Short answer: Yes. Elliott Gould was born Elliott Goldstein on August 29, 1938, in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn, to Jewish parents, Lucille and Bernard Goldstein. He went to Hebrew school, was bar mitzvahed in 1951, and has spoken about his Jewish identity on the record for decades.
What the record actually shows
- Born Elliott Goldstein, August 29, 1938, Brooklyn. Per his Wikipedia biography, his mother, Lucille (née Raver), sold artificial flowers to beauty shops. His father, Bernard Goldstein, was a textiles buyer in the Manhattan garment business. The family was Jewish, of Russian, Polish and Lithuanian Jewish descent.
- A Jewish Brooklyn childhood. The Jewish Chronicle, in a December 2010 interview by Barbra Paskin, reported that his grandparents were Orthodox Jews from Ukraine and Poland, and that he grew up in "a very Jewish neighbourhood of Brooklyn" with Shabbat candles, a bar mitzvah and observance of the High Holy Days, but no profound religiosity. Gould's own words: "We lived more of a secular existence, but even though I was young, I was aware that there was more to it than just that."
- Bar mitzvah in 1951. "I went to Hebrew school in Brooklyn and I was barmitzvahed in 1951, but I didn't really know or understand very much," he told the Jewish Chronicle. He added that his Jewishness grew stronger as he got older and started considering why we were put on this earth.
- Hebrew name and pidyon haben. In an interview published by Aish.com, Gould said: "Well, I'm Eliyahu Ben Ben-Tzion. I didn't know the man I was named after, my grandfather. My parents were not Orthodox, so my Jewish identity was everything that my parents could impart to me while growing up. I was a Bar Mitzvahed. I was told that in terms of being a first born son my father was very proud to have a pidyon haben for me." Elsewhere in the interview he said, "There's not a moment that I'm not Jewish and I cherish it."
- He has never distanced himself from it. Speaking to the Jewish Journal in an interview published May 3, 2012, he said: "I don't nor can I deny my roots. I know what I am and I know about our culture. Although I'm not as observant as some of us would have me be." The Jewish Chronicle described him as a student of Torah, a favourite student of some of Los Angeles' most eminent rabbis, a friend of Chabad, and especially fascinated with Reconstructionism.
- Still saying it in 2025. In a JNS feature by Rochel Grosz published July 2, 2025, Gould said: "I don't practice religion in a traditional way, but I'm a deeply Jewish person. My roots, my consciousness, my feeling for justice, for humanity, it's all Jewish to me." He also called being Jewish "not just a heritage. It's a moral responsibility."
- He is alive. Gould turns 88 on August 29, 2026, and is still working. He plays David "Legal" Siegel on Netflix's The Lincoln Lawyer, whose fourth season was released in February 2026, and appeared as the photographer Weegee in Netflix's Monster: The Ed Gein Story. No reputable outlet has reported otherwise.
Why people ask
Part of it is the name. He was born Goldstein and became Gould, and the change drew real anger at the time. As he told the Jewish Journal in 2012: "I was in a picture called American History X and I played a Jewish teacher in an environment of great anti-Semitism and the JDL [Jewish Defense League] attacked me for it, attacked me for changing my name from Goldstein to Gould." His 1963 marriage to Barbra Streisand, whom he met in the 1962 Broadway production of I Can Get It for You Wholesale and divorced in 1971, kept the question in front of the public too. So did the roles. The Jewish Chronicle counted a long list of overtly Jewish characters he has played, from deli owners and schoolteachers to rabbis and theatrical moguls, alongside Reuben Tishkoff in the Ocean's films, Jack Geller on Friends, and Trapper John in M*A*S*H.
The other driver is less flattering. Death hoaxes about Gould circulate regularly, and low-quality pages claiming he "passed away at 88" rank for his name. They are false. One likely fuel source is his own show: Variety published a feature in 2026 on the fourth season of The Lincoln Lawyer discussing the on-screen death of his character, Legal. That is the character, not the actor. Gould is alive, working, and no obituary exists in Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, JTA, the Forward or the AP.
Elliott Gould and Israel
Gould has a long and public connection to Israel. He told the Jewish Chronicle in 2010: "My trips to Israel remind me that there you're free to be a Jew and it's great to be free to be a Jew." He referenced accepting a presentation at the 25th Annual Haifa International Film Festival in his 2012 Jewish Journal interview, and JNS reported in July 2025 that he has visited Israel several times and served as president of the Haifa International Film Festival. IndieWire reported that he was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 24th Annual Israel Film Festival in New York in December 2009. He has also taken positions that complicate the picture, including signing the April 2024 open letter by Jewish creatives backing Jonathan Glazer's Oscar speech, and full details are in our companion piece Does Elliott Gould Support Israel?.
The bottom line
Elliott Gould is Jewish, by birth, by upbringing and by his own repeated account. He was born Elliott Goldstein to Jewish parents in Brooklyn, had a pidyon haben and a 1951 bar mitzvah, and has described himself in interviews across four decades as a deeply Jewish person who could never deny his roots. Nothing in the documented record disputes any of it.
Celebrate your own story
Gould's version of Jewish identity is the ordinary kind that a lot of us carry, inherited quietly and grown into over a lifetime. If you are looking for a way to wear yours, our Star of David jewelry collection is a good place to start.
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Last updated August 2026. We update these profiles as the record changes.
