Koko

Born in San Francisco, Koko spent her life as the primary subject of a lengthy experiment by Francine Patterson, who taught her a modified version of American Sign Language. Koko's vocabulary eventually grew to over 1,000 signs, allowing her to express complex thoughts, emotions, and even crack a joke or two.

While Koko showed remarkable intelligence and an ability to form deep bonds with her human caregivers, her Jewish identity remained, shall we say, undeveloped. There's no record of her observing Shabbat, celebrating Passover, or expressing any particular affinity for gefilte fish.

However, her ability to communicate across species barriers did bring a certain nachas to the scientific community, and indeed to humanity as a whole. And let's be honest, getting a gorilla to sign