From Superstar Actress to Super Jew

Sarah Mintz, aka Maritza Rodríguez Gómez, is a Colombian actress and household name amongst Spanish-speakers in the US and Latin America. The former Catholic converted to Judaism and today lives in Israel as an Orthodox Jew with her husband and twin boys.

For over two decades she led a successful career as a television host, actress, model, and a fixture on the red carpets and magazines. But while walking the red carpet and flashing a smile for the cameras, in her heart she was thinking, “Did I come into this world just to do soap operas and strike poses? There has to be more.”

Sarah was born in 1975 to a devout Catholic family. She attended church every Sunday with her family and was told to pray to the statues of Jesus placed throughout the sanctuary. Sarah often wondered: “Why do I have to pray to them? Why can’t I have a direct relationship to God?”

She also wondered why one can only connect with God while in church, once a week. Shouldn’t a relationship with God be constant?

Sarah was never chastised for her curiosity. In fact, her mother urged Sarah to always be authentic and have the courage to be truthful. Her mother also taught her that transformation is always possible. She would say, “We are reborn every day and you can transform yourself to be the best you.” Her parents’ dedication to Catholicism set the stage for her eventual, greatest transformation—becoming a Jew.

As an aspiring actress, Sarah landed her first gig as an MC, which led to small television roles. Over time her repertoire grew and she eventually became a leading actress in Colombia. She worked for Telemundo (part of NBCUniversal), where she had an exclusive contract. Today, she is considered one of the most iconic villains in Spanish-language television.

By the time Sarah was 26, she had established an international career, which required intense travel. By 2001, she was feeling overworked and needed a vacation. One of her best friends, Marcela Pezet, a fellow actress, was acting in a soap opera in Los Angeles and invited Sarah to join her in LA while she filmed.

Once in LA Marcela urged her to go with her to the studio. She joked, “You want me to go to a studio? I’m on vacation!” She reluctantly complied, despite wanting to tour the city of LA instead. While Marcela prepped in her dressing room, Sarah explored the studio. “Suddenly, in front of my eyes I saw a marvelous guy.”

The star of a popular Spanish soap opera

He asked, “Oh, hey there. Who are you? What are you doing here?”

Smitten, she told him she was a friend of Marcela’s. He introduced himself as Joshua Mintz.

Sarah excitedly ran back to her friend’s dressing room and told her, “I know this sounds crazy, but I think I just met my future husband and father of my children.” That moment, they heard a knock on her dressing room door.

Joshua stood there stammering, “Oh… Hi! I…was checking to see if everything was okay.” He stayed briefly, and then left.

Joshua later confided that he had knocked on Marcela’s door to find out more about the beautiful blonde, Sarah.

It was love at first sight and divine intervention that began their relationship. Joshua was working as an Executive Producer in Mexico and was just in LA by chance. The TV show Marcela acted in had fired the original producer, and Joshua replaced him. It was his first time in LA, and he was only there for that specific project.

Sarah and Joshua were opposites. Sarah was loud, fiery, seductive, and was the life of the party. Joshua was reserved, serious, and professional. Sarah was Catholic and Joshua was Jewish, but that didn’t matter to them. Joshua was so far removed from Judaism, even though he always remained a Zionist, the fact that she wasn’t Jewish never interfered or came up as a topic of conversation in their relationship.

Until it was time to get married.

After Joshua proposed, Sarah said, “I envision getting married in a Catholic Church, wearing a beautiful white dress.”

He paused and said, “I’m sorry, I can’t do that because I’m Jewish.”

Stunned by his response, she said, “Okay, then why don’t we get married according to your religion in your synagogue?

“No, we can’t get married in a synagogue because you have to be Jewish.”

They decided to have a civil wedding because Sarah didn’t want to incorporate both Judaism and Catholicism under one roof. She wanted to be respectful and authentically follow one religion or another, not a convenient combination of both. “I didn’t want to make a mockery or have a circus at my wedding.”

They got married in 2005 and lived in Miami. Sarah began taking English courses at night with a professor. He noticed that she was very spiritual and suggested that she go to the Kabbalah Center in order to learn English and spirituality simultaneously. Even though she was interested, she felt her English wasn’t sufficient to understand the courses offered and didn’t go.

One day, Sarah and Joshua took a walk after a hurricane had passed through Florida. They saw a piece of paper lying on the sidewalk. It was a flier that offered Kabbalah classes in Spanish. Sarah thought it was a sign from God. She attended her first class and was thirsting for more. She felt restless and unsettled but wasn’t sure where the feeling was coming from. “Something was changing within me, but I didn’t know what.”

Sarah and Joshua Mintz

Sarah had a thriving and successful career at that point. She had an exclusive contract as one of the main actresses with Telemundo. Her face was all over billboards and advertisements. She attended award shows and walked all the red carpets. She loved her career, but still felt something was missing. Jewish mysticism fed her spiritual side. Without ever mentioning the word ‘Judaism,’ they introduced her to Torah, Shabbat, and the concept of family purity.

“When I found myself reading the Torah I thought, this is it. This is what I was looking for. I had such a wonderful life story, but I finally found what I was looking for. It’s not like I was looking for a big change. Judaism was simply the change my heart was looking for.”

Sarah started to keep Shabbat and all holidays, even though she was not yet Jewish. She stopped shooting on Friday evenings and Saturdays and would make excuses as to why she couldn’t be there. Before signing new contracts, she would explain that she was not available on Saturdays. She began to dress more modestly and started keeping portions of the laws of family purity. The Kabbalah Center had a class called “Sex and Kabbalah,” which was about family purity. Sarah said she started to live this way without even knowing it was Judaism.

She was making small changes and was enjoying the learning at the Kabbalah Center, but at a certain point, she felt she needed more. She began to take classes with an Orthodox Rabbi, but her husband felt this was too extreme and asked her to change course.

As a compromise, she started to learn with a Conservative Rabbi in 2014. At that time, she was expecting twins, and the Rabbi explained that if she wanted the children to be born Jewish, she needed to convert before giving birth. She undertook a quick conversion, and she and Joshua remarried in a Conservative ceremony before giving birth to twin boys, Akiva and Yehuda.

At that point, Joshua was offered a new position for a TV Network in Mexico called TV Azteca. This was the opportunity of a lifetime, and their family moved to Mexico. Sarah began looking into Jewish schools for the children and was again introduced to another Orthodox Rabbi. She was drawn to his classes and this time she shared what she was learning with Joshua. The more she learned, the more she shared with her husband, who found the concepts intriguing and meaningful. Sarah wanted to begin incorporating Jewish practices in her life and no longer wanted to be kissing other men as an actress.

Joshua realized how happy Judaism was making his wife, so he got onboard. With Sarah leading the way, together they decided that Sarah would convert as an Orthodox Jew. She traveled to Jerusalem in 2016 and completed her conversion that year. With a new religious identity, she decided to change her name from Maritza to Sarah.

“Since I was a young girl, I never liked the name Maritza that my mom gave me.” She prayed that God would help her find the right Jewish name for herself.

While visiting Jerusalem, she connected to the name Sarah when praying by the grave of Sarah the Matriarch at the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, but didn’t want to have a difficult life like she did, with trouble bearing children, among her other challenges. So she pointedly ignored the fact that she was drawn towards the name.

When she went back to work at the Telemundo studio, she got several texts from someone asking to speak with Sarah. She called the guy to tell him he had the wrong number. “I think you are texting the wrong person,” she told him. “I’m Maritza.”

He responded, “Are you sure you are not Sarah?”

That moment gave her goose bumps and she knew her name had to be Sarah.

Remarried in Israel after Sarah’s Orthodox conversion

The first person who started using her new name was her mother, Eva, who accepted and supported her conversion wholeheartedly.

Even though Sarah now lives happily as a full-fledged Jew in Jerusalem, it is not always easy to balance her career, home life, and Jewish commitment. She said, “It is easier to make a decision than to maintain it.”

Today, Sarah still acts, but is selective in what she agrees to film. She is currently part of a successful reality show that portrays the six most iconic villains of Latin American television in a show called, Secrets of the Villains. The six “villains” spend a week together with no kids or family in various mansions around the globe. On the show they get to be their real selves and are no longer acting as villains. They share their secrets and reveal things that happen in their lives. It’s all authentic, and there are no scripts. Sarah was allowed to be herself and show the world who she is now and all of the beautiful aspects of Judaism.

Barbara Hidalgo, production manager shared, “Sarah inspired me, and inspires so many people. We are not even Jewish. She teaches me things about respect to others, to your husband, to God. So many things make a lot of sense that I never, never thought about before. We must respect her Shabbat. When Sarah goes anywhere, she’s like a light walking. She is always so wise and sweet and so able to connect with people. She really touches our hearts. Even people who don’t know her love and respect her a lot.”

Sarah is the only actress on the show who is still married today. Most of the actresses in the industry are divorced or single. It’s very hard to have a healthy family with such a career. Her priority has always been her family. She knew she wanted to have a successful career, but realized when she got married that her husband and kids were going to come first.

In addition to acting, Sarah is also a fashion and lifestyle influencer, boasting two million social media followers. She uses her platform to teach others about Judaism and is also a spiritual coach.

Sarah has been able to successfully integrate all parts of herself and is able to lead a full, inspirational life. “I’m working with a Chassidic channel. We are working on Chassidic stories, acting out a narrative that feeds the soul with Jewish stories. I’m also a teacher at a Jewish seminary in Spanish, where women study Torah and girls also study for conversion. I’m also a life coach, and I work a lot with the Minister of the Diaspora to connect Judaism with different communities. I love to study and learn, to inspire my family…including my husband, who has grown so much. I am very happy to have completed my dream, and to have an impact on society, not only for the Jews, but also to the non-Jewish public to inspire people to have a genuine connection with God. To be an influencer is to be a positive role model.”

When asked how she felt about living in Israel during the recent war between Israel and Hamas, she said, “I wasn’t scared. The first thing I said to myself was, ‘This is the best place to be. I’m in God’s hands.’ And that’s how I have felt from the moment I stepped foot in Israel.”

Sarah has some words of encouragement for people around the world who are currently fearing for safety, given their Jewish-born status. “We must recognize the jewels that we are. God loves us so much and has given us the task to do good in this world. We have to know that we are so small and yet we are protected by the Infinite God. With faith and trust, we can build a beautiful life with whatever God brings our way. Our greatest weapon is our connection to God.”