feature
Meet the Real-Life Sister Act Behind the
A Jackie Hajdenberg | JTA
s children in upstate New York, twin sisters Julia
DeVillers and Jennifer Roy went to Hebrew
school three days a week, spent their summers
at a JCC summer camp and got to know local Holocaust
survivors through their father, who survived the Nazis as a
child in Poland. They also celebrated Christmas with their
mother’s family.

Aware of their dual religious and cultural backgrounds
from a young age, DeVillers and Roy personally sent their
public elementary school principal a letter asking to place
a menorah next to the school Christmas tree. The girls
gathered a couple of the other Jewish students together to
present the letter to the principal, to resounding success:
A real menorah was added to the school’s holiday display.

It was something straight out of an American Girl story.

And as of this week, in a sense, it is one.

Last week, American Girl released its fi rst twin dolls,
Isabel and Nicki Hoff man, who are also the fi rst characters
from an interfaith family. Their stories take place in the late
1990s and were written by DeVillers and Roy, inspired by
the sisters’ own childhood experiences. The twin dolls’
parents are, respectively, Jewish and Christian, and their
mother, Robin, is named after the authors’ mother.

“It’s incredibly special to us that the twins bring this
Jewish and interfaith representation that so many kids will
relate to,” DeVillers said.

Roy added, “People are not necessarily one thing or
another these days. And while we are Jewish, we did grow
up with both holidays and both cultures in our family. And
that’s how we wanted our characters to be and to feel.”
The dolls are a milestone in how the lived experience of
many American Jews is refl ected in popular culture. Recent
surveys of Jewish Americans consistently note high rates
of interfaith marriage, and show that a signifi cant portion
Above: Isabel and Nicki Hoff man are the two newest American Girl dolls in the historical collection.

18 MARCH 2, 2023 | JEWISH EXPONENT
Dolls: Jackie Hajdenberg via JTA; Book: Photo courtesy of American Girl. Design by Jackie Hajdenberg, via JTA; Authors: Courtesy of American Girl via JTA
Two New ’90s Jewish
American Girl Dolls