This month, comedian Tiffany Haddish celebrated her bat mitzvah with a star-studded guest list that included Jewish celebrity friends like Billy Crystal, Chelsea Handler, and Sarah Silverman.
Haddish, the star of blockbuster comedies such as Girls Trip, celebrated the event in Beverly Hills on Dec. 3, which was also her 40th birthday. She released her Netflix stand-up special, Black Mitzvah, on the same day.
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Haddish was born and raised in south-central Los Angeles and spent most of her childhood in foster care. She became interested in Judaism after meeting her father, an Eritrean Jewish refugee, for the first time at age 27.
Sarah Silverman's sister, Susan, a rabbi who resides in Jerusalem, oversaw Haddish's traditional coming of age ceremony.
"She was looking at text, and looking at history and just finding herself in it. She was so excited by it, and so moved by it," Rabbi Susan Silverman told i24NEWS Culture Correspondent, Emily Frances, "She would start to weep, learning!"
Silverman remarked on Haddish's Jewish pride, "She is so proud to be Jewish, in a time where so many people are afraid to be Jewish. Tiffany is like, screw that! I love it. I am so proud to be Jewish. "
Haddish used to work as an "energy producer" at bar and bat mitzvah parties before she discovered her own Jewish roots.
This article was originally published by i24NEWS.
