Is Mikaela Shiffrin Jewish?
A reader recently wrote to me to ask if US Olympic alpine skier Mikaela Shiffrin is jewish or not.
The simple answer is yes going by an anti-Semitic or Zionist definition of jewishness which is the standard that is used today, and which has been used for nearly a century or so.
On Shiffrin’s jewishness Gabe Friedman writes for JTA that:
‘Mikaela is the daughter of Eileen (née Condron) and Jeff Shiffrin, who are both former ski racers. Mikaela’s grandfather on her father’s side was Jewish, but that tradition wasn’t passed down. The New York Jewish Week reported in 2014 that the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association said Shiffrin has “some very distant heritage [but] is not connected to the Jewish community.”’ (1)
So essentially Shiffrin’s paternal grandfather is jewish and she (understandably) wishes to downplay her jewish ancestry and feels no connection whatsoever with the jewish community. While we can fully understand Shiffrin’s desire to not bring up her ancestry: she is never-the-less jewish in terms that she is eligible to become an Israeli citizen based on her ancestry alone and this ipso facto makes her jewish for all intents and purposes in the modern world.
For example, ‘Jewish News of Northern California’ is keen to claim that she is jewish even though the family are adamant then they have and wish no connection to the jewish community:
‘Mikaela Shiffrin, 22, an American alpine ski racer, is the reigning overall World Cup champion and the reigning Olympic and world champion in slalom. Her last name came from her paternal grandfather, who was her only Jewish grandparent. A few years ago, Jewish Sports Review magazine spoke to her brother, also a skier. He said that he and his sister were raised in no faith and don’t identify as Jewish.’ (2)
So while Shiffrin is most certainly jewish: she doesn’t want to be identified or seen as such.
References
(1) https://www.jta.org/2018/02/12/united-states/is-olympic-skier-mikaela-shiffrin-jewish ; alternatively https://stljewishlight.org/news/world-news/is-olympic-skier-mikaela-shiffrin-jewish/
(2) https://jweekly.com/2018/02/06/jews-go-south-korea-get-ready-winter-olympics/