If You’re Wondering Why the Duggars Are Low-Key Obsessed With Judaism, We Have Answers

The Duggars are super religious and aggressively Christian, but fans have noticed several ways that they use Judaism in their lives, from naming their kids to picking jewelry. We’ve done some digging and discovered why the fundamentalist family is so obsessed with Jewish stuff.

There are lots of connections to the Jewish faith to be found in the Duggar fam, the first of all is how much time they’ve spent in Israel. Joy-Anna and Austin went on their honeymoon there, while Derick studied there while courting Jill. As a matter of fact, the entire family went to Jerusalem for their grandmother’s 70th birthday in 2011. Of this trip, they wrote, “Getting to walk where Jesus walked, and to see the places that the Old Testament writings describe was amazing. We also saw some of the architectural remains of different empires. It was so neat to be over there, and just get to go to all the different places that we’ve read about for so many years in the Bible was so wonderful.”

Jill and Jessa Dugagr wearing Star of David necklaces.

When it comes to baby names, the Duggars have also been heavily influenced by Judaism, with Jill and Derick even naming one of their sons Israel. During the birth announcement video, Derick wore an “Israel Defense Force” t-shirt. Plus, Jim Bob and Michelle originally planned to name their son Jackson “Judah Benjamin,” which is also the name of the first Jewish-American man to reach a high position in the American government. It is also a combination of the names of two tribes of Israel. Plus, Jordyn-Grace’s middle name is Makiya, which is the last name of a man who wrote a book about Jerusalem.

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Then there’s the fact that many of the girls wear Star of David jewelry. Both Jessa and Jill have been spotted with the six-pointed star, which had fans wondering how that relates to their own religion. Some have even gone so far as to speculate that the Duggars used to be Jewish. However, the real answer is much simpler.

“They believe Jews are special to God because they were the ‘original messengers,’ and that it’s God’s will that Israel should belong to the Jews,” explained a fan on reddit. Christians also believe that all of the Jews will convert to Christianity during the second coming of Jesus. This is exactly why Joy-Anna and Austin went to Israel: to convert Jews to Christianity. As for the jewelry, Jesus was supposedly descended from King David, so wearing a Star of David is inspired by that. The more you know!

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