Mila Kunis lit a hanukkiah with Israel advocate Noa Tishby for the second night of Hanukkah.
Tishby, who is hosting celebrities for each night of Hanukkah this year, asked Kunis about some of the traditions and cultural practices of her family in a video posted to social media.
Kunis, who was born in Ukraine and moved to the US when she was eight, said that she didn’t grow up with strong Jewish traditions.
“I never lit Hanukkah candles until I had kids,” Kunis said. “I grew up doing nothing.”
Kunis noted that because of her upbringing in the former Soviet Union, she was heavily discouraged from pursuing a religious side to her Judaism.
“I knew I was Jewish, but I was told to never talk about it. I think because I grew up in a country that didn’t allow for religion,” she said. “I was raised culturally Jewish, so for me it’s a culture. And as I had kids, and my kids very much identify with the religion aspect of it, I thought ‘Okay, I guess we’ll do Shabbos, and we’ll do the candles.’
“There’s so much beautiful tradition in it.”
Jewish motherhood and monoliths
When asked why she thought it was important to be Jewish and proud, Kunis noted that building her family with her husband, Ashton Kutcher, played a big role in her faith.
“For me, it happened when I met my husband,” she said, adding that although Kutcher isn’t Jewish, he helped her understand her religion more.”The thing about being Jewish is it’s like a choose-your-own-adventure, where you can pick and choose things about it that resonate with you. There is no right or wrong way to be Jewish.”
“Jews are not a monolith,” Tishby added, noting how diverse Jews can be. “There’s a lot of different ethnicities, cultures, traditions, history.”
The two women bonded over every Jewish mother’s fear of having someone in their house go hungry.
“The worst thing that one of my kids can say to me is, ‘I’m hungry.’ Food fixes everything,” Kunis noted.
Tishby and Kunis also spoke about Jewish cultural experiences while growing up. When Tishby asked for an example of something culturally Jewish that Kunis saw In her family, the actress said that she “was raised with a lot of guilt all the time, superstition and guilt.”
The video ended with the two lighting the hanukkiah and saying the blessing after a brief call to Kutcher to ensure that they were lighting the candles correctly.
Kunis has previously used her platform to support Israel and bring attention to Jewish issues. She was one of over 200 artists to sign a letter against the boycott of the 2021 Tel Aviv International LGBTQ+ Film Festival and has reportedly attended the Nova Festival museum exhibit. Her husband, Ashton Kutcher, has attended a Friends of the IDF gala and has invested majorly in Israeli startups.
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