Paul Rudd
Rudd in 2012, photo by prphotos
Birth Name: Paul Stephen Rudd
Place of Birth: Passaic, New Jersey, U.S.
Date of Birth: April 6, 1969
Ethnicity: Ashkenazi Jewish
Paul Rudd is an American actor, screenwriter, and producer. Among his many roles are Clueless, Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet, Overnight Delivery, The Object of My Affection, The Cider House Rules, the Wet Hot American Summer franchise, The Shape of Things, the Anchorman films, Reno 911!: Miami, The Ten, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Role Models, I Love You, Man; Monsters vs. Aliens, Dinner for Schmucks, Our Idiot Brother, Wanderlust, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, This Is 40, Admission, All Is Bright, The Fundamentals of Caring, The Catcher Was a Spy, Living with Yourself, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, The Shrink Next Door, the sitcom Friends, and Scott Lang / Ant-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Paul is the son of Gloria Irene (Granville), a television station sales manager, and Michael Rudd, an airline exeuctive. His parents were/are both Jewish, and were born in England, his father being from Edgware and his mother from Surbiton. Paul had a Bar Mitzvah ceremony. His ancestors were Jewish emigrants from Eastern Europe, Poland, Belarus, and Russia, to England. A picture of Paul’s parents can be seen here. Paul was largely raised in Lenexa, Kansas, where his father worked, as well as Anaheim, California. He is married to publicist and writer Julie Yaeger, with whom he has two children.
Paul has said:
My whole family is Jewish; my wife, Julie, is Jewish – there isn’t anyone in my family who isn’t Jewish. I was bar mitzvahed Reform; we were pretty laid back, but it’s like, oh yeah, I went to synagogue. I know what it’s like to look for matzoh [laughs]. I know the culture and I know the food. I know what a Haggadah is!… We have a lineage that is so many thousands of years old, that you just relate. It is a tribe; it’s like, “Oh, yeah, that’s my team,” and I feel that for sure.
Paul’s parents were second cousins. Paul’s paternal great-grandmother, Etia/Etla/Ethel Gejer/Gayer, was the sister of Paul’s maternal great-grandfather, Isaac Gayer/Gejer.
Paul was selected People Magazine’s “Sexiest Man Alive” in 2021. He is the fourth man of Jewish heritage to have been given this title by the magazine (Harrison Ford, in 1998, is the first, Adam Levine, in 2013, is the second, and David Beckham, in 2015, is the third).
Paul’s paternal grandfather was David Rudd (born Davis Rudnitsky, the son of Shmuel/Samuel Ar’ye Nehemov/Nokhimov Rudnitsky/Rudnjtsky and Esther/Ester Schustan). Paul’s grandfather Davis was born in St George in the East, London, England, to Jewish parents from Kholmich, Belarus. Shmuel was the son of Nokhim/Nechemiah/Nehemov Rudnitsky and Sura. Esther was the daughter of Itzhak/Yitzhak Schustan and Dveira/Dvora.
Paul’s paternal grandmother was Bessie Milafsky/Barnett (the daughter of Boruch Symcha “Barney” Miliawski/Milafsky/Milawsky/Barnett and Etia/Etla/Ethel Gejer/Gayer). Paul’s grandmother Bessie was born in Łódź, Russia-Poland, to a Jewish family, with her parents having been from Włodawa, Sledice.
Paul’s maternal grandfather was Louis Granville (born Louis Goldsztejn/Goldstein, the son of Kopel/Charles Goldsztejn/Goldstein and Miriam/Mariam “Millie”/”Minnie” Schneiderman). Paul’s grandfather Louis was born in Mile End Old Town, London, England, to Polish Jewish parents. Kopel was from Wolbrom, Kraków. Mariam was from Łódź, and was the daughter of Label Schneiderman.
Paul’s maternal grandmother was Minnie Gayer (the daughter of Isaac Gayer/Gejer and Beila “Betsy” Berenstein/Bernstein). Paul’s grandmother Minnie was born in Bethnal Green, London, England, to Polish Jewish parents. Isaac was born in Włodawa, Sledice. Beila likely was from Łódź.
Sources: Information about Paul’s ancestry – http://forward.com
http://www.thecrimson.com
Genealogy of Paul Rudd – https://www.geni.com
Paul’s paternal grandfather, Davis Rudnitsky, on the 1911 England and Wales Census – https://www.familysearch.org
@andrew, the absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence. I agree the Wikipedia editors should’ve included proper sources for those historical claims, but they’re largely true. There were major Jewish settlements in Southern Europe during antiquity, and this is shown both through genetic testing of contemporary Jews and archaeology. Maybe you should see the page on Hellenistic Judaism to see that this was not an obscure or unimportant part of Jewish history as you make it out to be.
Also the AJ article mentions this, yet you omitted this from your quotations:
“Ashkenazi Jews share a significant amount of ancestry with other Jewish populations and derive their ancestry mostly from populations in the Middle East, Southern Europe and Eastern Europe.[45] Other than their origins in ancient Israel, the question of how Ashkenazi Jews came to exist as a distinct community is unknown, and has given rise to several theories.[46][47]”
I’ve also shown how phenotypes associated with Armenians and Georgians such as “Armenoid” et al. are also found in the Mediterranean and Middle East, not exclusive to AJs, but you didn’t acknowledge my comment on that (Colin Farrel’s page). It is also pretty difficult to conceive Jews from Germany (the predecessors of most East European Jews) having a significant amount of Caucasus ancestry. Migrating across the entirety of Europe in such a manner over a millenium ago, would be quite dangerous, and much less efficient (and safe) than maritime travel. I will provide sufficient sources when I get the chance.
Here’s one to start, and it details the European admixture in AJs well.
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/063099v1.full
Jonas, appreciate the reply. Here’s my critique: the most up to date genetic analyses don’t show a massive amount of Germanic ancestry in Ashkenazim. There are outliers like in many diaspora ethnic groups (and it’s possible Paul Rudd is one), but generally speaking the Northern European or non-Mediterranean admixture in Ashkenazim seems to come from Slavs, especially West Slavs, and not Germans. There is already some overlap between West Slavs and Germans, but they’re separate populations. It was hard to convert to Judaism in medieval Germany when most of the Jews arrived there, and the study of medieval German Jews at Erfurt showed they only had about 3% Germanic-like dna. Not much. It’s possible East European Jews inherited a bit more because they migrated through Central Europe, but autosomal testing shows generally 3-8% Germanic (NW European) and hardly ever over 10%.
Obviously mixed with western European, especially northwestern. Jewish is not an ethnicity…
Completely false. His family tree is extensively documented and he’s taken a DNA test on FindingYourRoots—he’s 100% Ashkenazi Jewish on all sides. The fact that you say he’s mixed (which he’s not) belies your claim that it’s not an ethnicity.
Levantines have a diverse phenotype. Many Samaritans have light (as you say “western European”) features e.g. Sofi Tsefakah.
Oudaholic, I’ve seen you write before. You wrote that article on how Ashkenazis aren’t entirely European, particularly regarding the misconception that they are just Germanic and Slavic converts to Judaism. I think that was very well written. There is some evidence however, particularly during the Hellenistic period, that conversions to Judaism were quite significant in the Mediterranean. The question among some geneticists is whether those Hellenistic-era conversions in Magna Graecia and coastal Asia Minor overwhelmed or largely replaced the original Levantine genetic profile of the diaspora Jews. I think it may have.
There was that study on medieval Jews from Erfurt (city in Germany) and the model for modern Ashkenazim showed they could be modeled as 65% Southern Italian, 19% Levantine, and 16% East European. While Southern Italians also have some Levantine-like admixture, the fact is that they are similar to other Mediterranean populations such as Cretans and could’ve easily contributed to the genetics of contemporary western Jews in major ways.
@OudaHolic you should know l!ttletimmy is a Hispanic, Asian or Afro spammer who always tries to impose his Jew madness and obsession he has a burning hate toward Southern Italians and believes the Aj are them not the MENA from Middle East, he never tells the deep Jewish background of the Iberians and the Greeks cause probably it hurts his personal identity in the case he’s Hispanic.
Doesn’t like to admit and accept the Easterns and the Germanics were and still are part Aj, and the actual ones are the Americans who are the first and the most Jews all of the world much more than the Israelis.
HE is the one who targets the Jews not Jonas but nobody says it’s evident the racist is him.
OudaHolic, I also don’t think it’s accurate to categorize European Jews as pure Levantines, as they’re clearly a mix of both Levantine and European admixture, which is evident by the cultural features (language, food, costumes) and physical traits of modern Ashkenazim. Sephardic Jews seem to have preserved more Levantine admixture, yet they also mixed with Southern European converts to Judaism and in some cases Ashkenazic migrants.
Ashkenazi Jews have anywhere from 15-50% ancient Levantine admixture. Sephardic Jews obviously retained a bit more of it.
Ashkenazi Jews are an ethno-religous group from JUDEA. 40 % of Ashkenazim carry haplogroup J1 and J2 and 20 % E1b1b . Before Eastern Europe we lived in Germany and before that Italy and JUDEA
ashkenazijews.net
This is how Ashkenazim look (they are all Ashkenazi only)
cherrypicked list, ashkenazi phenotypes are more heterogenous than that
Jonas, why are you so anti-semitic?
Jonas simply believes the pseudoscientific belief that phenotype is entirely representative of genotype, but this is not the case.
No, I don’t, when did i said that LoL im simply pointing out the obvious fact that there isn’t a cohesive, entirely homogeneous Jewish “ethnicity”, it is a religion/culture. What some people called the Ashkenazi Jewish ethnicity, for example, is just an amalgamation of several European ethnicities with some ancient middle eastern component, it started with the first Jewish refugees from what is now the mordern state of Israel, after they got in Europe they assimilated into the local populations of the countries, over several centuries. Ashkenazi Jews aren’t genetically similar to indigenous middle eastern populations apart from their ancient origin, wich was bread out by centuries of mixing with indigenous European peoples.
Ashkenazi Jews are an ethno-religous group from JUDEA. 40 % of Ashkenazim carry haplogroup J1 and J2 and 20 % E1b1b . Before Eastern Europe we lived in Germany and before that Italy and JUDEA
ashkenazijews.net
This is how Ashkenazim look (they are all Ashkenazi only)
I wasn’t particularly keen to get involved, here, but I think you may be using the English term “ancient” incorrectly. The vast majority of the migration from the Middle East to Europe isn’t “ancient” but occured in the Middle Ages, that is to say that it’s relatively recent.
I do agree that on average, the Middle Eastern genetics of European Jewry is largely European. But the main base population for this group isn’t “ancient”, which is a term in English used to mean the “very distant past.”
Etymologically Ashkenazi refers to the Jews of the German region of Europe. It was a self designated term by Jews trying to map out major Jewish populations. For w/e reason Jewish scholars associated the German peoples with the biblical figure of Ashkenaz. Which is odd, because it originally shifted from the people of Assyria, to Syria, to Turkey, to the Slavic nations, and then for some reason, was more associated with Germany. The regional association just kept moving west ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Regardless of the term, a small but growing Jewish population was established in Cologne since about 300 AD. Old, but not extremely old, take that as you will.
@ppassingtime85 because since Middle Age to nowadays they carry German surnames as we can see on the Israelis and the “German” American Jews.
Then they hold the Slavics.
He’s fully Jewish?
he is sooo beautiful! and funny!