Nine Jewish facts about Elvis Presley on his 90th birthday
The King of Rock and Roll's mother Gladys was Jewish
Louisa Walters is Features Editor at the Jewish News and specialises in food and travel writing
Had Elvis Presley not died in 1977, aged just 42, he would be 90 today. He was born in Tupelo, Mississippi, on 8 January 1935, to Gladys and Vernon Presley. His elder twin brother Jessie was stillborn.
Every year at Graceland, Elvis’ birthday is celebrated with an official proclamation ceremony on the front lawn of his Memphis mansion, complete with the cutting of a giant cake.
He was halachically Jewish through his maternal line and there was evidence of Jewish influence throughout his life
1. Elvis’ great great grandmother Nancy Burdine was a Jew whose family were originally from Lithuania, although she was born in Mississippi in 1826. She had a daughter, Martha Tackett who married Mansell White and had a daughter called Octavia or ‘Doll’. Doll married Bob Smith and they had a daughter, Gladys Love Smith – Elvis’ mum.
2. In 1954s the family lived in an apartment in Alabama Avenue, Memphis, they regularly attended Friday night dinner at their upstairs neighbour Rabbi Alfred Fruchter.
3. Elvis struck up a friendship with Bernard Lansky, a stalwart of Memphis’ Jewish merchants community and shopped at his store Memphis for 30 years. “I put Elvis in his first suit and I put him in his last,” said Bernard, referring to the white suit and blue tie he was buried in.
4. Elvis was often seen wearing a Magen David and a Chai pendant on stage. He also had a tree of life pendant given to him by The Memphis Mafia as a birthday present.
5. Elvis mother Gladys told him he had Jewish blood, but told him not to tell anyone, “because people don’t like Jews.”
6. Elvis struck up many relationships with Jews: songwriters, directors, costume designers, jewellers and Alfred Wertheimer, the photographer who created the iconic monochrome photos of him on the brink of mega-stardom at 21.
7. The gravestone that Elvis designed for his mother in 1964, six years after she died in 1958, is engraved with a Magen David. It was placed in storage after Elvis died on (many believe by Elvis’ father, Vernon, known for his antisemitic leanings) but is now in situ at Graceland.
8. Elvis changed the spelling of his middle name from Aron to Aaron.
9. Elvis reportedly donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Memphis Jewish Welfare Fund.
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