What race is paula abdul?
Abdul was born in San Francisco, California, to Harry Abdul, a former livestock trader and owner of a sand and gravel business, and Lorraine Rykiss, a concert pianist who once worked as film director Billy Wilder’s assistant. Her father is a Syrian Jew who was born in Syria, raised in Brazil, and subsequently immigrated to the U.S. Abdul’s mother, Lorraine Rykiss, is also Jewish and originally from Saint Boniface, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.