The Senator's Gentile Rebuke (Sen. Allen Angry at Reporter's Question about Jewish Ancestry)

First came Sen. George Allen's Macaca Moment. Then we learned of challenger Jim Webb's thoughts on the "horny" women of the Naval Academy.

Now, just when you thought Virginia's U.S. Senate race couldn't get any weirder, the Jews of Tunis are making a cameo.

At a debate in Tysons Corner yesterday between Republican Allen and Democrat Webb, WUSA-TV's Peggy Fox asked Allen, the tobacco-chewing, cowboy-boot-wearing son of a pro football coach, if his Tunisian-born mother has Jewish blood.

"It has been reported," said Fox, that "your grandfather Felix, whom you were given your middle name for, was Jewish. Could you please tell us whether your forebears include Jews and, if so, at which point Jewish identity might have ended?"

Allen recoiled as if he had been struck. His supporters in the audience booed and hissed. "To be getting into what religion my mother is, I don't think is relevant," Allen said, furiously. "Why is that relevant -- my religion, Jim's religion or the religious beliefs of anyone out there?"

"Oh, that's just all? That's just all," the senator mocked, pressing his attack. He directed Fox to "ask questions about issues that really matter to people here in Virginia" and refrain from "making aspersions."

Yes, let's -- 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."

A yes/no question was not asked. The reporter asked "When did you stop being a Jew?" What was Allen to say? "My family is not Jewish" - He is painted by people like you as a bigot *or* "My family is Jewish" - He was ashamed of his Jewish heritage and kept it secret - again he is painted as a bigot.

Yes, that is exactly what a successful politician is supposed to say.

A successful politician, even if the question was a deliberate baiting, would have treated the question as a a straight forward genealogical inquiry and elaborated about whether his mother was Jewish or not or when she decide to become Baptist or Catholic or atheist or whatever just as calmly as he would have treated the subject of any Civil War ancestors by saying that Great-Great-Grandpa Smith served under Stonewall Jackson and ended up chasing Great-Great-Grandpa Schmidt who was with Hooker's Union forces during the Battle of Chancellorsville.

See Post 161 by CharlesWayneCT that explains the exchange in greater detail.

I live on the Pacific coast and I have no special interest in the rise or fall of any particular politician in Virginia. Allen is just another unknown politicians to me.

The first time I hear about some guy named Allen is that he loses his composure while answering a reporter's question and that he does it in such a way that it allows the Washington Post to print:

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" 'It has been reported,' said Fox, that "your grandfather Felix, whom you were given your middle name for, was Jewish. Could you please tell us whether your forebears include Jews and, if so, at which point Jewish identity might have ended?" Allen recoiled as if he had been struck. His supporters in the audience booed and hissed. "To be getting into what religion my mother is, I don't think is relevant," Allen said, furiously. "Why is that relevant -- my religion, Jim's religion or the religious beliefs of anyone out there?" .......... He directed Fox to "ask questions about issues that really matter to people here in Virginia" and refrain from 'making aspersions.' "

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Why get angry at any question that his grandfather had Jewish blood?

Other than in Old New Englanders and Old Charlestonians, what other Americans take a greater interest in genealogy than Old Virginians.

At least in in 21st Century America, being Jewish is nothing to be ashamed about and, even in the Old South, the Confederate States of America had the portrait of Judah P. Benjamin on the Confederate $2 bill.

By reacting the way he did, Allen stuck his foot in his mouth all the way up to his knee cap. For a politician, that is suicide as far as national political office is concerned.

If you are a politician running for office, it is not the job of CharlesWayneCT to have to go around getting the foot out of your mouth so that we who live west of the Mississippi are not left with the impression that the some politician from Virginia is a bigot at worst or fool that is easily baited at best.

It is the politician's job not to get his foot in his mouth in the first place.

THis morning we learned that his mother told him she was jewish last month, but begged him to keep it a secret.

Seems she lied about being jewish first so she could marry her husband, and then to protect the children from what her father went through (incarceration by the nazis).

Then she just was ashamed she was keeping a secret, but the "right time" never came to reveal it.

Now she's 83, reporters are prying into the story and finding things out, Allen still thought it was all a lie because his mother said it wasn't true.

She finally told him a few weeks ago, and begged him not to tell the rest of his family. She thought that they would all hate her for lying to them all these years.

THAT is why he was so upset, and answered the question the way he did -- he was trying to protect his mother's secret.

It failed, her secret is out, but on the other hand we now know that Allen was NOT ashamed of being jewish, we know why he just learned of it a month ago, and we know why he was so upset at the reporter.

Oh, His mother also cleared up the false charge that she taught Allen the "m-word". She said she had never heard it, and when it came up she looked it up in "her dictionary", and couldn't find it.

She couldn't come out and defend him, apparently, because she was afraid people would then ask her about her jewish background.

It turns out Allen could have saved his political bacon last month, by simply coming out with this story. It would have put m-gate to bed, changed the story to his jewish heritage and his grandfather's suffering, and proven he wasn't lying about it.

But he kept his mother's secret instead of going for political gain.

That is the story that will come out.

BTW, the Webb people have moved off this story like a hot rock, and now they are all upset that Dick Wadhams suggested their campaign has "anti-semitic overtones", to which they replied "hey, we are all jews over here".

You don't seem to understand simple reason. A yes or no question was not asked.

You are the only one saying anything about a "yes or no" question. In Post 183, right above your Post 184, I quoted the exact wording of the question you quoted and even refered to Post 161 by CharlesWayneCT that explained the exchange in greater detail.

You seem to think that the reporter was simnply asking if his family was of Jewish heritage... that is clearly not what happened.

As more information comes out (See Post 185 to you by CharlesWayneCT) that the reporter was trying to find out if Allen was deliberately hiding his Jewish heritage. She suspected that Allen might be ashamed a having a Jewish grandfather and wanted to try to get Allen to deny his own Jewish grandfather.

Such a denial would embarrass Allen with Jewish voters and Allen fell for the trick hook, line and sinker.

When Allen threw in the admonition to refrain from "making aspersions", ( in 21st Century America, being called Jewish is NOT considered an "aspersion" ) and then went on to talk about how he ate pork chops, he gutted and scaled himself and threw himself on the political frying pan.

The wording of this question was straight out of the Nuremburg Laws. "...whether your forebears include Jews and, if so, at which point Jewish identity might have ended?" I'm sorry but if somebody were to asked me that i would be more than a little "taken aback."

The trouble is that Allen over-reacted to the question as if it did matter if he had a Jewish grandfather.

A Jewish grandfather?!? Don't you throw that aspersion at me!! Look!! I eat pork chops!

Which brings up your next comment......

It's telling that you side with the reporter who is attempting to "sniff out a Jew."

"Sniff out a Jew"?

I have no idea what enviornment you grew up in but, where I grew up, if somebody wanted to know if you were Jewish, it most likely meant that they wanted to know if your mother had a good recipe for Matzah Ball Soup or Blintzes or if your grandmother lived in the same condo at North Miami Beach as their grandmother.

This is the first time I have ever come across the phrase "Sniff out a Jew".

If this is just an innocent question why should Allen HAVE TO PROVE WHETHER OR NOT HIS FAMILY IS NO LONGER JEWISH???

Who, except Allen himself with his "aspersion" comment and his pork chop comments, implied that Allen had to prove whether or not his family is now Jewish?

With further information, it turns out that it was not an innocent question at all. The reporter wanted to give Allen the opportunity to deny his own Jewish grandfather in public..............and Allen did so.

The implication that Jewish heritage is undesirable is disgusting

Exactly.

Which is why Allen seriously damaged himself.

Allen denied his own Jewish grandfather, he labelled the question of whether he had a Jewish grandfather as "an aspersion" and then went on to brag about eating pork chops to leave no doubt that a Jewish heritage had absolutely nothing to do with him.

When given the opportunity to acknowledge his own Jewish grandfather in public, Allen, like Saint Peter, replied in effect, "Woman, I don't know him."

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