Football’s Atlanta Falcons were the first team to announce their full roster on Tuesday and quarterback Josh Rosen was one of the players who made it onto the team.
Rosen, 24, was just released from the San Francisco 49ers. Prior to that he played for Tampa Bay, Miami, and Arizona.
The news has meant Rosen’s name has been in sports news more than usual, and with a last name like that on his jersey, it’s no surprise people are wondering: Is Josh Rosen Jewish?
Here’s everything you need to know about Rosen’s Jewish identity
Josh Rosen was born on February 10, 1997, in Torrance, California.
His parents are Charles Rosen (who is Jewish), an orthopedic spine surgeon, and Liz Lippincott (who is Quaker), a journalist.
Josh gets the athletic gene from his parents.
His mom, Liz, captained the Princeton lacrosse team as a student at the school. Later, she worked as an editor for a number of sport-related publications including Golf Pro magazine. Liz and Charles were also nationally acclaimed ice skaters. Together they won a national gold medal, the New York Times reported. And, apparently, Charles nearly qualified for the Winter Olympics in the 1970s.
Rosen’s father Charles is Jewish
Rosen’s mother, Liz, is a Quaker.
Another fun fact about Charles Rosen: He was on President Barack Obama’s shortlist for Surgeon General, but didn’t end up making the cut.
Rosen had a bar mitzvah and identifies as Jewish
He attended UCLA and in 2016 he told Sports Illustrated, “In retrospect, being Jewish is a big reason why I should have considered UCLA. Just because of how Jewish Hollywood is, and they [Jewish people] really want someone to look up to because they just don’t have professional athletes.”
He’s also been the target of antisemitism
“I get a lot of Jewish things,” Rosen said. “My nose, particularly. I get, like, ‘Stay the f–k down, you Jewish bastard. I’m gonna break your f–kin’ nose, you Jew’,” he told NFL.com.
“One of my best games was at Arizona my freshman year. It was College GameDay and they had a ton of banners; they had my face on the queen from ‘Frozen’. They had, ‘Josh Rosen’s Bar Mitzvah Wasn’t Even Lit.’”
Luckily, he’s actually motivated by the haters
“When people really get into me, it gets my competitive juices flowing,” he said in an interview.
“I love seeing heartbroken fans. Some stadiums, the fans are really close to you, and they’ll call you names: ‘Rosen, go back to your hot tub.’ And when you beat them and get to turn around and wave? It’s the best.”
