Festivus is on December 23, so the Internet can take a break from asking whether Die Hard is a Christmas movie to wonder whether the Seinfeld‘s Costanza family is Jewish or Italian. It really is the perfect question for the Internet. There is no definitive answer and there are few clues pointing in both directions allowing you to take a side and dig in, if you really feel like it.
The patriarch of the Costanza family, Jerry Stiller, recently weighed in via a statement at a gala held by the Museum of the Jewish People in New York City.
Via the New York Daily News:
“It was never really clear if the Costanzas were Jewish or Italian or what they were,” Stiller said in the statement. “Jason, Estelle and I were given the name Costanza, which sounds Italian, but there were episodes where I cooked Jewish food and ate knishes and kasha varnishkes in bed. When people asked me about this I would simply say it was because we were a Jewish family in the Witness Protection Program.”
Seinfeld was a show about nothing and it really drove that home around the holidays. In 9 seasons they only really had four “Christmas episodes.” And the most famous of those wasn’t really a Christmas episode at all. It was a Festivus episode, which brought together characters of all faiths for a meal on December 23rd. Frank explains the origin of the holiday by saying that he went to buy George a doll “many Christmases ago.”
So if you really need to know if the Costanza’s are Jewish or Italian, well… They still might be Jewish! They’re possibly Italian! They could be one, or both, or neither! If you have a problem with that, bring it up during the airing of grievances.
