According to Marcia Alesan Dawkins, visiting scholar in Ethnic Studies from Brown University and columnist for the Huffington Post,... "[Gwyneth] Paltrow may be making a statement that’s more about spiritual and cultural uplift and less about religious commitment or intensity.”

Dawkins challenges the notion that [Paltrow’s decision to raise her kids as Jews] is just another headline in celebrity gossip... “Coverage of Paltrow’s announcement generally shares one important quality: confusion over what Jewish identity is and means. Is it a matter of ancestry or a religion? Is it an ethnicity or nationality? Is it a culture or a parenting-decision? Is it a physical phenomenon like circumcision? Or is it an aura that can be manufactured and sold in popular culture?... While a glamorous Hollywood star’s religiosity may seem like soft news, these questions get at the heart of some of the most important issues of our time.”