Zachary Levi, the very cute, very tall star of Chuck and the new love interest on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, is not Jewish.
Gasp!
Even though he plays Dr. Benjamin Ettenberg, a Jewish doctor, on the second season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Even though he is very convincing as a nerdy Jew and a love interest for Midge. Even though his name is Zachary freakin’ Levi… We hate to break it to you: he is not a Jew.
Weird, indeed.
Zachary Levi wasn’t born Zachary Levi. He was born Zachary Levi Pugh in Lake Charles, Louisiana. He decided to go by “Levi” instead of “Pugh” because, in an odd twist on the classic trope of Jewish actors changing their last names, his agent told him “a guy named Zach Pugh would not be going far in Hollywood.”
Levi sounds very Jewy — and Zachary is a Jewish name — which is why many people are confused. But, Levi is actually an Evangelical Christian. “Embracing Christ fully was a choice I made later in life, when I was 18 and out of high school,” he said in 2010. “I had questions and on my own volition started going to church and learning on my own, and then it kind of went from there.” Cool cool.
What does this mean?
Neither do we. We’re a site for Jewish millennials, c’mon.
So, to sum up: Even though Zachary Levi plays a very adorable doctor in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and his delivery of the line, “I’m a man. I’m a Jew. I suffer,” was so spot on you may think he is a Jew, Zachary Levi is not Jewish.
(He still is Jewish in our dreams! Bye!)
