

Tippett was born in Birmingham, Alabama. He attended Barringer High School in Newark, New Jersey. He first attended college and played football at Ellsworth Community College in Iowa Falls in 1978. Andre Tippett married the Jewish Rhonda Tippett (née Kenney) with a rabbi officiating in 1993. Tippett, who was born and raised Baptist began taking Judaism classes that led to his conversion in 1997.

Together the couple has three daughters, Janea Tippett, Asia Barnes and Madison, and one son, Coby. Tippett and his family currently lives in Sharon, Massachusetts, and is a Pop Warner football coach.

Is Mario Balotelli Jewish?

Mario Balotelli, the soccer player is not Jewish, but his foster mother is Jewish. Mario Balotelli was born in Palermo, Sicily to immigrants from Ghana.

Mario Balotelli's family moved to Bagnolo Mella in the province of Brescia, Lombardy, when he was two. In 1993, the authorities suggested he be placed into foster care. The Barwuah family gave up the three-year-old boy to an Italian foster family, the Balotellis. His foster parents are Silvia, the Jewish daughter of Holocaust survivors and Francesco Balotelli. They lived in the town of Concesio, Brescia, in northern Italy. Mario has three biological siblings: Abigail, Enoch, and Angel Barwuah.

At first, he stayed at the Balotellis during the weekdays, and returned to his biological parents on weekends. But after a while he started to be indifferent towards his biological parents and adopted the surname of the Balotellis, and it was arranged for him to be permanently fostered by the Balotellis. In June 2012, he dedicated his goals that put Italy in the final of the Euro 2012 football championships to his foster mother Silvia, and rushed over to embrace her as she wept after the win.

In December 2014 he started quite a scandal when he posted an image of Super Mario (Nintendo character) to his Instagram account in what was dubbed a racist and anti-Semitic post. Balotelli published a photo to the social media site of the Nintendo character Super Mario that read, among other things, “jumps like a black man and grabs coins like a Jew.”

Balotelli, also dubbed ‘Super Mario,’ said the post was his “unlucky moment” and later deleted the image.

The rest of the text read: “Don’t be racist. Be like Mario. He’s an Italian plumber, created by Japanese people, who speaks English and looks like a Mexican.”

A spokesman for the FA said the governing body can take action where it believes an individual has “bought the game into disrepute by making comments which included a reference to ethnic origin and/or color and/or race,” The Guardian reported.

Is Sasha Cohen Jewish?

Yes, the figure skater Sasha Cohen is Jewish. Her mother, Galina (née Feldman), is a Jewish immigrant from Ukraine and a former ballet dancer. Her father, Roger Cohen, graduated from the University of California, Berkeley Boalt Hall School of Law. Roger Cohen was formerly a law partner at Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison, and Of Counsel at Dorsey and Whitney. He is Founder and CEO of VerticalPoint Solutions, a company that simplifies and automates compliance for document intensive industries. VerticalPoint is based in Orange County, California.

Disambiguation: Is comedian/actor Sasha Baron Cohen Jewish? 

Is Brad Ausmus Jewish?

Is Brad Ausmus a Jew? Yes, the former Major League Baseball player and current manager of the Detroit Tigers, is Jewish.

Bradley David "Brad" Ausmus is Jewish, and was born in New Haven, Connecticut. His mother is Jewish, and his father, Harry, is Protestant. His father is a retired professor of European history at Southern Connecticut State University, and the author of A Schopenhauerian Critique of Nietzsche's Thought, which Ausmus calls his "favorite book."

Although Ausmus' mother is Jewish, he was not raised with the Jewish religion; he occasionally celebrated the High Holidays with his mother and her side of the family. Nonetheless, he still takes pride in his heritage. Ausmus stated in an interview with the Jewish Journal: "I wasn’t raised with the Jewish religion, so in that sense I don’t really have much feeling toward it. But, however, in the last 10 or so years, I have had quite a few young Jewish boys who will tell me that I am their favorite player or they love watching me play or they feel like baseball is a good fit for them because it worked for me or it worked for Shawn Green or other Jewish players at the major league level. It has been a sense of pride. If you can have a positive impact on a kid, I’m all for it."

In 2001 he did not play on Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, quipping that he "was trying to atone for my poor first half." Ausmus was the manager of the 2013 World Baseball Classic Israel team, which under the Classic's rules entitles non-Israeli citizens of Jewish heritage to play for the team. is a former catcher in Major League Baseball and the current manager of the Detroit Tigers. He has also been the manager of the Israel national baseball team.
A 1987 draft pick of the New York Yankees, he chose to alternate attending Dartmouth College and playing minor league baseball.

According to blogger Rabbi Jason Miller, Ausmus is one of only a handful of managers in Major League Baseball history and it looks like several of them were catchers in their playing days. There is also a high proportion of Jewish managers who at one point managed the Oakland Athletics. Rabbi Jason writes, "The only other Jewish men to ever manage a Major League Baseball team were Lipman Pike (1800s), Lou Boudreau (Indians, Red Sox, Oakland and Cubs), Bob Melvin (Seattle, Arizona and Oakland), Norm Sherry (Angels) and Jeff Newman (interim for Oakland)."

Is Novak Djokovic Jewish?

Tennis star Novak Djokovic is not Jewish. He was born in Belgrade, Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, to parents Srđan and Dijana Đoković. His religion is Serbian Orthodox Christian.

While the tennis champion isn't Jewish, he has many close relationships with Israeli Jews, including his long-time managers and fitness coaches.

Is Jerry Sandusky Jewish?

Jerry Sandusky is not Jewish. The disgraced college football coach at Penn State University is not a Jew.

Sandusky was born in Pennsylvania and is of Irish Catholic Descent.

Is Kevin Youkilis Jewish?

Yes, Kevin Youkilis is a Jew. The Boston Red Sox player is the son Michael and Enza Youkilis. His father is of Romanian Jewish descent and his mother an Italian Catholic, but Kevin Youkilis considers himself Jewish.

Youkilis described his father as a "well-known third baseman in the Jewish Community Center fast-pitch softball league." Kevin Youkilis is currently engaged to marry Tom Brady's sister Julie.

Youkilis together with Adam Stern and Gabe Kapler set a record for the most Jewish players on the field at one time in AL history, and the most in Major League Baseball history since four Jewish players took the field for the New York Giants in a game in 1941. Kevin Youkilis was named the Jewish MVP for 2008 and the top Jewish baseball player of the decade 2000–09.

Youkilis has said, "In my religion, the Jewish religion, that's one of the biggest things that's taught, is giving a mitzvah, forming a mitzvah", said Youkilis. "I was always taught as a kid giving to charity. You're supposed to give a good amount of charity each and every year.... It's just a great thing when you can make a kid smile that's going through some hard times in life ... I wish more people, not just athletes, would give people just a little bit of their time. It doesn't take much ... It can make a huge difference."

Youkilis was traded to the Chicago White Sox on June 24, 2012.

Is Amar'e Stoudemire Jewish?

Amar'e Stoudemire is not a Jew. The NBA basketball player is an ardent Zionist who live tweeted his 2010 visit to Israel, but Stoudemire is not Jewish. In one tweet he stated that he intended "to get a better understanding of my heritage."

His agent, Happy Walters, was interviewed for an article on the NBA Fanhouse website and said, "I haven't checked to see if he's circumcised, but regardless, it's a stretch to call him Jewish at this point."

Amare Stoudemire has claimed he has Jewish roots in his mother's family heritage. His mother "mentioned that somewhere back in her lineage there might be some Jewish roots". In a 2010 interview, he said: "I have been aware since my youth that I am a Hebrew through my mother, and that is something that has played a subtle but important role in my development."

Amar'e Stoudemire's mother Carrie Stoudemire runs her own Christian ministries.

Is Ryan Braun Jewish?

The question of whether Major League Baseball player Ryan Braun is a Jew has two answers. Some say that Ryan Braun is a Jewish baseball player and others say he is not. The difference comes down to Jewish law.

Ryan Braun's mother is Catholic precluding him from technically being Jewish according to a strict interpretation of Jewish law. Ryan Braun's father is Jewish however. That being stated, the media and most fans have always considered Ryan Braun Jewish. In fact, the Jewish Daily Forward lists him as #5 on the 2011 “Forward 50”, its list of the fifty most significant American Jews.

The most important fact is that Ryan Braun considers himself Jewish. Ryan Braun's nickname "The Hebrew Hammer" was similarly a nickname for former Jewish baseball players Hank Greenberg and Al Rosen.

Braun's father was born in Israel and immigrated to the United States at age seven. In an 2007 Interview he said: “It's a touchy subject because I don't want to offend anybody, and I don't want groups claiming me now because I'm having success. But I do consider myself definitely Jewish. And I'm extremely proud to be a role model for young Jewish kids”. Braun also said regarding his Judaism, "It's something that draws a lot of interest and something I take pride in... But I don't want to make it into something more than what it is. I didn't have a Bar Mitzvah. I don't want to pretend that I did. I didn't celebrate the holidays."

Ryan Braun's father is the son of European Jews who escaped the Nazis and whose families were nearly destroyed in the Holocaust. Braun's father once stated, "There's a lot of heritage there, and Ryan realizes that and is able to embrace his heritage."

Ryan Braun is one of the highest-drafted Jewish ballplayers in the history of professional baseball and also won the National League Rookie of the Year award (2007). In 2011, Ryan Braun became the fourth self-identifying Jewish player, and the first in nearly a half-century, to win the Most Valuable Player Award (National League). In December 2007, Braun was the only Jewish athlete invited by President George W. Bush to the annual Hanukkah Dinner at the White House. Ryan Braun was inducted into the Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in January 2010.

In December 2011, Braun was given a 50 game suspension for failing a drug test for performance enhancing drugs. Braun appealed the suspension and became the first Major League Baseball Player to win such an appeal.