Is Rachel Zegler Jewish? An investigation

Rachel! I just had a girl named Rachel! And suddenly the name will never be the same for me again…

Since her big break as Maria in the Steven Spielberg adaptation of West Side Story in 2021, actress Rachel Zegler has been everywhere. She entered the Hunger Games universe in 2023 in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes as Lucy Gray Baird. She is set to make her Broadway debut in an adaptation of Romeo & Juliet in 2024. And in 2025, she will be seen as Snow White in an updated live-action version of the Disney animated film.

At least for the Jewish community, this raises the question: Is Rachel Zegler Jewish? There are some signs that suggest this. After all, her name is Rachel, which is also the name of one of the biblical Jewish matriarchs. And the surname Zegler Sounds as if it could have Ashkenazi Jewish origins.

Let’s get to the bottom of this.

As I previously stated in the article “Is Jeremy Allen White from ‘The Bear’ Jewish? An Investigation,” here’s what we’re looking for in terms of Jewishness. To determine if Rachel Zegler is Jewish, we need to check at least one of two boxes. Does Rachel Zegler identify as culturally or religiously Jewish? And/or does Rachel Zegler have Jewish ancestry? If the answer to any of these questions is a resounding yes, she’s a member of the tribe!

Let’s start with question number one: Does Rachel Zegler identify as Jewish culturally or religiously? In Rachel Zegler’s case, this question is pretty easy to answer. A quick search of Rachel’s Twitter profile turns up a few tweets where she mentions that she attended an all-girls Catholic school (she graduated from Immaculate Conception High School in Lodi, New Jersey in 2019) and identifies as a Christian. So we can definitely put a big red X in the first column. Rachel Zegler does not identify as Jewish culturally or religiously.

Let’s move on to the second question. Does Rachel Zegler have Jewish ancestry? In 2021, Zegler told TIME magazine that her abuelita (her mother’s mother) emigrated to the United States from Colombia. Of course, it doesn’t preclude a person being Latina from also being Jewish—as Hey Alma writers Arielle Egozi and Tori Avila will happily remind you. However, some Instagram posts from Rachel’s mother, Gina, in which she shows off a collection of no less than 26 Santa Claus figurines and says of Rachel’s confirmation classes, “You must be filled with the Holy Spirit,” make it less likely that Rachel has Jewish ancestry on her mother’s side.

On Rachel’s father’s side, things get a little more unclear. In the same TIME interview, Rachel described herself as a “white Latina,” meaning she has both Colombian and European roots. According to an article from classicfm.com, Rachel’s father has Polish roots. (Although I don’t see this information confirmed anywhere else.) At the same time, the surname “Zegler” has German roots. Although both Poland and Germany are major locations of the Ashkenazi Jewish diaspora, I couldn’t find anything concrete that points to Ashkenazi ancestry in Rachel’s family.

So, ultimately…

Verdict: As far as I know, Rachel Zegler is not Jewish.