Will Leonardo DiCaprio Convert to Judaism?

Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
How does Leonardo DiCaprio look in a yarmulke? We might get a chance to find out. The (UK) Daily Mail reports the 36-year-old, Catholic-born megastar may convert to Judaism as a step toward nuptials with his Israeli supermodel girlfriend Bar Refaeli. “A source” apparently told the Daily Mail that “Leo’s sudden intense interest in Israel, its culture and religion is the clearest sign yet that he intends to marry Bar.” DiCaprio “has been staying with her in a hotel in Tel Aviv for a few days at a time recently so that he can avoid the photographers outside her apartment in a nearby suburb,” according to the source.
When in the Holy Land with his beloved, Di Caprio stays “in the royal suite of the five-star Dan Hotel on the beach of Tel Aviv,” the Daily Mail says. The source, again: “It is a very romantic and private hideaway for them and an easy commute to Jerusalem Old Town, where Leo has spent hours exploring its religious sites with a guide.”
The pair met in 2005 at a Las Vegas bash for supergroup U2, according to the Daily Mail. DiCaprio had just split from his girlfriend of six years, Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bundchen; like Refaeli, Bundchen was a model for underwear peddlers Victoria’s Secret.
Refaeli, meanwhile, generated headlines of her own this week; Haaretz reports the professional poser sparked a mini-firestorm in Egypt after calling the country “primitive” in an interview. Refaeli had visited Egypt on vacation with tantrum-throwing fellow model Naomi Campbell. “Egyptian media claims that derogatory comments made by Bar Refaeli were intended to harm the country’s tourist industry,” Haaretz reported
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
