The Swedish Royal Family is Jewlicious?
We were in New York recently, enjoying a plate of hummus and some nana tea (of course) with Ariela and her bestest ever friend Makella. By way of introduction, Ariela told us that Makella is a Jewish princess. I expressed some surprise because she certainly didn’t have any of the outer trappings of a Jewish princess – no ostentatious clothing, big hair, scary nails, Louis Vuitton purse, nothing. In fact she seemed rather demure and modest. When I expressed my confusion, Ariela explained that Makella was in fact something like 27th in line to the Swedish throne. With visions of future decadent Swedish parties and well paying diplomatic postings swimming through my head I immediately asked Makella for the list of names and offered to “see what I can do.” Makella just laughed and then explained how a nice Jewish girl from New Jersey came to be a (not too) distant relative of the Swedish Royal Family.
Makella’s dad is Dr. William Craelius, a Professor at Rutgers University Department of Biomedical Engineering and the inventor of the artificial hand. Born in Chicago to a prominent Swedish Catholic family, distant relatives of the King and Queen of Sweden, it seems he developed a fascination with Jews ever since he started having dreams that he was Raoul Wallenberg.
Wallenberg, another member of a prominent Swedish family, was a Swedish diplomat in Hungary during World War II. He used his diplomatic status to save thousands of Hungarian Jews from the Nazis. After the war he was arrested by the Russians and was never heard from again. Some say he languished in Russian prisons for decades afterwards, while the Russians claim he passed away shortly after his arrest on July 17, 1947. Dr. Craelius, who was born on August 25, 1947 often contemplates the possibility that he is the reincarnation of Raoul Wallenberg. To add a further twist to this story, the Craelius family and the Wallenbergs are distantly related.
So Dr. Craelius meets Makella’s Mom, a Jewish woman of Eastern European extraction who had only recently found out that she was in fact Jewish and as a result had only a tenuous Jewish identity. They fell in love and Dr. Craelius became an eager convert to Judaism, ironically drawing Makella’s Mom further into her Jewish heritage. They then had Makella, giving her a name that they felt was an anglicized form of Malka, the Hebrew word for queen.
That’s the story then. We are only 27 people and some rather convoluted circumstances away from having Jewish royalty in Europe. How cool would that be? First of course we’d get rid of Sweden’s silly laws regarding kashrut (animals need to be anesthesized prior to slaughter) and circumcision (something about Doctors and nurses and anesthesia …) and then, what? Party time I guess. Royal balls and Manischewitz for everyone! In any case, Brownsvillegirl and the Punks of Zion need to update their Reclaiming the Jewish American Princess list. And not in that teeny type either! This is REAL royalty we’re talking about here!
- Hawk Tuah Girl Haliey Welch is Not Jewish. Probably. - 8/9/2024
- Jews Blessed by their High Priests - 10/14/2022
- Foolproof Mufletta Recipe & Muflettapalooza / Mimouna Invite! - 3/26/2021
Yow. Then today would be a good time to visit the Wallenberg memorial here in Montreal.
apparently jan 17th is the 60th anniversary of wallenberg’s abduction. there’s going to be an event at merkaz hatarbuyot (rechov hillel 27, 02 624 9179) that day, with a series of documentaries screening at 2pm and a panel discussion at 7pm. saw a sign for it at yeshiva today.
Nice. We have a rather unusual Wallenberg memorial down the street here in Montreal. Maybe I’ll take a pic as well ….
me & dorot at the raoul wallenberg memorial in budapest this past october.
So, Makella’s related to the hottest European princess and the hottest European royal? (If I did the links properly…)
Wow. We Jews are good at what we do (controlling the world, that is).
blam. that’s pretty cool. and sweden is pretty cold.
but beautiful i hear….
I know. But when you’re with Royalty, it doesn’t matter.
Um, CK, it’s really cold in Sweden.