Feb 4, 2010

Was Elvis Presley Jewish?

Was Elvis Presley Jewish? Obviously he did not practice, and I never heard before that he acknowledged himself as being Jewish.

Yet, in this article someone sent to me, it might suggest that Presley was a Member of the Tribe. The Houston Chronicle ran a list of 75 lesser known facts about Elvis Presley. If you look at the list, you might notice items number 15 and 16. They say:

15 Presley started wearing a chai necklace because his mother, Gladys' maternal grandmother was Jewish -- the reason he added a Star of David on his mother's gravestone.

16 When asked why he wore the necklace, he said, "I don't want to miss out on going to heaven on a technicality."

If his mothers maternal great grandmother was Jewish, it sounds like he might have been Jewish. Unless the chain only was some female but one of the people along the way was a Jewish grandfather who married a gentile. Anybody out there know any more details?

10 comments:

  1. It is well known that Elvis was a Shabbos Goy in the Fruchter's household. It would probably be reasonable that Rabbi Fruchter (the Rav of the community) investigated the matter and decided against such claims.

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  2. a celebrity like Elvis acted as a shabbos goy, willing to be called in to turn on lights and fans and whatever else? seems strange.

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  3. Rafi, I suspect he was a shabbos goy as a young man, before he became a celebrity

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  4. I think he was turning on fans when he was a celebrity...

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  5. Really - who cares if he was Jewish or not? If he had been female, I guess we could care about whether his offspring are Jewish (although in reality there's not much we can do with this knowledge). But that's not even the case.

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  6. http://www.schmelvis.com/intro.html

    this was a documentary done years ago. Turns out they know for sure his mothers, mother, mother was jewish.

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  7. Emergency: Thanks but we want even more of your moneyFebruary 07, 2010 2:27 PM

    I heard thet there was an Elvis sighting recently.

    Someone saw him putting a few coins in the Kupat Ha'ir pushka.

    We await developments.

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  8. Chabad has announced that they are suing his estate and Col. Parker. They insist that he promised them all of ChenLand, his palatial estate. They has a photoshopped picture of the Rebbe giving him a dollar bill as proof for the court case.

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  9. ELVIS WAS NOT JEWISH!

    Elvis Jewish? Yeah so was Hitler! ELVIS WAS NOT JEWISH!

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  10. This information is found in the book entitled Elvis and Gladys by historian and biographer named Elaine Dundy.

    Dundy writes in her book, "... Nancy Burdine was married to Abner Tacket. Nancy was of particular interest to Gladys for her Jewish heritage, often remembering Nancy's sons for their Jewish names Sidney and Jerome. Nancy and Abner had a daughter, Martha (Tacket), who married White Mansell. The daughter which they named Octavia nicknamed Doll who was Elvis' maternal grandmother."

    After Elvis' mother, Gladys, died, the King designed her tombstone with a Star of David on it to honor her Jewish ancestry, which was something Gladys was proud of.

    All sources for Elvis being Jewish come from one source - Elaine Dundy. I believe we need more sources than one to be sure of accuracy. The Hitler comment above is juvenile.

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