# Anton Lavey Jewish?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anton-lavey-jewish/555023>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 25, 2010, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anton-lavey-jewish/555023 "2010-09-25T16:54:51Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Bpelta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Bpelta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bpelta)\
**Post date:** [September 25, 2010, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anton-lavey-jewish/555023/1 "2010-09-25T16:54:51Z")

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Was Anton Lavey of Jewish descent? If so, what side(s) of the family?

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**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\
**Post date:** [September 25, 2010, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anton-lavey-jewish/555023/2 "2010-09-25T17:30:06Z")

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Wikipedia says that his paternal grandfather’s name was Leon Levy. His father must have changed it to LeVey. His paternal grandmother’s name was Emma Goldsmith. It’s a good guess that he was of half (at least) Jewish ancestry. There is no evidence that his mom was Jewish.

So, the answer to the OP is, “yes.”

ETA: Technically, of course, he wasn’t Jewish but he was of Jewish descent.