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Asked about his favourite Yiddish words, he said: “Oh my God, there are so many: classic ones like schlep, schmuck, nebbish. Davka is a really good one.”
He added: “That’s the weird thing about some Yiddish words—I’ll Google them and the meaning has changed over time. Davka means out of spite—but I don’t know if that’s necessarily the official definition.
"There are many Yiddish words where I don’t know how to say them in English, but they’re perfect for summing up exactly how you feel.”
Sivan was born in South Africa but moved to Australia aged two. He was raised in an Orthodox Jewish family.
His father is of Lithuanian-Jewish descent and his mother converted to Judaism whilst his grandmother fled antisemitism in Eastern Europe.
The 28-year-old said he was “initially” unsure about his Jewish identity after coming out and explained: “Considering I’m not very religious and I’m queer, my Jewish identity was something I grappled with and was unsure about.
Troye Sivan (Photo: Getty)
“I liked the idea of reclaiming it and proudly saying, even to other Jewish people, ‘I’m queer and I’m also a Jew — and these are things that are both equally important in the makeup of who I am.'”
Sivan, who recently released new chart-topping single Rush, went on to say: "I’m not particularly religious; I kind of tapped out after my bar mitzvah. But culturally, it’s a huge part of who I am.
“I’ve always said, I don’t care if we don’t say the prayer necessarily, but doing Shabbat dinner is important to me. I did it every single Friday night growing up.
“That’s the kind of stuff that makes up my fondest childhood memories.”
Sivan said his new product range also includes a dreidel, priced at £908, which is currently sold out.
Troye Sivan's thousand-pound dreidel (Tsu Lange Yor)
He explained: “I took something like a dreidel, which speaks to my Jewish identity and where my family comes from, and had the opportunity to collaborate with an Australian artist on it to make it chic in a way that feels very queer to me.”
Pressed if he has any further plans to create other forms of Judaica, he added: “It was important to have an object off the bat that felt a little bit eccentric and indulgent and also spoke to the brand’s Jewish identity and my Jewish identity.
“But I don’t know that it’s necessarily going to be an ongoing theme. I mean, if Jewish people all around the world are like, “Troye, make a mezuzah case,” maybe I will.”
