Elizabeth Taylor, one of the all-time great screen actresses and stars, who famously converted to Judaism more than 50 years ago, died March 23 at 79.
Taylor, who was a star from the age of 12, appeared in more than 50 films, and won Academy Awards for "Butterfield 8" in 1960 and "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" in 1966.
In her 1988 memoir, “Elizabeth Takes Off,” Taylor wrote about her conversion to Judaism, saying it “had absolutely nothing to do with my past marriage to Mike [Todd] or my upcoming marriage to Eddie Fisher, both of whom were Jewish. It was something I had wanted to do for a long time.”
A 2010 article on the blog Hollywood Jew  talked about Taylor’s “defiant Jewish spirit.”
Time wrote about the conversion in 1959. Taylor’s Hebrew name was Elisheba Rachel, Elisheba being a Hebrew version of Elizabeth and Rachel being “her own favorite biblical heroine.”

source: The Global News Service of the Jewish People