Steven Spielberg’s Niece Sings on ‘Voice’ Israel

By Anne Cohen June 4, 2014

Move over Pharrell Williams — “The Voice: Israel” has got the real big name: Spielberg.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Jessica “Jessy” Katz, 25-year-old nice of Academy Award-winning filmmaker Steven Spielberg, and daughter of Playmount Productions president Nancy Spielberg-Katz, will be performing on the show’s third season, which debuts on October 8.

Katz won her spot on the show during a blind audition in which she performed Swedish singer Lykke Li’s “I Follow Rivers.” She made aliyah to Israel three years ago with the intention of enlisting in the Israel Defense Force’s “Nahal” program, “which integrates military service with core values of settling outlying areas throughout the country and volunteering to benefit social-welfare causes,” according to Haaretz.

Judging the Israeli edition of the Dutch series are Sarit Hadad, Shlomi Shabat (who won seasons one and two, respectively) Aviv Geffen, Mosh Ben Ari.

Watch her audition below:

Anne Cohen was the Forward’s deputy digital media editor. When she’s not looking for the secret Jewish history of Voodoo in New Orleans, or making lists about Ruth Bader Ginsburg, she writes for The Assimilator. She graduated from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism with an M.S. magazine concentration in 2012.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO