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Life & Culture

How Jewish is Nicola Peltz?

The billionaire's daughter married Brooklyn Beckham in a Jewish ceremony in Miami last year

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English model Brooklyn Beckham and his wife US actress Nicola Peltz arrive for the 2022 Met Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 2, 2022, in New York. - The Gala raises money for the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute. The Gala's 2022 theme is "In America: An Anthology of Fashion". (Photo by ANGELA WEISS / AFP) (Photo by ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)

Who?

American Nicola Peltz, 28, is an actress who starred in the fourth Transformers film Age of Extinction as well as a budding film director and writer with a film called Lola James underway. She is also the daughter of billionaire Nelson Peltz, wife of Brooklyn Beckham and sometimes nemesis of Victoria Beckham with whom she famously had a broiges after their £3million wedding.

Family

Nicola’s Jewish heritage comes from her billionaire businessman father Nelson Peltz who is the 43rd richest man in the US. The Brooklyn-born businessman started his working life as a delivery driver for the wholesale food distribution business founded by his grandfather in 1896 and, with his brother, grew it into a huge corporation that includes the Wendy’s food chain.

Her mother is Catholic former supermodel Claudia Heffner.

Upbringing

Although Claudia retained her Catholic heritage, the eight Peltz children were brought up Jewish and the boys – including hockey player Brad Peltz and actor Will Peltz - all had bar mitzvahs. The 2016 simcha following Nicola’s twin brothers Zachary and Gregory’s call up is said to have cost £1.5million.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cd_RNOnJ5wU/?hl=en

Her family is close – she once wrote ‘family is everything’ on Instagram - and Nicola has a tattooon her chest written in Yiddish which translates as ‘family first’. She credits her dad with teaching her the value of hard work writing to him on Instagram saying, ‘Thank you for teaching me the value of hard work, never giving up and always standing up for what I believe in.’

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cd57EIXlGRu/?hl=en

What Jewish things does she say and do?

Nicola is said to have bonded with Brooklyn when they first met at the Coachella music festival over their shared Jewish ancestry – Brooklyn’s great-grandfather was Jewish and his dad, former England star David Beckham, has always said he feels more Jewish than any other religion.

Their wedding was a very Jewish affair complete with yarmulkes for the men, a chuppah, a rabbi officiating and a ketubah. There was also Jewish dancing involving a star-studded guest list which included the Williams sisters, Eva Longoria, some Spice Girls and Gordon Ramsay.

While having a wedding broiges isn’t solely a Jewish thing, it feels, somehow, appropriate for the girl who has everything.

Verdict
A proud patrilineal Jew who wears her love of family and religion on her chest.

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