In a recent interview with Emily Chang for Bloomberg’s “The Circuit,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed the meaning of a certain golden chain that he has been wearing since at least June.
The entrepreneur said that he created the necklace with a jewelry designer and that it has the “Mi Sheberach” prayer — the Jewish prayer for healing. It’s a prayer, he told Chang, that he sings to his daughters every night, to the beautiful tune of Debbie Friedman and the lyrics of Rabbi Drorah Setel.
Zuckerberg and his three sisters, Randi, Arielle and Donna, were raised in a Reform Jewish household in Dobbs Ferry, New York, and most likely heard the song a lot growing up. (Also, in case you haven’t guessed it — he did have a Star Wars-themed bar mitzvah at Temple Beth Abraham in Tarrytown.)
But back to the necklace: Every night as Zuckerberg puts his three girls, Maxima (who goes by Max), August and Aurelia, to bed, the tech maven sings them this “prayer for health and for courage.” He quoted to Chang a line that comes from Friedman’s verses, which reinterpret the original Hebrew text making it more accessible and some would say, more evocative, in which Friedman prays: “May we have the courage to make our lives a blessing.”
In the interview, Zuckerberg, 40, said he tries to be around for his children’s bedtime no matter what, unless he’s traveling, and that the nighttime ritual is “meaningful for me and my family.”
Zuckerberg was first spotted wearing this very specific chain in a Father’s Day post, in which he shared pictures from his father’s 70th birthday celebrations, and has been wearing it in most of his social media postings since then. He discussed the process of designing the accessory with Eva Chen, director of fashion partnerships at Instagram, back in April, saying that he had been going back and forth on the design and trying out all kinds of different materials and lengths, hoping to find a chain that would remain part of his signature look in the same way that boxy white and navy t-shirts and jeans became his trademark fashion early in his career — a sort of uniform that allowed him to be more economical with his time.
Zuckerberg went viral for wearing a chain earlier this year, and he’s really leaned into the aesthetic (which yes, makes me think of old school Jewish dads with their thick gold chain necklaces). Zuckerberg’s necklace is made of a thinner chain but the pendant feels just as prominent as a big Star of David or chai. While he was still designing it, Chen’s only feedback as a fashion maven was to try to make the chain a bit shorter — which the amateur designer (Zuckerberg has apparently also been designing his own shirts) seems to have taken to heart.
Judaism is a huge part of the Zuckerberg family’s life. The Facebook founder has been really leaning into his Jewish identity since becoming a father, posting pictures of his daughter with a kiddush cup and public apologies for Yom Kippur. In 2021, Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, donated over a million dollars to Jewish charities. The family has Shabbat dinner every week and celebrates Jewish holidays. Back in December of 2023, Zuckerberg posted a picture of their youngest daughter Aurelia’s first Hanukkah, writing that the holiday is “especially meaningful after Priscilla’s conversion to Judaism last year. The story of Hanukkah is about miracles. May light always overcome darkness.”
