Shaun Weiss
Weiss in 2011, photo by kathclick/Bigstock.com
Birth Name: Shaun Herman Weiss
Place of Birth: Montvale, New Jersey, U.S.
Date of Birth: August 27, 1979
Ethnicity:
*father – Ashkenazi Jewish
*mother – Indian-Guyanese [Tamil, Punjabi]
Shaun Weiss is an American actor. He is known for his role as Greg Goldberg in The Mighty Ducks film series, and as Josh Birnbaum in the movie Heavyweights.
His paternal grandparents were Hungarian Jews. His mother’s family is from Guyana, and is of Tamil and Pujabi Indian descent.
Shaun’s paternal grandfather was named Herman Weiss.
Shaun’s paternal grandmother was named Adele.
Shaun’s maternal grandfather was named Baba/Basil Ramcharan/Ramecharan.
Shaun’s maternal grandmother was named Sukania/Shirley Geer.
Sources: http://oychicago.com
https://tcjewfolk.com
Obituary of Shaun’s paternal grandmother, Adele Weiss – https://www.newspapers.com
Change the mother’s ethnicity to: Indo-Guyanese [Tamil, Punjabi, other]
According to this interview he is half Jewish http://oychicago.com/blog.aspx?id=7842&blogid=142
I saw that. No mention of half, but I find it curious that when asked if he was Jewish, Weiss just said that he attended a lot of Bar Mitzvahs. His father could still have been Jewish, though.
According to this interview he is half Jewish
OK, he turned out to be half-Indian. My mistake.
He’s only mentioned his Jewish ancestry in interviews, and he plays Ashkenazi Jewish characters all the time. There was no indication that he had any other ancestry besides that. I couldn’t find any info on him being anything other than Ashkenazi. Him being brown-skinned isn’t a clue that he’s mixed, since a lot of full Ashkenazi Jews have brown skin (some even darker than Weiss).
Oh dear. You are actually right. Ethiopian Jews are darker than him.
Ethiopian Jews are almost entirely descended from autochthonous converts to Judaism. On the contrary, Eastern European Jews only have a small amount of slavic admixture.
http://www.khazaria.com/genetics/aj-east-european-admixture.html
Ethiopian Jews are in part, patrilineal descendants of Hebrew men, that migrated before the time of the second temple’s downfall. That’s why their customs reflect pre-rabbinical Judaism similar to the Karaites.
Unfortunately I’ve heard conflicting estimations as to how much MENA DNA is present in their collective genome. From down to extremely low or none, to upwards of 20%. So I can’t say with any confidence how strong their link is, but with conflicting studies, at the very least I’d say their paternal lineage is legitimate, even if it is a small degree.
passingtime85, I think that’s true, but I’d say the Hebrew contribution for Ethiopian Jews was minimal. They don’t score a significant amount of Levantine admixture on calculators using Vahaduo or Gedmatch, unlike Ashkenazi or Sephardic Jews.
I agree, their genetic heritage leans towards the minimal, but I won’t deny their ties the the Jewish people as a whole, especially since they’ve kept the customs for thousands of years. They’re as valid as Bene Israel, Cochin, and Kaifeng Jews.
They all seem to have a similar origin story.
Hebrew/Israelite/Judean/Jewish(w/e you want to refer to them as depending on the time in history), migrated, mostly married local women, and set up endogamous communities. I think that’s the basic procedure for all the Jews of the diaspora, besides the Mizrahim. Even the Greek Helenistic Jews, that were in Greece several centuries before CE, didn’t bring many Hebrew wives.
Weiss doesn’t quite precisely say he or his father are Jewish in the interviews I found, although it is possible.
He looks either Puerto Rican or North African. Def. mixed-race.
Mixed-raxed is a misnomer. The countries/regions you mentioned are technically inhabited by a majority population of people belonging to the Caucasian race. Mixed-raced implies he should have admixture with Mongoloids or Negroids, or a more of a long shot, Australoids or other more rare races of the Pacific, or even more rare Khoisanoids.
I agree he looks mixed ethnically, but I’m not sure how I feel about stamping him as having a mixed race look.
What’s your opinion of Paul Sorvino? They always remind me of each other a little.
He looked part Negroid to me.
Now it turns out he is half Guyanese and all makes sense then.
Paul Sorvino? I doubt they look alike tbh, if not at all.
Good call man.
Idk, they’ve always just seemed reminiscent of one another
http://www.imagevenue.com/ME122J3H
I’m pretty sure his mother was named Rajpatie Ramcharan, and was Guyanese (and probably Indian). Various articles mention him having family members named Ramcharan.
BTW, I don’t know if we’re 100% sure his father was Jewish? He doesn’t quite say it in the interview, although perhaps it’s implied.
His name was, I think, Charles Weiss, and he died around 2015.
Good find.
His father was indeed Charles Weiss who was born in New Jersey. Charles’ parents, Adele and Herman Weiss, were born in Hungary. According to Adele’s obituary, there were Jewish.
Which obituary?
https://www.newspapers.com/image/493765078/?article=b8f85936-57a4-4a6e-bde9-dae9b1126ade&focus=0.6587651,0.8080187,0.8602098,0.8993193&xid=3355&_gl=1*f4tb5s*_gcl_au*NDUzODc0OTI3LjE3MDQ4MTk5NTQ.*_ga*Mzg4Mzg1NTMwLjE3MDQ4MTk5NTY.*_ga_4QT8FMEX30*ZjJlNmU1N2ItYjQ3Ny00MGI3LTk5M2UtZWZhYmZhMDNkMzRiLjEyLjAuMTcwOTE2ODQ4OC42MC4wLjA.*_ga_LMK6K2LSJH*ZjJlNmU1N2ItYjQ3Ny00MGI3LTk5M2UtZWZhYmZhMDNkMzRiLjEyLjAuMTcwOTE2ODQ4OC4wLjAuMA..&_ga=2.253519821.550790413.1709164573-388385530.1704819956