Alanis Morissette Uncovers Her Family's Holocaust History After Only Learning of Her Jewish Ancestry in Her Late 20s

Alanis Morissette wasn’t aware of her Jewish ancestry until her late 20s, and now she’s learning even more about her family’s past.

The alt-rock star, 49, appeared on the Season 10 premiere of PBS’ Finding Your Roots. On the episode, which aired on Tuesday, the singer-songwriter discovered for the first time that her maternal grandfather managed to escape the Holocaust in Hungary, and that he spent years trying to find his two brothers whose fates remained a family mystery. 

“I think I found out that I was Jewish in my late 20s,” Morissette told host Henry Louis Gates, Jr. “I didn’t know.” 

The Grammy winner revealed that her parents never shared her Jewish heritage with her and her siblings because of the generational trauma that her mother experienced. “I think there was a terror that is in their bones and they were being protective of us in just not wanting antisemitism,” the Jagged Little Pill artist shared. “So they were doing it to protect us, sort of keeping us in the dark around it.” 

After conducting research at Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center, Finding Your Roots was able to reveal to the “You Oughta Know” singer that her great uncles Gyorgy and Sandor Feuerstein, who were thought to have been sent to “work camps” to serve in the Russian military in World War II, died in slave labor camps in Russia. 

The discovery led Morissette to reflect on her grandfather Imre Feurerstein, who remained in Hungary where the singer’s mother Georgia was born until their family immigrated to Canada.

After the host asked if the star could imagine what it was like for her grandfather to carry the burden of losing his brothers, she replied, “Not knowing where your sibling is, if they're alive or dead … No, God.” 

The “Ironic” artist also learned that her grandfather never stopped looking for his brothers, as archives from the Red Cross revealed he put out a search for them through the organization. 

“So he was looking for them?” Morissette asked while examining the records. 

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"He was looking for them,” Gates, Jr. told her. “In 1949, four years after WWII ended, your grandfather asked the Red Cross to look for his brother. Did you know this?"

She admitted, "I did not know this.”

On the show, Morisette also took a moment to reflect on how much her bloodline has gone through. “There’s just so much intense stuff happening,” she shared. “You think about their resilience and their ability to keep going in the face of tragedy, it’s pretty poignant.”

Despite learning about tragedy in her ancestry, the “Thank U” singer spoke candidly of how proud she is to be Jewish.  

“I had no idea how super Jewish I am,” she admitted. 

The singer continued, “I feel welcomed into a community that I always had a crush on. I’ve always had a crush on Judaism, and I would just show up at Passover and at seder. Now I know why. It was like, come home.”

Later in 2024, the hitmaker will embark on the massive Triple Moon Tour. The 31-date tour, which kicks off in June, spans across North America and includes support from fellow rockers  Joan Jett and the Blackhearts and Morgan Wade.