As a child. Elvis was instructed not to advertise the fact because “people didn’t like Jews.” Elvis had an an apartment below a Jewish rabbi. According to the rabbis’s widow the future King visited on Shabbat in order to turn on lights and do things they weren’t allowed to do. READMORE
Elvis mother was ein bischen Jewish!! but Satch, was the Shabas goy
Louis Armstrong spoke fluent Yiddish was raised by a Jewish family, the Karnofsky family. Throughout his life, Satchmo always wore a Star of David.
Elvis Presley may be remembered as a rocker with a penchant for Baptist hymnals, but the King also had major Jewish lineage.
According to a biography, “Elvis and Gladys,” the Memphis musician was Jewish through matrilineal descent. And he was proud of it.
In Elaine Dundy’s 1995 book “Elvis and Gladys,” she wrote about the singer’s relationship with his mother, Gladys Love Smith. Gladys’ maternal grandmother was Martha Tacket, who was Jewish.
According to the book, Elvis knew about his Jewish lineage, but his parents told him to keep it quiet, fearing an anti-Semitic backlash in 1940’s Mississippi. Nevertheless, Elvis was known to wear a Chai necklace and carry a yarmulke in his jacket pocket. He buried his mother under a gravestone engraved with a Star of David.
“After his mother died, Elvis personally designed his beloved mother’s gravesite, which included a Star of David on Gladys Love Presley’s tombstone,” Dundy wrote in her book. “He made the decision to honor his Jewish heritage. Something his mother was proud of and acknowledged to Elvis at a very early age.”
In 2002’s “Schmelvis: In Search of Elvis Presley’s Jewish Roots,” writers Jonathan Goldstein and Max Wallace wrote about Elvis’ generosity to Jewish institutions:
“One day the Memphis Jewish Welfare sent a delegation to Graceland to see him and ask if he would contribute. At Christmas every year he donated $1,000 to a number of Memphis charities and one of them was the Memphis Hebrew Academy. So the Jewish Welfare thought maybe he would contribute something,” the book reads. “They explained to him that they take care of poor Jews and orphans. Elvis excused himself for a minute. When he came back, he handed the leader of the delegation a check. They didn’t know what to expect. They thought $1,000 would be helpful. When they looked at the check, it was for $150,000. The equivalent of more than a million dollars today.”
Looks like the King knew the meaning of tzedukah.
By Esther Achenbaum..