Posted on 09/21/2006 2:57:23 PM PDT by new yorker 77
Sen. George Allen (news, bio, voting record)'s mother hid her Jewish upbringing from her children until late last month to spare them the fear suffered by her father, who was imprisoned by the Nazis, The Washington Post reported Thursday.
"What they put my father through. I always was fearful," the Post quoted Henriette "Etty" Allen of Palos Verdes, Calif., as saying in a telephone interview. "I didn't want my children to have to go through that fear all the time."
She said her son, a Republican seeking a second term in a close race, asked her about it over dinner at her home in late August when he was in Los Angeles for a fundraiser.
"When I told Georgie, I said, 'Now you don't love me anymore.' He said, 'Mom, I respect you more than ever,'" she told the newspaper.
For years, Allen has noted the Nazi internment of his grandfather, Felix Lumbroso, in political speeches. He says his grandfather was put in the camp because he was an Allied sympathizer.
The candidate's Jewish roots were first reported on Aug. 25 by The Forward, a Jewish daily newspaper.
It became an issue Monday when Allen was asked about his Jewish heritage during a debate with his Democratic opponent, Jim Webb. Allen rebuked the reporter who asked the question and dismissed it as irrelevant.
"My mother is French-Italian with a little Spanish blood in her," Allen told the panelist. He said he had been raised as a Christian and made no mention of any Jewish heritage.
On Tuesday, Allen acknowledged his Jewish ancestry publicly for the first time in a statement his campaign issued.
Etty Allen said she swore the senator to secrecy, asking him not to tell his wife, his two brothers or his sister. "The fact this is such an issue justifies my actions, and my behavior," she told the newspaper.
She said she began concealing her Jewish past after meeting the man she would marry, George H. Allen, who became a legendary football coach with the Los Angeles Rams and the Washington Redskins.
The couple kept it secret from Allen's parents for fear they would disapprove. They also decided not to tell their children. Her husband died in 1990.
She also dismissed suggestions that she had ever used the word "macaca" in front of her children. The word, considered a racial slur in some cultures, became an issue when the senator applied it to a Webb campaign volunteer of Indian descent during a rally before a mostly white crowd Aug. 11.
The videotaped remarks were posted on the Internet, and subsequent international news coverage helped Webb pull almost even with Allen, erasing what had been a commanding Allen lead.
"I swear to you, I have never used that word," she told the newspaper. "I must have used a lot of bad words, but not that word."
She said she had never heard the word and that after the story broke, she tried to find it in her dictionary but there was no listing for it.
Copyright © 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
Copyright © 2006 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.
BTW, still waiting to find a Nisei who sent his or her kids to school to learn the Japanese language.
Apparently I missed the news that Der Stuermer has purchased a controlling interest in al-AP.
LoL.....
Many many survivors of the Nazi genocide hid their pasts from their children out of fear of future anti-semitism.
I don't even pretend to know much about Virginia state politics, but your reply is the best I've heard so far.
The entire episoed has been completely crazy, is there a real anti-Jew politician voting block in the Republican heartlands in Virginia? Or is this some warped tabloid media adventure into an abyss of racial slurs to garner ratings? WTF is going on down there?
And his Jewish heritage is relevant to politics in what way?
Bringing this up would be a gross overreach by the lady reporter in a political column, much less blindsiding someone in a political debate.
"Your mother was a Jew!!!"
These Demo-fascists become more brazen every day.
Something vile this way comes - and it's the liberal media.
Good interview with Mrs. Allen.
Clears up why the Senator didn't talk about it and appeared not to know.
Think this will help him.
SO WHAT!! Good grief!
The dinks in the press evidently think this will reduce support for Allen, when in reality it will probably increase it, on several levels.
It increases name recognition, getting his name in front of people who hadn't thought about him. It humanizes him. He seems to have handled this fairly well, he seems to be a man of integrity despite press insinuations.
Christians won't care, because Christianity isn't an ethnicity, they care only about what you believe. If he says he's a Christian, and generally behaves honorably, thats all they care.
Republicans don't care about ethnicity, they care about where you stand on the war and the constitution.
Knowing his grandfather was persecuted by the Nazis is a net plus.
Its bizarre that the retards in the press would think his jewish ancestry would embarrass him, or make a hill of beans worth of difference to anyone. In the end he stands taller than he did before this incident, and they are revealed yet again to be the slow kids, not ready for prime time, and not ready for the adult table.
Try this:
http://wusa9.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=37275
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.