And Belarus (AKA White Russia), was home to a very large Jewish populationmy fathe5b4r's grandparents emigrated from right outside Minsk (today's capital of the independent nation of Belarus, then part of Tzarist Russia) to London, and later to NYC. Very common migration route, actually. Yes, Miriam Margolyes is Jewish, and she keeps on getting cast in Jewish roles.

her family are from belarus apparantly
OOOOH MATRON!

An article regarding her name (and its manifold spellings)..which, as I said means "pearl" in Hebrew.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margolioth
And, in a sense I was wrong about Julianna Marguliesthe beautiful Julianna also has essentially the same name and also comes from a Jewish background, but her parents converted to Catholicism and raised her as Catholic, according to this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julianna_Margulies

She's Jewish from England, as if the name wasn't enough of a clue. (but I guess people who aren't Jewish might not be sensitive to that). Margolyes, Margolis, Margalit,Margulies(as in Julianna Marguliesalso Jewish) (and other variations on the namemeaning 'pearl' in Hebrew)is a common Jewish surname. Jews and Italians often are said to resemble each other and Jewish actors often get cast as Italians and people of Italian ancsestry have often played Jews. Miriam Margolyes also seems to get almost every role that calls for a Jewish character with a British accent.