She's Not Italian, She's Jewish! The Sopranos' Jamie-Lynn Sigler + What is Shavout?!
Being Jewish with Jonah Platt
Jonah Platt
4.9 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 19 May 2026
⏱️ 72 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The Sopranos star Jamie-Lynn Sigler gets brutally honest about Judaism, fame, motherhood, and living with MS in one of her most personal interviews ever.
In one of the podcast’s most open and deeply personal episodes so far Jamie-Lynn Sigler, best known for playing Meadow Soprano on The Sopranos, reflects on growing up Jewish on Long Island, navigating Hollywood at a young age, and finding strength in Jewish identity and community. The two discuss that advocacy doesn't have to be about conflict, but about just sharing your positive experiences with the world. She shares how a transformative Birthright Israel trip deepened her connection to Judaism and Israel especially through experiences in Jerusalem.
Sigler also opens up about living with Multiple Sclerosis (MS), the emotional toll of hiding her diagnosis for years, and how finally speaking publicly changed her life. The conversation explores marriage, mental health, and the pressure to appear “perfect” while struggling privately. Jamie-Lynn talks about her new memoir, And So It Is: A Memoir of Acceptance and Hope, and her podcasts MeSsy with Christina Applegate and Not Today, PAL. Together, she and Jonah connect with each other on their vulnerability, Jewish pride, and the freedom that comes from finally being fully yourself.
Plus, Rabbi David Ingbar returns to the podcast (Three-Timer!!!) to discuss the history and importance of the Jewish Holiday, Shavout.
Topics discussed:
- Discussion about Jewish visibility, stereotypes about what Jewish people “look like,” and proudly embracing her Cuban, Greek, and Jewish heritage.
- Sigler talks about living with Multiple Sclerosis (“MS”) and why going public about her diagnosis changed her life.
- The emotional process behind writing her memoir And So It Is: A Memoir of Acceptance and Hope and narrating the audiobook herself.
- How podcasting opened her emotionally
- Caregiving, marriage, and parenting with her husband Cutter while navigating life with MS.
- Sigler explains how The Sopranos became a “safe haven” during struggles with eating disorders, MS, and personal insecurities.
- The Sopranos Executive Producer David Chase and how Meadow Soprano served as Sigler’s “Sasha Fierce” alter ego.
- The importance of Jewish community, Shabbat dinners, and raising her sons Jack and Beau with pride in their Jewish heritage.
- Sigler shares her perspective on Israel, Holocaust education, and visiting the Holocaust Museum during her Birthright experience.
- Discussion of disability representation in Hollywood and why productions should hire actors actually living with disabilities and chronic illness.
- Sigler discusses acting projects including Big Sky and how accommodations on set helped her work comfortably with MS.
Mentioned in the episode:
What Are the Five Books of Moses?
HEBREW WORD OF THE WEEK —TIKUN
And So It Is: A Memoir of Acceptance and Hope
Multiple Sclerosis: Symptoms, Causes, and Treatment Options
Yad Vashem – The World Holocaust Remembrance Center
Hollywood stars boycott Israeli film companies in response to Gaza crisis
Jamie-Lynn Sigler and Lance Bass' whirlwind trip to Israel in photos
Not Today, PAL with Jamie-Lynn Sigler and Robert Iler (Podcast)
What Jamie-Lynn Sigler Wants You to Know About MS
Who Is Jamie-Lynn Sigler’s Husband? All About Cutter Dykstra
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | If you're a longtime fan of this show, you might recall me using the phrase, go full Jew. |
| 0:09.1 | My challenge to lean into the things that speak to your Jewish soul, |
| 0:13.2 | things that our contemporary assimilated inner voices sometimes dismiss as being too lame or too religious or too Jewy. |
| 0:21.8 | It could be anything from listening to Hebrew music in the car |
| 0:24.8 | or reading a Jewish book by a Jewish author |
| 0:27.2 | or, in my case, learning more about a particular Jewish holiday |
| 0:31.2 | I've always known was important but never really knew much about. |
| 0:34.5 | And that holiday is nearly upon us. |
| 0:37.3 | And it's called Shavuot, or if you're an old |
| 0:39.8 | Ashkenazi guy, Shavua. It's basically the anniversary of the Jews becoming the Jews. Pretty dang |
| 0:47.3 | important. I learned a bit more about it last year and had planned to actually celebrate and |
| 0:51.8 | honor the holiday, but God had other plans, or perhaps |
| 0:55.5 | a different plan for celebrating would be a more accurate description, as my daughter, Gianna, |
| 1:00.3 | was born on Chavoot last year. This year, I'm getting all up in it again. So before we get |
| 1:06.3 | into today's main conversation, we're going to do something new, a little different that we haven't |
| 1:11.0 | done on the show before. Today we're not just being Jewish, we're doing Jewish. And to help us do |
| 1:17.0 | that, I've invited back a new friend who you may have seen on the show recently, not once, but twice. |
| 1:22.2 | And now he's about to become our first three-timer. That's right, live from New York, it's the senior director of Jewish life at the 92nd Street Y, Rabbi David |
| 1:32.5 | Ingber. |
| 1:33.6 | Rabbi Baruchaba, welcome back to the show. |
| 1:36.3 | Thank you. |
| 1:37.0 | Live from New York, I felt like Saturday Night Live with Rabbi Ingber. |
... |
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