Is there some sort of connection between Italians and Jews?

I happen to be both, and my husband likes to try and guess which actresses are Jewish when we’re watching stuff. It just seems that a lot of physical traits and personalities of Jewish and Italian women are really similar, and those two seem to be the only ones where we agree it could be one or the other.

So, because of this I’m guessing others may have wondered this too. Is there actually some sort of connection somewhere or do we just so happen to have a lot of similarities?