Bruce Springsteen Says He's Long Been Mistaken as Jewish — and Was Called 'Springstein' as Recently as a 'Month Ago'

Mar. 15, 2025

Bruce Springsteen performs at the USC Shoah Foundation gala on Oct. 13, 2024 in New York City.Photo:Noam Galai/Getty

Noam Galai/Getty

Bruce Springsteenwas raised Catholic – but that hasn’t stopped people from mistakenly giving his last name a Jewish twist.

The Boss, 75, performed at the USC Shoah Foundation 30th Anniversary Ambassadors for Humanity gala on Sunday, Oct. 13, and joked to the crowd that promoters will still sometimes misspell his last name as “Springstein,” with “stein” being a common ending for many Jewish surnames.

“I actually was Bruce Springstein for the first year or two of my career. Everywhere I went — I pull up to the club. ‘Welcome Bruce Springstein,’” the star told the audience. “This happened as late as a month ago. I’m not joking.”

Bruce Springsteen performing in Asbury Park, New Jersey in September 2024.Taylor Hill/Getty

Taylor Hill/Getty

“The work of collecting the personal testimony and the voices of those who’ve witnessed history has just something in common with the work that songwriters, filmmakers, all artists do to understand and to create our real and imagined worlds,” he said. “We follow the ghosts of history. We listen for the voices of the past to take us into the future, and we lean into their stories and we listen to them.”

In 1999,Adam Sandlerpoked fun at Springsteen’s heritage in “The Chanukah Song, Pt. 2,” singing, “Bruce Springsteen isn’t Jewish, but my mother thinks he is.”

More than 60 Holocaust survivors attended the gala, which took place at the New York Hilton Midtown. Other star attendees includedMeryl Streep, who gave opening remarks,Whoopi Goldberg,Drew Barrymoreand more.

Springsteen dedicated his performance to Spielberg and the director’s wifeKate Capshaw, noting that his songs were for them and “everybody who have nourished the Shoah foundation over these past 30 years.”

source: people.com