Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Israel News

Natalie Portman’s Latest Cause

Hollywood starlet Natalie Portman is currently filming a special clip in support of a youth village being planned in Rwanda. The Israeli American actress is taking part in an effort, spearheaded by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and financed by American Jewish donors, to create a safe place for some 500 children-turned-refugees from the 1994 Rwandan genocide. The early Israeli villages built for children orphaned in the Holocaust inspired the concept.

Portman, who was recently named Maxim magazine’s sexiest vegetarian, will screen her film on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” to publicize this effort.

So far, plans for the housing project have been shrouded in secrecy. It has been revealed by Haaretz that Portman was recently in Africa, but she is remaining tight lipped about the youth village and is not allowing any photos to be taken of her in Africa until after the film has aired.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.