Mayim Bialik: This Is Why I'm Jewish

This article is part of our essay series, “Why Be Jewish?,” based off of “Why Be Jewish?”—a new book by the late Edgar M. Bronfman.

Why be Jewish? I don’t know, honestly. It’s the only way I know to be.

I was born to Jewish parents. I’m Jewish. At some point in history, I suppose some intermarriage happened between someone historically Jewish and someone not—hence my blue eyes and fair skin and formerly blond hair. But I don’t think about that a lot.

I have more in common with most secular a-religious Jews I meet than with most non-Jews in general; it’s just a fact of sociology and cultural literacy. And whether you’re observant or not observant, radical Zionist or radical atheist, it doesn’t matter. We’re all the same kind of Jew: Jewish.

Being Jewish just is what I am. Being Jewish just is.

So why be Jewish? Dunno. I just know I can’t do it any other way.

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Mayim Bialik

Mayim Bialik is the host of “Jeopardy!” and the mental wellness podcast Mayim Bialik's Breakdown. A five-time Emmy nominee, Bialik holds a PhD in Neuroscience from UCLA and is known as Amy Farrah Fowler on CBS' “The Big Bang Theory” and her lead role in the 1990s sitcom “Blossom.” She is the grandchild of immigrants from Eastern Europe and the mother of two teenagers and three cats.