Showbiz
How Jewish is Scarlett Johansson?
Johansson has spoken publicly about her judaism several times including during a documentary in which she discovered her familial links to the Holocaust
August 13, 2025 15:29
Johansson has spoken publicly about her judaism several times including during a documentary in which she discovered her familial links to the Holocaust
August 13, 2025 15:29Jewish film icon Scarlett Johansson has just become the highest-grossing actor of all time as the new hit Jurassic Park Rebirth has put her films over £11 billion earned collectively.
From speaking a touch of Yiddish to discovering her family's Holocaust connections in a television documentary, she has long identified with her Jewish heritage.
Johansson was born to Melanie Sloan, a Jewish producer of Ashkenazi heritage and her maternal family came from Jewish communities in Poland and Russia. Her father Karsten Johansson was not Jewish and had Danish heritage.
She has spoken publicly about her Jewishness several times.
On the 2017 show Finding Your Roots, Johansson traced her family back to her great-uncle, named Moshe. He and his children all died in the Warsaw Ghetto during the Holocaust.
At the time, she said: “I promised myself I wouldn’t cry… but it’s hard not to. Just hell, it must’ve been hell.
“The fate of one brother versus the other. It makes me feel more deeply connected to that side of myself, that side of my family."
And, in a 2015 interview with The Irish Times, Johansson shared the Jewish elements in her upbringing: “Even though we’re Jewish we always celebrated Christmas alongside Hanukkah just because we loved the traditions of Danish Christmases.
"We’d go to different harvest festivals and churches and all that kind of stuff.”
Meanwhile, earlier this year, an AI deepfake video went viral purporting to show a number of celebrities, including Johansson, denouncing antisemitism. Following its release, she said: "I am a Jewish woman who has no tolerance for antisemitism or hate speech of any kind. But I also firmly believe that the potential for hate speech multiplied by AI is a far greater threat than any one person who takes accountability for it.
"We must call out the misuse of AI, no matter its messaging, or we risk losing a hold on reality."
The Jewish Telegraphic Agency has reported that the star speaks a "smattering of Yiddish".
In 2014, Johansson became the global ambassador for Israeli company SodaStream, leading to criticism over the firm’s operations in the West Bank. At the time she was also involved with Oxfam but the row over her SodaStream role led to her cutting her ties with the charity.
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