Being in the spotlight, many people have wondered whether or not Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is Jewish or not. In this article, we’ll help you find an answer to this question.
It’s unclear whether or not Bezos is Jewish. On all of Bezos’ biographies, like the one on Biography, his religion is omitted. There has been a lot of speculation on the question and there is evidence that he may actually be Catholic, despite rumors and anti-Semitic attacks that believe otherwise.
Continue reading below to find out more about whether Jeff Bezos is Jewish, Catholic or neither.
Bezos’ Catholic Step-Father
Jeff Bezos was born on January 12, 1964 to his mother, Jacklyn Gise, and his biological father, Jeffrey Preston Jorgensen.
They were both still in high school when Jeff was born and when he turned 17 months old, Gise and Jorgensen got a divorce.
His mother later remarried Miguel “Mike” Bezos who adopted Jeff and gave him the last name Bezos when he was 4 years old.
Mike seems to have been raised in the Roman Catholic Church, as when he immigrated to the United States, he did so through a Catholic-run program called Operation Peter Pan.
Mike was placed in a Catholic group home, then later attended the Catholic-affiliated University of Albuquerque in New Mexico. Once Mike graduated though, he married Jacklyn Gise in a Protestant church called the First Congregational Church of Christ in Albuquerque.
This has led people to believe that Mike was not a practicing Roman Catholic and thus may not have raised Bezos to be one either.
Bezos’ Wedding
Bezos’ now ex-wife, however, seems to have had more of a concrete Catholic upbringing. Bezos married MacKenzie in 1993, but recently got divorced after 25 years of marriage.
MacKenzie’s parents, Jason, and Holiday Tuttle are active members of the Catholic community in Palm Beach, Florida. This means that they likely raised MacKenzie to be Catholic as well.
Further evidence shows that Jeff and MacKenzie were married by a minister, Reverend Richard Riccardi, from the Old Catholic Church of new Utrecht.
This could be because of MacKenzie’s Catholic upbringing and not Bezos, but it leads people to further believe that Bezos is in fact Catholic.
Charity Cases
Although Bezos owns many companies, most notably amazon, but also Whole Foods, IMDB, Goodreads, etc. He also donates to various charities.
In 2018, Bezos donated $97.5 million to 24 organizations, 5 of which are affiliated with Christian (both Catholic and Protestant) institutions. This does not necessarily mean he is Christian himself, but it does seem more likely.
Jewish or Not?
Despite most evidence and research pointing towards Bezos being Catholic, he was still the victim of an anti-Semitic attack online. In 2019, Bezos was being criticized because The Washington Post (which Bezos owns) was investigating Saudi Arabia’s human rights abuses.
Many tweets and Facebook posts about Bezos were circulating, including this one: “We as Saudis will never accept to be attacked by The Washington Post in the morning, only to buy products from Amazon and Souq.com by night! Strange that all three companies are owned by the same Jew who attacks us by day, and sells us products by night!”
In the translated tweet, the writer states that Bezos is Jewish despite this never being confirmed. While most research seems to point towards Bezos being Catholic, he has never confirmed or denied either religion.
This may be to protect his image as much as he can as even speculations about whether or not he is Jewish caused backlash and anti-Semitism.
It is also possible that Bezos may not belong to any religion.
Although Christianity is the largest religion in the United States, with 70% of the population practicing a denomination, 15.8% of the population claims they have no religion. So, Bezos could be part of that group. Until he addresses it for himself, we may never know for sure.