Natalie Portman Early life

Natalie Portman was born as Natalie Hershlag (Hebrew: נטלי הרשלג‎) in Jerusalem, Israel. Portman's father is name Avner Hershlag, he is an Israeli doctor specializing in fertility and reproduction (reproductive endocrinology). Potman's mother is Shelley Stevens, Her Mother is an American homemaker who now works as her agent. Natalie's maternal ancestors were Jews from Austria and Russia and her paternal ancestors were Jews who immigrated to Israel from Poland and Romania. Her paternal grandfather's parents died in Auschwitz and her Romanian-born great-grandmother was a spy for the British during World War II.

Natalie Portman's parents met at a Jewish student center at Ohio State University where her mother was selling tickets. Natalie's father returned to Israel, but the two corresponded and were married when her mother visited Israel a few years later. Then, in 1984, when she was 3 years old, the family moved from Israel to the United States, where Natalie's father pursued his medical training. The family first lived in Washington, D.C., where PoRTMan attended Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School, but relocated to Connecticut in 1988, and then settled permanently in Long Island, New York, in 1990. She has said that although she "really love[s] the States... my heart's in Jerusalem. That's where I feel at home." Portman is an only child and very close to her parents, who are often seen with her at Natalie Portman's film premieres.