One Direction star and perennial heartbreaker Harry Styles has been ranked 73rd in The Jewish Chronicle’s list of the 100 most influential figures shaping Jewish life in the U.K., ahead of 27 fully-fledged MOTs—including rabbis, philanthropists, and community leaders. Before you work yourself into a frenzy worthy of this hysterical mob, let’s make one thing clear: Styles isn’t Jewish. The Chronicle is aware of this, but decided to honor the singer anyway. “The One Direction star may not be Jewish,” they explain, “but he seems very much at ease with a Jewish lifestyle.”

Styles does appear to be pretty keen on the Jews, an affinity that many have attributed to the pop star’s friendship with Ben Winston, a Jewish music video director. Styles fasted on Yom Kippur, wore a Star of David necklace to last year’s Teen Choice Awards, and had his sister’s name tattooed on his arm in Hebrew lettering. As it turns out, Styles also looks pretty good in a kippah. According to the Chronicle, “millions of British teens have become familiar with Purim, Pesach, and schepping nachas,” thanks to Styles’ enthusiastic tweets about all things Jewish.

While tattoos, necklaces, and kippahs do not a Jew make, I for one am happy to see honorary tribal membership bestowed on anyone who publicly proclaims their love for “shmorreh matzah.” And now that Styles has been welcomed into the Jewish fold, Rolling Stone reports that the pop star has buried the hatchet with ex Taylor Swift. All is right in the world.

Brigit Katz is a graduate student at NYU’s Journalism Institute, and an intern at Tablet Magazine. You can find her on Twitter at @brigitkatz. 

Related: One Direction’s Harry Styles Isn’t Jewish

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The renowned British actor-comedian-author Stephen Fry has spoken to the UK’s Jewish News of his pride in his gay, Jewish, secular identity.

“I’m as proud of being Jewish as I am as proud of being gay,” he told the newspaper’s new LGBT section on Monday. “And just as I don’t go to shul, I don’t go to gay clubs. The identity can never be taken away from me… for Jews not to celebrate gays within their own community would be a schande, it seems to me, a shame and a disgrace.”

Fry, who rose to fame as one half of the sketch comedy duo Fry and Laurie, was born to a Jewish mother, but raised in a secular environment. For many years he has been one of Britain’s most popular (and controversial) multi-hyphenate intellectuals, and the host of the BBC comedy quiz show QI. In 2006, he appeared in an episode of the genealogy documentary series “Who Do You Think You Are?” in which he traced his the fate of his great-grandparents and extended family from Hungary to Auschwitz. His maternal grandparents emigrated to Britain in 1927, sparing one branch of the family.

When asked by a Twitter follower why he would want to belong to a religion which disapproves of homosexuality, Fry responded thusly:

@JulianStorey @JewishNewsUK Being Jewish is not a matter of religion: I’m a Jew, but don’t follow judaism.

— Stephen Fry (@stephenfry) June 24, 2014

And there you have it: Stephen Fry, proud gay Jew.

Related: In the Story of Queen Esther, Echoes of My Own Coming Out

Image: s_bukley / Shutterstock

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