Black and Jewish: Stars With Hebrew Heritage
Drake, Meagan Good and other celebs who are "chosen."
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Lisa Bonet, Lenny Kravitz and Zoe Kravitz - While many Black families spend Sunday in church, plenty will light a candle at Passover Seder dinner instead. The Bonet-Kravitz's are one of the most famous Black and Jewish families in Hollywood. Between Lenny's Russian-Jewish father and Lisa's American-Jewish mother, daughter Zoe is a quarter "chosen" from both sides. (Photo: Jon Kopaloff/FilmMagic)
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Kali Hawk and Kat Graham - These gorgeous besties famously celebrated their mixed heritage with the hilarious Funny or Die mock music video "Black and Jewish." Set to the beat of Wiz Khalifa's "Black and Yellow," they name-checked other notable Black Jews and shouted out "traditions" like Bar Mitzvah at KFC.(Photo: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images For Tyler Perry Studios)
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Drake - The rapper, born Aubrey Drake Graham, went to Hebrew school and had a Bar Mitzvah thanks to his Jewish-Canadian mother Sandi.(Photo: Kevin Mazur/VF18/WireImage)
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Boris Kodjoe - This multi-ethnic actor, truly the product of international love (he was born in Vienna to a German-Jewish mother and Ghanaian father), had a great-grandmother who died in the Holocaust and a grandmother who survived it. Kodjoe and his wife, Nicole Ari Parker, are now members of the United Methodist Church in Atlanta.(Photo: Ilya S. Savenok/Getty Images)
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Amar'e Stoudemire - The NBA all-star credits his relationship with God with helping him through a tough childhood. "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," he said, adding that he made a trip to Israel to "to get a better understanding of my heritage."(Photo: John Parra/Getty Images for BACARDI)
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Sean Paul - This Jamaican dance hall star can credit a wide gene pool that crosses many ethnicities for his unique look. He is Sephardic Jewish, by way of Portugal, from his father's side and Afro-Carribean, English and Chinese on his mother's side.(Photo: Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images)
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Maya Rudolph - Bridesmaids star Rudolph is the daughter of African American soul singer Minnie Riperton and Ashkenazi Jewish songwriter Richard Rudolph, who gave her the middle name Khabira. After her mother died just shy of Rudolph's seventh birthday, she was raised by her father in Los Angeles.(Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images)
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Meagan Good - Good is another case of mixed blood producing beautiful results. She is Bajan, Puerto Rican and African-American from her father's side, and Jewish and African from her mom. Now that she's married to 7th Day Adventist preacher DeVon Franklin, looks like she'll be passing along even more diverse heritage to her kids!(Photo: Jon Kopaloff/FilmMagic)
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Rashida Jones - Quincy Jones' daughter, a talented actress and writer, inherits her Jewish side from her mother, actress Peggy Lipton. Jones attended Hebrew school in Los Angeles and grew up in ritzy Bel Air.(Photo: Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
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Sammy Davis, Jr. - The Rat Packer, raised Catholic and Protestant, converted to Judaism after a near-fatal car accident in the mid-1950s. Davis, Jr. says reading a book about the history of the Jews, detailing the culture's historic will to live, spoke to him at a time when he saw his own mortality.(Photo: GAB Archive/Redferns)
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Ben Harper - This Grammy-winning folk/blues artist is Jewish from his mother's Russian-Lithuanian side, and was raised by her after his parents' divorce at age five.(Photo: Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Firefly Music Festival)
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Lauren London - The gorgeous actress was born to a Black mother and Jewish father, who home schooled her in California so she could pursue her acting career.(Photo: Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic)
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Tracee Ellis Ross - Our favorite sitcom star was born Tracee Joy Silberstein. Her mother is Motown legend Diana Ross and her father is music manager Robert Silberstein. Ross even played a Black and Jewish woman in her big screen debut, Far Harbor.(Photo: Rich Fury/Getty Images)
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Whoopi Goldberg - The comedienne, born Caryn Elaine Johnson, claims she's Jewish "by intuition," and changed her name to Goldberg at the urging of her mother, who said Johnson didn't sound "Jewish enough" to help her career.(Photo: Larry Busacca/Getty Images)