Roseanne hints at possible aliyah

Comedian known for her crass comments communicates with Nefesh B’Nefesh about moving to Israel

By Jessica Steinberg 12 March 2014, 4:44 pm Edit

Jessica Steinberg covers the Sabra scene from south to north and back to the center.

Is Roseanne Barr considering making aliyah? Possibly.

The Jewish comedian and 2012 presidential nominee — who was raised in Salt Lake City, where her working-class parents were involved in the Mormon church — has made headlines for comments such as, “I couldn’t wait to breed with non-Jewish people.”

Barr, a student of Kabbalah, is currently married to Johnny Argent, her fourth non-Jewish husband, and they live on a macadamia nut farm in Hawaii.

But on Wednesday morning, following a tweeted article by this reporter about the Nefesh B’Nefesh Mega Aliyah fair, Barr tweeted the following:

https://twitter.com/TheRealRoseanne/status/443678709266915328

After Shara Shetrit, social media and marketing manager at Nefesh B’Nefesh, replied to Barr’s tweet, asking her if she needed help making aliyah. Barr replied:

https://twitter.com/TheRealRoseanne/status/443681478455484416

The two then chatted via Twitter’s direct messaging system.

According to Wikipedia, Barr’s father’s family were Jewish immigrants from Russia, and her maternal grandparents were Jewish immigrants from Austria-Hungary and Lithuania, respectively. Her paternal grandfather changed his surname from “Borisofsky” to “Barr” upon entering the United States.

Barr has said that her Jewish upbringing was influenced by her devoutly Orthodox Jewish maternal grandmother, and has stated, “Friday, Saturday, and Sunday morning I was a Jew; Sunday afternoon, Tuesday afternoon, and Wednesday afternoon we were Mormons.”