Actress Lisa Kudrow was forced to come to terms with her family's harrowing past as part of a new TV show. The former Friends star has launched an American version of U.K. show Who Do You Think You Are?, which follows celebrities as they research their ancestry.

Kudrow allowed cameras to film as she traced her own family tree - only to find that her Jewish great-grandmother, Mera Mordejovich, had been killed in Nazi Germany during World War II. The actress admits she had heard the story when she was growing up, but the program forced her to accept the truth.

She says, "My father told me that after the war his cousin Boleslaw had visited his parents' house and told them their village in Belarus had been razed to the ground. When I was young, my grandma said Hitler killed her mother, but I didn't want to know the story. I told myself that my grandmother wasn't a reliable source and that everyone got out of Europe in time."

"The show made me face up to it. The people were stripped, shot and burned. Hearing the details made it worse because you conjure up an image of what it must have been like for them."

Nevertheless, the show did bring one piece of happy news - she was reunited with her dad's cousin: "I expected he had died. It had been one sad story after another... Then we discovered Boleslaw was alive. It was an amazing end to a difficult journey."

http://www.starpulse.com/news/index.php/2010/02/26/lisa_kudrow_faces_traumatic_family_pas

Even though I found this thread very interesting when I first read it (which was less than a day after it was posted) it is because of issues with my sleep disorder and my psoriatic arthtritis that I am first responding to it. Those of you who frequent this board might have noticed that over a week went by without any posts by me. This is quite unusual for someone with as much time on his hands as me let alone someone who has as much to say as I do! For over a week, although I was well enough to read other people's posts, I did not have the mental or physical motivation to start my own threads or respond to anyone else's. In any case, the thing that intrigued me about this thread was that it had to do with the Jewish part of Lisa Kudrow's past. Being Jewish myself, I am very interested in this reality. In any event, of all of the movies and series that I have ever seen her in, I only remember one in which her character was supposed to be Jewish and whose existance as a Jew was an inportant part of the story. The movie that I am thinking of is "Marci X". Are any of you familiar with this movie. Right before I started responding to this thread, I started my own thread that dealt with the fact that is was my favorite movie of all-times! I would be very interested in what any of you guys think of this thread! "The Power in my Purse" will probably live in my mind and my heart for the rest of my natural life!

Wow - I never knew all that stuff about Lisa's history. At least she was reunited with her long-lost relative - how awesome is that?? :cool:

Wow - I never knew all that stuff about Lisa's history. At least she was reunited with her long-lost relative - how awesome is that?? :cool:

I am very happy that you got to learn all of these interesting facts about Lisa Kudrow! However, one thing that I would be very interesting in knowing is whether or not you knew any of the facts that I mentioned about "Marci X" in general or Lisa's part in it in particular! Did you ever see this movie? If you have an appreciation for Jewish related movies or if you are a music lover, than you will probably enjoy it.

No, never saw that movie, but maybe I should. I also never knew Lisa Kudrow was Jewish! I guess you really do learn something new every day.

It seems that in the post few days this site as a whole has been very unpopular. It could be that peoples' minds are preoccupied with such events as the recession, the issue with ABC and Cablevision or the tragic death of Marie Osmond's son. Who knows? In any event, I have been all over the board trying to stimulate some conversation. Just look at my last two efforts on this very page! Well, so far this sitting, I have worked my fingers to the bones posting messages on the pages of The Brady Bunch, Caroline in the City, Gimme a Break!, Happy Days and Mad About You! Because this thread is about one of the few topics that there seems to be some interest in, I have decided to bring it to the top. Let us see what happens next!