American rugby sevens captain Ilona Maher is a star of the 2024 Paris Olympics — on and off the rugby pitch. In their opening matches, the American rugby sevens Eagles destroyed Japan 36-7 and Brazil 24-5. The 27-year-old went viral after the Japan match, because of this clip where she easily shoves another player to the ground.
@rugby_fcla 💅🏼💅🏼💅🏼 @Ilona Maher #RFCLA #MLR2024 #Rugby #ilonamaher #ilona
But going viral isn’t anything new to Maher. She first garnered attention online after posting TikToks from the Olympic Village at the 2020/2021 Tokyo Olympics. Now, she has over 1.6 million followers (and 1.5 million on Instagram) and is still posting hilarious behind-the-scenes Olympic content and messages of body positivity, this time from Paris.
But is Ilona Maher she Jewish? While the name Ilona can be found in Greece, Hungary and Finland, it’s also a Hebrew name meaning “oak tree.” Of course, not everyone with a Hebrew name is Jewish. But, a lot of Jews do have some given Hebrew name.
So, let’s investigate.
If you’ve been following along with our previous investigations of this nature, you know that we’re looking to check at least one of two boxes. Does Ilona Maher identify as culturally or religiously Jewish? And/or, does Ilona Maher have Jewish ancestry? If the answer to either of those questions is a resounding yes, she’s a member of the tribe!
So, first, does Ilona Maher identify as culturally or religiously Jewish? Evidence online seems to point to no. “She has posted on Instagram about Christmas and tweeted about Easter — and while Jews can absolutely celebrate these holidays in interfaith families, she’s never posted online about anything Jewish,” Emily Burack wrote for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in 2021. Over the last three years, that has essentially remained the case.
The one exception is this video Ilona posted of herself eating a New York bagel. However, unlike this author, who loudly thanks her Jewish ancestors for inventing bagels every time she eats one, Maher doesn’t mention anything about being Jewish.
So it seems that Ilona Maher does not identify as being culturally or religiously Jewish. But does she have any Jewish heritage? That also seems unlikely. Her last name Maher is Irish, deriving from the Gaelic surname Ó Meachair. She’s also spoken publicly about having Dutch heritage. While having Dutch and potentially Irish ancestry doesn’t preclude Ilona from having Jewish ancestry, it also doesn’t provide any affirmative evidence. Additionally, Ilona has never mentioned having any Jewish ancestry.
Verdict: No, Ilona Maher is likely not Jewish. However, her teammate Sarah Levy is!