HARRISON FORD
BORN : JULY 13, 1942
POSITION : ACTOR, ZADDY HALL OF FAME
Film actor Harrison Ford first gained fame as Han Solo in Star Wars, and then iconic status as Indiana Jones in a series of eponymous movies where he outruns various bad guys in search of various antiquities.
I’m told he’s made lots of other movies, but as far as I’m concerned he had me at professor who can handle a whip. (I don’t really hate snakes and I’m not sure how I feel about Ike, but if you run into Professor Jones, tell him I really hate Nazis too and tell him to give me a call.) Harrison Ford's mother was Dora Nidelman, daughter of Minsk Jewish emigrés Anna Lifschutz and Harry Nidelman.
In Judaism if your mother is Jewish you are automatically considered Jewish, so despite his very un-Jew-y name, Ford is unequivocally, halachically Jewish. Harrison describes his religion as “Democrat”, which is pretty much the same thing. His father was Irish, and Harrison was quoted as saying he feels "Irish as a person but Jewish as an actor". I have absolutely no idea what that means, except maybe he’s handy with a hammer (he worked as a carpenter when he was starting out) but also enjoys acting artistic, intellectual challenges.
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As far as I know he’s never played a Jew in any movies (though Professor Jones could be Jewish – I mean, he does hate Nazis – and Han Solo is talented and cranky. He was in The Frisco Kid, about a Wild West rabbi, and even wears a yarmulke at the end of the film. And when he dresses as an Amish man in Witness he does have a sort of hot Chasidic vibe. Those movies may not count, but his mother does, so Harrison Ford is absolutely Jewish (more Jewish than I) and punch anyone who says he isn’t.