CELEBRITY ROOTS

8 Things You Didn’t Know about Jon Stewart’s Roots

Ancestors from Ukraine to China Arrived 1893 to 1940

Jon Stewart and his great-granduncle

Until a few years ago, Jon Stewart came into our living rooms four nights a week to both educate and entertain us. Now he uses his celebrity sparingly to support select causes such as keeping our commitments to and 9/11 first responders, but otherwise keeps a low profile. He didn’t, for instance, join Twitter until January of 2021. So he remains something of an enigma to most.

As a genealogist, I was curious about the ancestors who produced a descendant of such intellect and principle, so here’s a bit of information about his heritage — including an unexpected Mongolian and Chinese connection.

• Among the names scattered in Stewart’s family tree are Engel, Gewirtz, Hanin, Karlinksy, Kleinberg, Laskin, Leibowitz, Markontch, Rosenfeld and Pitkowski, so if any of these adorn your tree as well, you could be cousins.
• Whether we know it or not, our roots definitely claim us. Just as Bruno Mars resembles his grandfather, I would say that Jon Stewart bears more than a passing resemblance to this “chicken-breasted” great-granduncle of his (see photo at top). I had never encountered the term “chicken-breasted” before (“having a chest deformity marked by a…