I dunno. I still think there's a "Seperated at birth" thing going on here, but it doesn't involve being Jewish.
Posted on 02/03/2003 1:52:26 PM PST by areafiftyone
BOSTON (AP) -- A geneologist researched Sen. John Kerry's roots and found out information Kerry himself didn't know, including that his grandfather, who committed suicide in 1921, was born Jewish.
For years, the Massachusetts senator and Democratic presidential hopeful sought the true story of his paternal grandfather, Frederick A. Kerry. He searched the Internet and asked cousins, but he was only able to learn fragments of the family's history.
Felix Gundacker, an Austrian genealogy specialist hired by The Boston Globe, located birth records located that show that Frederick A. Kerry was born Fritz Kohn, in 1873 in the town of Bennisch in what was then the Austrian empire, now part of the Czech Republic.
Gundacker said he is ``1,000 percent certain'' that Kerry was born to a Jewish family. The birth of a son to Benedikt Kohn, a ``master brewer,'' and his wife, Mathilde, was listed in church records on an addendum page listing Jewish families.
``This is incredible stuff,'' Kerry said in a story published in Sunday's Globe. ``I think it is more than interesting; it is a revelation.''
The record in Bennisch notes that Kohn changed his name to Frederick Kerry on March 17, 1902. The document does not mention a baptism, but the family says Frederick Kerry was a Roman Catholic, as is his grandson.
Frederick Kerry emigrated to the U.S. in 1905, eventually settling in Boston and becoming a shoe merchant. On Nov. 21, 1921, he walked into the Copley Plaza Hotel, went into a washroom and shot himself in the head.
``How many times have I walked into that hotel ...'' an emotional Kerry told the Globe, his voice trailing off. He had known his grandfather killed himself but not the details.
The suicide made front-page news in several Boston newspapers, which speculated it may have stemmed from health or financial difficulties.
``Oh, God, that's awful,'' Kerry said when shown a copy of a 1921 Globe article. He recalled that his own father, diplomat Richard Kerry, ``was sort of painfully remote and shut off and angry'' about the loss of his father.
Numerous publications have incorrectly stated that Kerry is Irish-American; there's a county in Ireland called Kerry. But Kerry said he has always been quick to correct any such misstatement.
On his mother's side, the senator is related to the Forbes and Winthrop families, two of New England's most prominent clans.
I thought he was our first Black president?
You must be kidding. Is the Pope Catholic?
I dunno. I still think there's a "Seperated at birth" thing going on here, but it doesn't involve being Jewish.
Thanks. Went there. Interesting. "Voyage of self discovery". LOL!
I'm about that same age. In some of these cases, it's hard. I read that his grandfather committed suicide at such an early age and it makes me think a lot was hidden. Was there a surrogate in there?
Another factor is that a lot of families weren't exactly proud of the circumstances that got their families here. Being Jewish would've been a real negative in some environments, probably until the '60s...it's a fact that might have disappeared, just as criminal or war backgrounds do.
Meanwhile, I have to say Senator Kerry has done a nice job, with what sounds like a humble background, to service in Viet Nam, to being Mr. Heinz.
I don't dislike him or his views as much as I did during the Kosovo bombing, when he was spouting the Clinton line. It seemed hypocritical for the founder of VietNam Veterans Against the War to support that outrage. He's doing better with the issues, and his office has improved greatly at listening to constituents.
So what? Is Jewish money that important? Why doesn't he just run as an American? This is pathetic...shades of hillary the grunt, who did the same thing. These jerks are SUCH losers.
I think that the article is referring to Kerry's grandfather when it says "Gundacker said he is '1,000 percent certain' that Kerry was born to a Jewish family."
In other words, you are right about John Kerry, but Gundacker is right about Frederick Kerry.
It was always known that Kerry was half Boston Brahmin. Otherwise, Boston's ethnic politicians would have been asking just what kind of Irish-American he was. One opponent did make a point of always emphasizing the "Forbes" in Kerry's name to emphasize that he wasn't a real Irishman. It would have been regarded as ugly if he'd thrown in the name "Kohn" with the same emphasis.
Kerry always allowed himself to be taken for Irish. I'd imagine that he won a lot of votes that way. Last year Teddy Kennedy was plugging for Shannon O'Brien, the Democratic candidate for governor, on the grounds that you couldn't find a more Irish name than hers. But she still lost, to Romney, whom Kennedy had smeared for his Mormonism in an earlier election.
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