Neal Shusterman
Birth Name: Neal Douglas Shusterman
Place of Birth: Brooklyn, New York City, New York, U.S.
Date of Birth: November 12, 1962
Ethnicity: Ashkenazi Jewish, possibly other
Neal Shusterman is an American author and screenwriter. He is known for his books Challenger Deep and Scythe. He wrote for the shows Ghostbusters, Animorphs, and The Haunting Hour: The Series, and co-wrote the made-for-tv movie Pixel Perfect.
He is the son of Charlotte and Milton Shusterman. He was raised in a Jewish household. His family moved to Mexico City, Mexico, when he was sixteen.
He has said:
A lot of people think I’m a person of color. And recently through genetic testing, I’ve found out I’m actually nearly 50% North African. So I guess now I am?
Neal’s paternal grandfather was Harry Shusterman (the son of Irving Itzak Shusterman and Leah Holtzman). Harry was born in Ukraine.
Neal’s paternal grandmother was named Anna Zeitchick. Anna was born in Russia.
Neal’s maternal grandfather’s surname was Altman.
Sources: https://jewishjournal.com
https://www.hercampus.com
He does look atypical compared to other Ashkenazi such as Sacha Baron Cohen, Jeff Goldblum and Jon Bernthal.
https://static.onecms.io/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2017/09/gettyimages-489094453-2000.jpg
You can find pictures of his maternal aunt here. She looks typical Ashkenazi.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CAS-_PcgxPN/?igshid=18orqh3vpqg35
In an interview linked below he mentions the North African again that he discovered from genetic testing. Specifically saying it was 40% and could originate from Morocco.
https://www.hercampus.com/school/nyu/author-spotlight-neal-shusterman/
While his paternal ancestors resided in Ukraine and Russia, it could be possible they were Sephardic Jews who moved there.
Or he was potentially adopted.
That’s assuming the genetic testing was accurate; as companies like DNAgenics and LivingDNA do not have Ashkenazi Categories so they breakdown the DNA to over 40% West Asian/North African and over 40% Southern European.
His full name is Neal Douglas Shusterman. His paternal grandfather was Harry Shusterman (1891-1974) Ukraine, a Jewish immigrant, who was the son of Irving Itzak Shusterman and Leah Holtzman. His paternal grandmother was Anna Zeitchick, who was Russian Jewish and lived from 1903-1951.
I feel like it’s possible, too, that he’s not being fully honest about his test results.
Yes, and that’s why we should make recourse to family records instead of his own DNA test anecdotes that may not be honest or accurate. From Shusterman’s own words, we can infer that he has no known family history in North Africa. If he did, he would have known about it before taking a DNA test.
It could also be that he was adopted, but my hunch is that he’s an Ashkenazi Jew who just happens to be on the darker, more visibly Middle Eastern end of the spectrum.
There’s always a cognitive dissonance that follows darker Ashkenazim. What I mean is that whenever someone brown or olive skinned turns out to be just Ashkenazi, there are a lot of people (mostly antisemites) who don’t want to believe or accept it. Our existence makes them uncomfortable.
To whomever the admins are: A lot of Ashkenazi Jews get ‘North African’ on their DNA tests, depending on the test they take. All of Shusterman’s immediate family members are Ashkenazi Jews.
Not nearly 50% though
It depends on the test, and the calculator. My father scored 60% North African on LivingDNA and he’s 100% Ashkenazi. No North African ancestry to speak of.
Other DNA tests have given him elevated European.
*hit enter too soon*
Does Shusterman have any siblings? His parents married in 1952, ten years before he was born. Perhaps he was adopted? From an Ashkenazi Jewish mother and a North African (Sephardi Jewish?) father?
I doubt in the present day Ashkenazi Jews get 50% North African on their tests.
Well, again, it depends on the test he took. What a lot of people don’t realize is that commercial DNA tests are not particularly reliable, at least when it comes to Jews. He most likely took a MyHeritage test or something, which would explain the elevated North African.
Outside of that, there’s no indication of Sephardic ancestry and all evidence points to his family being Ashkenazi on both sides. Perhaps some more digging is in order.
Ashkenazi Jews are Middle Eastern. Living in Europe (even for a long time) is not the same thing as being “from” Europe, so to speak.
They are like the Roma – a long-standing Asian diaspora that has mostly been endogamous since arriving in Europe
@ muricans
Nobody is saying that. You are evidently ——– and a ——– person.
Why are you using Nazi slurs? What kind of pleasure do you get out of this behavior?
@AdamOZ
Ashekenazi Jews are not Middle Eastern. It’s a culture originated in medieval Germany. You have an agenda.
Ashkenazim are Jews who were displaced to Europe via colonialism. They are, categorically and objectively, a Levantine diaspora population.
You’re antisemitic if you deny this.
@Adamoz
According to most genetic studies, AJ are a mixed Levantine/European population, who traditionally spoke a West Germanic language, so your statement is not entirely true.
This is silly. They are a genertically mixed people, but literally a disasporic community which has retained the culture from their homeland. In fact, for a diasporic people who’ve been out of their homeland for as long as they have, it’s noteworthy that they’ve retained as much Levantine genetics as they have.
Using the trope that they aren’t is just classic tactic of anti-semites. I expected you to be quite a bit more subtle than this. lol
@Oaken
She “learnt” such terms from those websites who are like a magnet for people like @———-areallsheepshaggers