Is Tiffany Haddish an Eritrean Jew? Religion explored amid backlash over flying business class to Israel

Stand-up comedian and actress Tiffany Haddish recently made headlines after her social media post about flying business class to Israel went viral. She shared a 13-minute-long video on Instagram Live, sipping juice and talking about her trip while seated on the plane.

“On my way to Israel to learn and see with my own eyes.” She captioned the video.

In the wake of her post, the Girls Trip star is now earning severe backlash online for misusing her celebrity status and embarking on a luxury 16-hour flight from Los Angeles to Israel in the middle of the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict.

It is interesting to note that Tiffany Haddish is an Eritrean Jew from her father’s side, the ancestry she discovered much later in life.

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Everything you need to know about Tiffany Haddish’s religion

According to Distractify, Tiffany Haddish was raised by a single mother who was of the Jehovah's Witness (a branch of Christianity) faith. However, she entered the foster system as a teenager and began exploring Scientology and Catholicism simultaneously, but soon gave up.

Later, as a 27-year-old, the comedian met her father and discovered that she was an Eritrean Jew from his side.

While she shared a difficult relationship with her father, she embraced his faith and culture and eventually traveled to Eritrea in 2017 to learn more about her roots and honor her late father’s legacy. Later, she also became an Eritrean national in 2019, where Judaism is still not a recognized religion.

However, it was long before she met her father that Tiffany Haddish was introduced to the Jewish religion. One of her first jobs was as an energy producer at weddings, Hanukkah, and bar/bat mitzvahs in 1996 (at the age of 17), which is how she ventured into Judaism, as she mentioned during her interview with David Letterman on My Next Guest Needs No Introduction.

Later, she reiterated the same during a chat with the Jewish website Hey Alma.

"For a long time, I didn’t even know Black Jews existed. I didn't know anything about Judaism for a long time. As I got into that profession as an energy producer, I started learning more and more about the Torah. I could really relate to it."

Tiffany Haddish further added how the Jewish faith grew stronger once she met her father and resonated with him. Soon, she embraced the religion as her own, attended Hebrew school, and regularly met with a rabbi.

Eventually, she had her untimely bat mitzvah on her 40th birthday and told Hey Alma at the time how she wished her father was alive so she could dance with him.

She even learned Hebrew to study the Torah and fully immerse herself in the ceremony, and she urged fellow Jews to learn the holy scripture. The event was attended by fellow Jewish celebrities Sarah Silverman, Sinbad, and Billy Crystal, among others.

In December 2021, Tiffany even appeared on her Netflix special Black Mitzvah to talk about her Jewish faith, bat mitzvah, and more.

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Internet reacts to Tiffany Haddish’s latest business class trip to Israel

On Tuesday, February 20, Tiffany Haddish shared via her social media that she was taking an “educational trip” to Israel and was flying “business class.” She mentioned how she was traveling to “learn and see with my own eyes” the Israeli and Jewish cultures amid the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict.

During her Instagram Live, she also showed off her glass of orange drink, which she claimed was juice and not mimosa. Later, Tiffany Haddish also sang a made-up tune, the lyrics of which were, “On my way to Tel Aviv, then to Jerusalem. Then I’m going to the Dead Sea and goin’ get me some. Gonna have some fun, yeah. It’s gonna be great. Then I’m gonna learn about the politics, ay.”

When a fan asked whether she was going to the war zone in Gaza, here’s what she said:

“Who said I wasn’t going to Gaza? I said I’m going to go see with my own eyes. Gotta go to Israel first. And isn’t Gaza in Israel? Ain’t it all on the same continent, the same little piece of land and surrounded by water?”

The 44-year-old Keanu actress further hoped to “meet my future man out there,” shared her excitement about “going to the Holy Land,” and asked her 7.4 million followers to do the same. When asked whether it was work or vacation, Tiffany Haddish replied it was for a "history lesson" and to make herself aware of the need to ask questions.

“This is sociology… I want to go get educated. I want to see what’s really going on. I want to learn how it started, and why it started. I want to see where Jesus walked. I want to see all the stuff everywhere they talked about in the Bible. I want to see all that. So, if it’s in the Bible, I’m probably gonna be there,” she explained.

As soon as her video surfaced online, she earned severe criticism from netizens for seemingly taking a vacation to Israel in the middle of a war, while also flaunting her “business class” flight.

So far, Tiffany Haddish has not commented on her backlash. However, she clarified on her Instagram Live that people always spread rumors about her on social media.

She continued how instead of commenting on the ongoing Israel-Palestine turmoil, she was going to see what was happening there by herself and keep an open mind to check both sides of the border.

Tiffany Haddish also added how she did not like what she had been seeing online for the last few months and knew many who visited Israel and came back safe and were hoping to do the same.