Jake Paul, a social media star and professional boxer, publicly declared that he is Jewish and recently celebrated his Bar Mitzvah. This became known thanks to a tweet from Chabad Hasid Yossi Farro, a social media influencer known for putting tefillin on celebrities.
„It’s true that @jakepaul is Jewish! And we just celebrated his Bar Mitzvah!“, wrote Farro on X.
27-year-old Paul responded to the post, confirming his Jewish identity: „Yes, I am Jewish,“ he wrote to his millions of followers on X.
Recently, Paul learned that his maternal grandmother was Jewish, which made him Jewish according to Jewish law. To honor his heritage, Paul celebrated a Bar Mitzvah ceremony organized by Farro. During this, Paul donned tefillin for the first time.
Paul’s Jewish heritage was mentioned in a JTA report from November 2024. It detailed a 2016 YouTube video in which Paul’s mother, Pamela, told his brother Logan that their family has Jewish roots. „You have a little bit of Jew in you,“ she said, explaining that their great-grandmother, Lillian Meredith (Buxbaum), was Jewish. Genealogical records indicate that the Buxbaum family emigrated from Germany and settled in Massachusetts, where Lillian’s father is buried in a Jewish cemetery in Boston.
In addition to embracing his Jewish identity, Paul also openly expressed his support for Israel. During the massacre in October 2023, he strongly condemned the attacks on Israeli civilians. He posted on social media: „Cowards kill civilians.“
Paul’s public acknowledgment of his Jewish heritage and his support for Israel have elicited mixed reactions from fans...