Ironically, Jones had “identified strongly with black culture” in high school and considered that criteria in her college choice, but in the end found her niche with Jewish friends. “Junior year, I started dating a guy who was Conservative and had an Orthodox brother and practiced more than I did, was more devout than I was,” she explains. “We had a group of friends who were Jewish so I naturally gravitated towards that culturally and religiously, which was cool because I didn’t have a bat mitzvah. I left Hebrew school when I was 10 because the girls were kind of snotty and I hadn’t gone back to exploring it. Being biracial and Jewish, I’m kind of given permission to explore whatever culture goes along with that. If I were just black and not Jewish I wouldn’t have had that entrée.”In 1994, Jones published an open letter in response to Tupac Shakur's criticism of her parents' interracial marriage. Before Tupac Shakur's murder, Rashida Jones became friends with the rapper, who was engaged to Rashida's sister before he was killed.
Jones, whose mother grew up in an observant home in Lawrence, New York, has fond memories of Jewish celebrations of her youth. “We always celebrated the High Holidays. I did fast in high school for Yom Kippur and attend services. We always went to seder for Passover. I really liked the cultural and the familial side of Judaism. It was always the most comfortable place for me, making time for family and community.”
When she was 10, Jones attended a Passover seder at Beverly Hills’ Chasen’s restaurant. “I remember I found the afikomen and I got $100, which at the time was a ridiculous amount of money. I was actually happier about the candy I got than the money,” she laughs, noting that she traditionally celebrates the holiday with good family friends, the Ostins. “My memories of Jewish holidays were associated with them and have always had that positive aspect, very comforting,” she notes.
While she sometimes regrets not having a bat mitzvah, it doesn’t diminish her faith. “In this day and age, you can choose how you practice and what is your relationship with God. I feel pretty strongly about my connection, definitely through the Jewish traditions and the things that I learned dating the guy that I dated. My boyfriends tend to be Jewish and also be practicing,” she muses. “I don’t see it as a necessity, but there’s something about it that I connect with for whatever reason. I think it probably has a lot to do with my mom, the way I grew up, and the family friends that we had and the paradigm that I saw of family life and what I would want for myself, and that was all kind of interconnected.”
