Amy Schumer On Learning Of Jewish Ancestors: ‘This Will Change Me’
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
By Josefin Dolsten December 20, 2017
(JTA) — Amy Schumer teared up while learning details about her relatives’ journey from Eastern Europe to the United States on the PBS series “Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates Jr.”
Seeing an immigration document with the names of her great-grandmother and her parents, who left what is now Ukraine in 1912, brought tears to the Jewish comedian’s eyes on Tuesday night’s episode of the series.
Gates, a Harvard historian and the show’s host, also showed Schumer a photo of the grave of her great-great grandfather, who died within a year of coming to the country. Schumer’s great-great grandfather is buried at the United Hebrew Cemetery in Staten Island.
“I’m excited to find out about that town and think about them more,” Schumer told Gates of the town where her relatives came from. “And I know I’ll go see this grave. I think this will change me.”
Schumer also learned that her eight-great maternal grandfather and his two siblings were captured by Native Americans in Massachusetts and taken as prisoners to Canada. While one sister was ransomed, the two brothers were given the choice to return a few years later. Both chose to remain with their captors. Schumer’s mother converted to Judaism before marrying her father, according to Vogue.
Why I became the Forward’s editor-in-chief
You are surely a friend of the Forward if you’re reading this. And so it’s with excitement and awe — of all that the Forward is, was, and will be — that I introduce myself to you as the Forward’s newest editor-in-chief.
And what a time to step into the leadership of this storied Jewish institution! For 129 years, the Forward has shaped and told the American Jewish story. I’m stepping in at an intense time for Jews the world over. We urgently need the Forward’s courageous, unflinching journalism — not only as a source of reliable information, but to provide inspiration, healing and hope.
— Alyssa Katz, editor-in-chief
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
