Follow-up

[philusa]

On November 19, 2010, I posted this message:
"Earlier this year, a male cousin of Queen Elizabeth (UK) was married to a woman whose father was in the movie business -- a director, a producer? Does anyone know the name of this cousin (and, perhaps, his bride)?"

No one was able to help me because I had the wrong information. The bride's father was not in show business -- the bride was. I was thinking of Sophie Winkleman and Lord Frederick Windsor (see, for example: www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/theroyalfamily/6180273/Royal-wedding-Lord-Frederick-Windsor-marries-Sophie-Winkleman.html). Her father, I believe, is a publisher.

[Cinderella]

Oh, I believe they actually got married in 2009

[philusa]

If I am not mistaken, Sophie Winkleman is the first person of Jewish descent to marry into the British royal family.

[observer]

May 6, 2011 16:45:29 GMT philusa said:

If I am not mistaken, Sophie Winkleman is the first person of Jewish descent to marry into the British royal family.

I understand that one is only Jewish is one has a Jewish mother. This is not so in Ms Winkleman's case.

And why should it matter any more than the fact that a Maori has married into the family? I would imagine that if one looked back far enough, a great many people would find that at some time they had acquired a Jewish ancestor, a Muslim ancestor, and so on. I myself certainly do not hide the fact that one of my great-grandmothers was English.

[philusa]

It is true that according to Judaism, one is Jewish if one is born of a Jewish mother. In the case of Sophie Winkleman, her father is Jewish, her mother is not, so although Sophie is not Jewish, she is, through her father, of Jewish descent.

Why should it matter? Only so far as that this fact adds another interesting bit of information about the British royal family.