(AP/Craig Ruttle)
Roseanne Barr

“I have an opportunity to go to Israel for a few months and study with my favorite teachers over there,” Barr said. 

By: United with Israel Staff

Star comedian Roseanne Barr has announced she is moving to Israel, where she will study Judaism.

Speaking on Sunday on a new podcast with Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, Barr said “I have an opportunity to go to Israel for a few months and study with my favourite teachers over there, and that’s where I’m going to go and probably move somewhere there and study with my favourite teachers.”

“I have saved a few pennies and I’m so lucky I can go … and study with any rabbi that I can ask to teach me, and it’s my great joy and privilege to be a Jewish woman,” she declared.

Barr has previously said that she would like to make Aliyah and move to Israel, and possibly even run for the premiership.

“I want to move to Israel and run for prime minister. I do have that fantasy. If God calls me, I’ll go,” the Jewish actress and Emmy Award-winning writer-producer said at The Jerusalem Post conference in April.

“I want to make Aliyah, I do, and before all the stuff is sold – all the real estate,” she said. “I still have this fantasy of being an old Jewish lady living in the Jewish homeland… I want to buy a farm there and maybe bring my family.”

Barr, a fierce critic of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, was asked about Natalie Portman’s recent boycott of an event in Israel over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s appearance.

“I asked a lot of Israeli friends what they thought, and they said, ‘Oh I wish she would have said it in Israel.’ Israel is a country where dissent is allowed,” Barr said, adding that she felt Portman’s decision played into the hands of BDS activists.

“I happen to think that Judaism is the way,” Barr stated.  As for Portman, “I would make her a lovely meal, and then I would talk to her about Jewish history and Torah.”