Senator George Allen is on the hotseat again:
Virginia Sen. George Allen (R) said for the first time publicly yesterday that he has Jewish ancestry, a day after responding angrily to an exchange that included questions about his mother’s racial sensitivity and whether his family has Jewish roots.
At a campaign debate with Democratic challenger James Webb on Monday, a reporter asked Allen whether his mother’s father, Felix Lumbroso, was Jewish. He became visibly upset, saying his mother’s religion was not relevant to the campaign and chiding the reporter for “making aspersions about people because of their religious beliefs.”
Allen’s campaign manager said the senator believed the question was hostile because it followed another one about whether Allen had learned the word “macaca” from his mother. The word, which Allen used last month to describe a Webb volunteer, is a French slur for a dark-skinned person. Allen’s mother, Henrietta “Etty” Allen, is a native of Tunisia and speaks French.
I’m just gonna step right around the macaca controversy and go right to what’s bothering me: why do people care, one way or another, about Jewish ancestry? How can that possibly indicate anything of value, to voters generally, or to George Allen personally? If Allen does have a problem with his grandparents’ religion (and I don’t know that he does, frankly), why would that be? Why would anybody have a problem with that?
I have never, ever, understood this.
Then there’s this WaPo article, which says:
Yes, let’s [move on] — but not before we figure out what that was all about. Turns out the Forward, a Jewish newspaper, reported that the senator’s mother, Etty, “comes from the august Sephardic Jewish Lumbroso family” and continued: “If both of Etty’s parents were born Jewish — which, given her age and background, is likely — Senator Allen would be considered Jewish in the eyes of traditional rabbinic law, which traces Judaism through the mother.”
If that’s true, the Presbyterian Allen joins public figures Madeleine Albright and John Kerry in discovering his Jewish roots. Of the three, the 6-foot-4-inch Allen, a down-home former college quarterback known for opposing laws to keep children out of the back of pickups, seems the least likely candidate for inclusion among the Chosen People. It would be no more surprising to learn that Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) has Southern Baptist ancestry.
This article also leaves me scratching my head. Who would then be the most likely candidate for “inclusion among the Chosen People”? And on what basis?
What is it about Judaism that provokes people so?
The whole thing, from both sides of this latest kerfluffle, looks exceedingly strange to me.
Uhhhhh, my boss is a Jewish carpenter. Does that count?
Since Allen has associated himself with the CCC, a group that espouses “racial integrity,” he is thought of as a bit of a Klansman. He’s probably just shining them on, but the association with this group makes his Jewishness an issue, as it would also be an issue if his mother was black and he’s in this racial integrity group. It’s the same level of hypocrisy that is displayed when a politician is secretly gay and supports anti-gay groups in public. Some people believe he is an anti-semite, so if he is Jewish it’s kind of disturbing if he’s an anti-semite.
As for the Washington Post quote, that is truly in poor taste. What they are basically saying is he doesn’t look Jewish. I wonder if the writer is Jewish, that’s the only way I can see that getting printed. I wish they had thought about that a little longer. Trying to pick out who is Jewish based on their looks is ignorant, tacky and unreliable, no matter who is doing it.
db – thanks for understanding that I seriously have a blind spot here.
You said:
That’s actually right at the heart of my problem. Judaism is a religion, is it not? Rather than an ethnic or racial designation?
Errrrrrr, actually yes and no Polimom.
Of late, we “outsiders” have tried to divide Jew, Hebrew, Judaism. But it’s not that simple.
Understand, this is a People who have endured much for thousands of years and have great family ties. To many “outsiders” a Jew = Hebrew and Hebrew = Judaism, then Jew = Judaism. That’s not right.
While some interchange Hebrew for Jew, it is actually a Semitic language. So when someone says they know a Hebrew, they are probably speaking of a Jew who speaks Hebrew and is of the Judaism faith. Being Jewish is not a religion; it’s part of the person like a race. The connection race is carried by the woman’s offspring because, to put it bluntly “mommy’s baby, daddy’s maybe?”! Judaism is a religion; one that in these days, to which you can convert.
But if you are Jewish, your mother or grandmother a Jew, you can be whatever religion you want but you remain a Jew. To quote, “This, they cannot take from you.” Now if your father is a Jew and your mother is not, you are not a traditional Jew but like any one else can be brought up or converted to Judaism. Clear as mud, eh?
Allen, no matter his religion, will ALWAYS be a Jew. Something of which I think he should be proud but can understand that there are some ignorant fools out there who believe it’s something of which he should be ashamed. And his opponent is attempting to use the fact against him.
For Christians – I proudly say my Savior was a practicing Jew. He had to be or he could not be The Christ. Real Jews have a special relationship with Jehovah (aka Yahweh; the Ho Theos of the Bible ; the Unnamed One) God. They are His Chosen People and “this, they cannot take from” Jews. The rest is a very long story but I hope I helped.
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Well I went to two places to find out what the CCC was. I found the cofcc.org website as I’d never heard of it, I read a bit and one called thenation.com which I don’t think I’ve heard of before, so I read a bit there. I found them to be the same. Both seem to preach bigotry and hate, one from one side, the other from the other.
The terms “pot and kettle” come to mind as well as another phrase I don’t use in mixed crowds and I surely don’t want messing up Polimom’s Blog.