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Jessica Biel discovers her Jewish ancestry

The Hollywood star got a big surprise when she found out who the original "Biel"s were.

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Although many Hollywood actors and actresses have Jewish roots, Jessica Biel was never considered to be one of them – until now.

In the latest episode of the American version of the Who Do You Think You Are genealogy show, the star of The Illusionist and the A-Team discovered that her surname came from her great-great-grandparents. Morris and Ottilia Biel were Jewish immigrants who arrived in America from the Austro-Hungarian empire in the 1880s.

Ms Biel, who is married to pop-singer Justin Timberlake, said that she was “really interested into diving into this Jewish culture a little more”.

“My friends are really into this”, she said.

“They say they’re going to throw me a barmitzvah.”

Presumably when Ms Biel does “dive in to Jewish culture” she will discover that women have batmitzvahs rather than the male equivalent, but that is certainly an easy mistake to make at this point in her studies. We wish her all the best on her journey to discover more about her Jewish roots.  

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