If you have a brother or sister — or several of them — you understand how important they are to your general existence. Who would we be without them? Who else completely gets just how insert adjective here your parents can be? What would your life had been like without someone throwing Barbie dolls at your head in frustration? (OK, maybe not everyone‘s sister did that, but mine definitely did.)
Whether you’re exactly alike or totally, completely different, sibling bonds are for life. In honor of #NationalSiblingsDay, we rounded up some of our favorite celebrity Jewish siblings.
1. Sarah Silverman & Susan Silverman
Sarah, you probably know, is a comedian and actress. Her older sister Susan is a rabbi, author, and activist. While the pair could not seem more different on the surface, they are actually quite close. As Susan explained on NPR, they are “two sides of the same coin. … I think that the things that Sarah and I care about are really the same things. We frame it and we name it using different paradigms, but they’re very similar and we’re both very interested in getting to the essence of what matters.”
Watch this interview where Sarah interviewed Susan:
2. Maggie Gyllenhaal & Jake Gyllenhaal
Jake Gyllenhaal and his sister, Maggie Gyllenhaal, are the first siblings to be Oscar-nominated for acting in the 21st century. pic.twitter.com/hSZFtOMMjG
— Film_Facts' 🎥 (@talkiefacts) August 19, 2017
The brother-sister duo clearly have a lot in common, considering they’re both talented actors whose films are often full of nuance. Fun fact about Jake: his godmother is actress Jamie Lee Curtis, and his godfather is the late actor Paul Newman.
But what about Maggie? Apparently, her first name is Margalit, not Maggie, which she didn’t even know until she was 36 (!) when she asked her parents for her birth certificate when she married actor Peter Sarsgaard.
3. Beanie Feldstein & Jonah Hill
Jonah and Beanie may be the funniest brother-sister pair in the biz. Both are comedians and actors, with Hill making it big in films like Superbad and Knocked Up — before getting “serious” and garnering an Oscar nom for his role in The Wolf of Wall Street — and Beanie starring in the hit film, Lady Bird. Apparently, the two are so close, Jonah got a tattoo on his arm with her name on it.
4. Rashida Jones & Kidada Jones
These sisters are the daughters of ’70s TV star Peggy Lipton and musical genius Quincy Jones — so to say they come from talent is an understatement. Rashida is an actor largely known for Parks and Recreation and Celeste and Jesse Forever; big sis Kidada is an actor, fashion designer, and stylist (who was also engaged to the late hip-hop icon Tupac Shakur, and has said he was the love of her life).
5. Haim (aka Este, Danielle, and Alana Haim)
Haim is a band made up of three sisters: Este, Danielle, and Alana, all in their late-20s and early-30s. Though their parents were in the music industry, their band’s beginnings were rather modest: their first gig was played at a Jewish deli in Hollywood and they were paid in matzah ball soup.
There was nothing going on for us,” Danielle has said of the band’s early years. “We were bottom of the bill at 50 capacity venues and no one would show up.” Boy, things changed since.
