Former footballer Wayne Rooney says his family has Jewish roots — Jerusalem Post

Former English footballer Wayne Rooney said during a family trip to Auschwitz in Poland that he had recently learned about the Polish-Jewish origins of his maternal grandmother. He said this in the Disney+ documentary series The Real Rooneys, the Jerusalem Post reports.

Family history

Rooney said that his grandmother’s family were Polish Jews. According to him, his mother told him that his great-grandmother had fled from Poland to Liverpool. The family also believes that her original surname may have been Greenberg.

During filming, an off-camera producer noted that under Jewish religious law, Jewish identity is passed down through the maternal line. In response, Rooney said that he is Catholic, but had previously asked why their family was not Jewish.

Visit to Auschwitz

The Rooney family visited Poland to learn more about World War II for their son’s school project. The footballer’s wife, Coleen Rooney, told The Guardian that their 10-year-old son Kit was very keen to go to Auschwitz.

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Rooney stressed that it is important for children to study history, both its good and difficult chapters. On the way to the concentration camp, he told a taxi driver that he had watched many documentaries about these events and could not imagine how people could do this to other people.

Rooney himself had already visited Auschwitz with the England national team during the 2012 European Championship, which was held in Poland and Ukraine. His sons had not been there before.

Organisation’s reaction

The British organisation Campaign Against Antisemitism said that this story is a reminder of the falsity of the antisemitic stereotype that Jews are supposedly physically weak and not athletic. The organisation also noted that before World War II, Jews achieved significant success in European sports, including football.