Felix Allen Claims He JUST Found Out About His Jewish Heritage

[ruggerson]

Does this dumb fuck think that he is fooling anyone?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/19/AR2006091901141_pf.html

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, Henreitte "Etty" Allen, is a native of Tunisia and speaks French.

In a statement released by his campaign yesterday, Allen said he was proud to have recently discovered that his grandfather, a Nazi resistance fighter in North Africa, was part of a well-known Jewish family.

[valerief]

1. And his base turned their heads askance, mumbling how they

had to take little Timmy to soccer practice. Ta ta, Macaca Allen! Time to turn in your shiny white robe.

[muntrv]

2. The grandson of a Nazi resistance fighter is acting like a Nazi.

[marmar]

5. He was probably hoping that if he had roots in Germany...

they belonged to Nazis. He was hoping to inherit a pair of original jackboots.

[Kutjara]

7. Someone needs to investigate how much...

...of a 'resistance fighter' grandpa really was. If Macaca is going to milk this for all it's worth, we'd better be sure it's actually true.

It seems awfully convenient that Allen has gone from being a whitebread Wasp to the decendent of a Jewish hero in the blink of an eye.

[Monkeyman]

3. He's going to milk this one

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

4. I don't think...

That this will play very well at the next Council of Conservative Citizens convention.

[oncall247]

6. Sure makes is "macaca" remark look a lot LESS innocent.

I think he was taught the word by his mother who would have been well aware of what it meant.

[Ian David]

39. If Allen was going to lie, he should've been smart enough to lie better...

He should have said he accidentally conflated "Meshuga" with "Farkakte"."




meshuga

SYLLABICATION: me·shu·ga
PRONUNCIATION: m-shg
VARIANT FORMS: also me·shug·ga
ADJECTIVE: Slang Crazy; senseless.
ETYMOLOGY: Yiddish meshuge, from Hebrew mugg‘, participle of ugga‘, to be mad. See gc in Appendix II.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.
http://www.bartleby.com/61/66/M0236625.html


Urban Dictionary: farkatke
1. farkatke
Yiddish meaning crazy or ridiculous or loud
Look at this farkatke shirt, it makes you look like a shmuck.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=farkatke

See?

Meshuga + Farkatke = Macacca.

[Vadem]

40. ROTFLMAO! You crack me up!........ n/t

[Freedom_from_Chains]

8. What exactly is a Jew?

Is that a race, nationality, or just a religious belief?

[babylonsister]

14. None of the above, according to Felix.

Because he didn't have a clue. :eyes:

[Freedom_from_Chains]

17. That seems to be the way it is all the way around

Everybody talks about the Jews but no one seems to know what a Jew is. I even asked this question at the local Jewish temple here and the lady I asked looked at me like I had a third eye and said, "well it is someone who believes in the Jewish religion," and then she kind of paused and said, "although I really don't know because I'm a Christian." Finally another lady at the temple told me to purchase the book entitled "What is a Jew" which I did but am not quite through with it.

But to here people talk I have always thought that being a Jew had a particular nationality or race associated with it but the more I ask people the more I seem to find that no one really knows.

Strange.

[babylonsister]

22. There are lots of Jews who adore their language and culture.

It's many nationalities and races.
Perhaps that's the beauty of Judaism, the minicosm that's so extended.
I don't know a lot about the religion part of it, and would welcome a
lesson. But I'm obviously aware of WWII, so don't need that lesson.

[Freedom_from_Chains]

23. Well that is what I am kind of learning about it as I am

attending a Torah study group and a Hebrew class. But I really never stopped to think about it before but always just assumed by the way people talked that it was a race.

[babylonsister]

27. Not just one race by any means.

Are you Jewish and curious, or just curious, as I am.
I've been to Israel (Tel Aviv) two times, and the Israelis are gorgeous, they voice their opinions usually, and they beep their car horns more than NYers. The Israelis had cell phones before they were popular in the US. Just old impressions...

[Freedom_from_Chains]

28. Curious, as I have recently started studying the Jewish

religion in depth.

On Edit: Love your tag line.

[laconicsax]

24. It depends on the context

There are essentially two things that make a person Jewish (generally speaking)
1) Following the Law and practicing the religion.
2) Being born to a Jewish mother. ("born" Jewish)

As far as I'm aware and have learned (belonging to both critera), if you qualify under #2 but don't follow #1, then you're not Jewish anymore. This is a big gray area, but it tends to boil down to being a religious belief above all else.

[Freedom_from_Chains]

25. That's what I am finding out but thanks for sharing your experience.

I just feel kind of strange going to a Jewish temple with what is obviously an Irish last name. :toast:

[bobbieinok]

30. for Nazis, it was a RACE----they took Jews who had become nuns or priests

For example, the Jewish Edith Stein who became a nun and was murdered at Auschwitz.

http://www.post-gazette.com/regionstate/19981011cath4.asp

Jewish-born nun's sainthood spurs interfaith rancor

Sunday, October 11, 1998

By Ann Rodgers-Melnick, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

Sister Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, whom Pope John Paul II is to canonize as a saint today, is better known to the world as Edith Stein.

Because she was a nun who was born a Jew and because she was murdered at age 51 in the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz, her canonization has been the source of interfaith rancor. Stein's surviving relatives are among those who think the church should be ashamed of honoring as a Christian martyr a woman killed only because of her Jewish heritage.

Her Catholic defenders respond that she was arrested and killed in direct retaliation for the Catholic bishops of Holland's statement denouncing Nazi persecution of the Jews. In that sense, she was a Christian martyr on behalf of those who spoke out against evil, her defenders say.

....

Born to a German Jewish family in 1891, Stein became an atheist in her youth. Intellectually brilliant, she was a student of and then an assistant to the philosopher Edmund Husserl. Her work focused on the role of empathy in communication. One of her fellow students was Max Scheler, whose work would shape the thinking of the Polish philosophy professor Karol Wojtyla, now Pope John Paul II.

....

When the Nazi conquerers began to arrest Jews, Dutch Catholic bishops protested. In particular, they asked that Jews who had converted to Christianity be spared. Such pleas were honored in some Nazi-occupied territories. Archbishop Angelo Roncalli, who became Pope John XXIII, operated an underground effort to supply bogus baptismal certificates to Jews.

But in retaliation for the Dutch bishops' statement, Nazis arrested all the Jewish converts to Catholicism that they could find in Holland. Stein was gassed to death on Aug. 9, 1942, in Auschwitz.

more....

[NOLADEM]

9. Dumbass

What, does he think Felix is a fake cowboy name?

What an ass.

He was offended because calling him Jewish was an insult in his mind, because he is an ugly bigot. He hung a frigging NOOSE FROM A TREE in his office while he was a lawyer and kept a Confederate Flag displayed in his home. Both happened in the 90's, so this wasn't some indiscretion or long ago mistake. These are code for racist to anyone with an ounce of sense.

What a disgrace.

All we have left to discover is his illegitimate black love child.

[rurallib]

10. Good God this guy must be stupid

I know there are circumstances where a person wouldn't know their heritage, but Allen's circumstances are not likely the type where this would not be known.
And this is why I say he is the perfect candidate to replace W in the BFEE role of pres.
- he's pretty
- he speaks well
- he's totally manipuable and follows orders well
- He's dumb as (no - dumber than) a box of rocks.
In other words he's more like W than W.

[Captain Hilts]

15. Like W, he's also a fake cowboy. nt

[babylonsister]

31. You're making my brain hurt, because no one could be as bad. nt

[FrenchieCat]

11. If his grandfather was part of a well-known Jewish family.....

what reason does Felix gives for not having known about this earlier? Since he is saying "he just found out"......I'm just curious.

[muntrv]

13. Because he would have to stop hanging out with the

council of conservative citizens, a white supremacist group.

[lynne]

12. Isn't this pretty much the same exact thing -

- that happened with John Kerry and his grandfather, Fritz Kohn? Didn't Madeline Albright have a similar situation, too? Seems that it wasn't uncommon for Jews to change their name and religion once they came to the US and kept the family secret even from children and grandchildren.

I personally don't see how anyone's religion or ethnicity is pertinent to their political careers but - hey - that's just me.

From the History News Network: http://hnn.us/roundup/entries/5224.html

Frederick Kerry brought with him a secret: he was born a Jew, Fritz Kohn, in what is now the Czech Republic, but he and his wife, Ida, had converted to Roman Catholicism. Senator Kerry, a Catholic whose maternal side includes such blueblooded names as Winthrop and Forbes, said he did not know his paternal grandfather was Jewish until a reporter for The Boston Globe told him last year that it had been discovered by a genealogist in Vienna who scoured church records from the Austro-Hungarian empire.

[Freedom_from_Chains]

33. My wife didn't figure out she had a Jewish background till she

was in her 30's

[beaconess]

36. I agree generally. But it IS pertinent when someone responds angrily

to the suggestion that they may have Jewish blood, assuming it is somehow an "aspersion."

THAT is relevant to me.

[blm]

42. Kerry's situation was complicated by the fact his grandfather committed

suicide, and suicide was almost always a taboo subject within families back then.

[dave502d]

16. How many people hear know their heritage?

I would say just about all and Allen knew his heritage long before this.
I think he just saw a way to use this.

[Freedom_from_Chains]

34. Yep my heritage is Irish, well with a little bit of German, and then

there is also I think some English thrown in.

[mcg]

45. Mine: Irish,English, French,Dutch,German, Protestant & Catholic.

3/8 Irish, 3/8 English, plus some French, Dutch, German.
English, Baptist on my mother's side,
Irish, Catholic & Episcopalian on my father's side.

[magnolia]

18. He also JUST FOUND OUT....

...that the confederate flag was offensive!!

[LibDemAlways]

35. And that "macaca" was an ethnic slur.....Allen is either

a) an exceptionally ignorant dumbass or b) a serial liar

I choose B.

[eleny]

19. Lionel just played the audio clip of the exchange

Allen's defensive response was so different from General Clark's when he was asked about his Jewish heritage. Clark talked about the pride he had in his heritage. Allen acted like he wanted to slap his questioner.

Allen is going down.

[laconicsax]

20. And?

This whole story is stupid and its ridiculous that such inconsequential bullshit was followed up on by reporters. Don't they have anything better to ask? Something maybe relevant to anything?

[DURHAM D]

29. When a candidate is a known racist it is an important question.

When his immediate reaction was clearly "shame based" it becomes more interesting.

When his "cover his gaff" press release includes the lie that he just found out - it has become a story.

In Allen's case it goes to his character. What is going on in his little p-brain head.

No other political figure that I can think of - not Kerry, not Albright and not Clark have reacted with horror. Only Allen. When the repugs hammered relentlessly on the fact that Clinton's father could not have been his father and his mother was a whore and he found out he had a half-brother (maybe) Clinton embraced the narrative. He was not ashamed - he was curious. He did not try to hide the facts - he sought answers about his personal ancestry. He met with the guy who may or may not be his half-brother (father's side) and they became friends. He was open and unafraid.

This was a good question.

[napi21]

48. A valid topic is anything a candidate has in his/her history that he

actively states he's against!

ie:
A candidate who constantly vots and campaigns against gays, but they information turns up indicating THAT candidate isGay himself!

A candidate who constantly claims he is supportinve of minorities, and always supports their rights, but then is found to have a nooseand a Confed. flag hanging in his office!


You see what I mean here. It's NOT the subject matter, but the politicians real stance on that subject.

[ninkasi]

21. Why be offended?

Being Jewish is certainly nothing to be ashamed of. We may have ancestors who were Jewish, but that's just something my cousins and I speculate about, and it doesn't matter one way or another. The only reason for our curiosity is that we are in our sixties, and are trying to put together as much as we can of the family tree for our children and grandchildren.

We also spend time trying to find out if a branch of the family came from England, or Ireland, because the name is not unusual in either place. We also tease each other about being walking, talking U.N.s, because we have ancestors from so many countries.

[beaconess]

37. Exactly - I have Jewish relatives and I'm black!

And I think it's great to have such a diverse and interesting family.

The fact that his immediate, unchecked reaction to the suggestion that he may have Jewish blood was anger and offense speaks volumes about his character.

[ComerPerro]

26. smells like a publicity stunt

so this chickenhawk can ride on the "my dad was a WWII hero" pony...

[babylonsister]

32. So wrong. Allen buried himself finally today. He

was hiding his JUDAISM? Whatever for, the ass? Could it be to fool the idiots who support him? (DISCLAIMER: I could care less, but Allen did!)
And who do those idiots have to depend on now?

[Nimrod2005]

38. Why is he Felix?

[mcg]

41. "Allens Poor Overworked Flacks Convince Him to Stop Denying the Jew Thing"

From Wonkette:
http://wonkette.com/politics/george-allen/george-allens-poor-overworked-flacks-convince-him-to-stop-denying-the-jew-thing-201900.php

"The Post:
He insisted, through a press secretary, that his mother was raised a Christian.

We don’t know if that’s true (she does appear to have gone to Catholic school, but Etty Lumbroso Allen was married by a justice of the peace at a “Jewish friend’s house,” because, for some reason, a Catholic ceremony wouldn’t work for her). Jennifer Allen’s memoir does have this anecdote, though:

I’d only been to church once. Throughout the service, Mom gave a continual play-by-play.

The procession of the priest: “Here comes the hypocrite.”
The collection plate: “Here come the vultures.”
The forgiveness of sins: “Here comes the guilt.”

We kinda like Etty Allen."

I kinda like her too. Why does Allen not want anyone finding out anything about his mother?

[Tyo]

43. Hey it can happen!

For 25 years I thought I was Norwegian. But I was looking in the mirror the other day and now I'm not so sure. Gonna have to ask the folks about this

[Zynx]

44. Bullshit! He knew, but felt ahsamed for some reason.

[mcg]

47. maybe he doesn't want his buddies in the CCC to know he's part Semitic.

The CofCC's web site:
http://www.cofcc.org/





Their logo (if you put together three C's what does it remind you of?
a not-so-subtle cutesy reference):



One of many republican members of the CofCC: Trent Lott
It's about time to call the Republican party what it has become,
a front group.

http://www.adl.org/learn/ext_us/CCCitizens.asp?xpicked=3&item=12

"The Citizens Informer's managing editor, has been a fixture on the white-supremacist scene for years (he calls himself a "very close personal friend" of Aryan Nations leader Richard Butler) and has written for Identity and anti-Semitic publications such as The Jubilee and The Spotlight."

http://www.ferris.edu/isar/Institut/CCC/adlccc.htm

' NEW YORK, NY, December 21, 1998 -- The Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC), a racist organization recently in the news for having politicians such as Rep. Bob Barr and Sen. Trent Lott as keynote speakers at its conferences, will feature white supremacist David Duke at its next meeting, the Anti-Defamation League reported today. The National Capital (Washington, D.C.) chapter of The CCC is promoting attendance at its January 2, 1999 meeting where Duke, the former Klansman and two-time Presidential candidate, will be joined by long-time white supremacist and anti-Semite Edward Fields. Duke is currently promoting his racist and anti-Semitic autobiography, My Awakening. Fields is the publisher of "The Truth at Last," a newsletter featuring articles about Jewish control of the media and government.

"The CCC cloaks itself in the mantle of conservatism to mask its underlying racist agenda," said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director. "No one should be duped into believing they are mainstream conservatives. A look at the record clearly reveals who they are and what they really stand for." '

http://tailrank.com/posts/562949953861333/VA-Sen__Allen_and_his_racist_hate_group_friends

[mcg]

49. CCC = uptown KKK

The CCC is the "Uptown KKK":

http://vaprogressive.com/?p=725

[mcg]

50. "Racism in the Republican Party"

"Racism in the Republican Party":

http://www.clubs.psu.edu/clubs/sayar/repub/rrp.htm

"The Republican Party has come full circle from the days of Abraham Lincoln and so disproportionately represents the interests of white people that it ought to be renamed the White People's Party. The most recent chairman of the Republican National Committee, Haley Barbour, associates himself with the most despicable kinds of white racists -- those who have money and power. Haley Barbour recently appeared side-by-side with the Council of Concerned Citizens (aka the CCC, the Coo Clucks Clan, and the Uptown KKK), a white racist hate group which is almost exclusively male and which is off-limits to blacks, jews, and other minorities."

[dajoki]

46. Fox was talking about ancestry

Virginia Centrist
http://www.virginiacentrist.com/2006/09/allens-gaffe-press-avalanche-starts.html

<<snip>>

But that was nothing compared with what Allen gave Fox.

The anchor may have thought she had license to pop the Jewish question when Allen, reacting to the "macaca" question, volunteered that his grandfather "was incarcerated by the Nazis in World War II."

Citing reports about his "possible Jewish ancestry," Fox questioned Allen's past denial that his mother is Jewish.

"I'm glad you all have that reaction," Allen said to the audience as people jeered the questioner. Allen lectured Fox about the importance of "freedom of religion and not making aspersions about people because of their religious beliefs."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Who brought up Allen's religious beliefs? Fox was talking about ancestry...why is Allen getting prickly here? Why is he losing control?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
"I was shocked," she said after the event. Disclosing that her great-grandfather was a Mormon polygamist, she added: "Why would he get so angry at the suggestion there might be something in your background that's Jewish? I don't think that's a bad thing at all."

Fox said her motive was curiosity. "I thought it was important to find out is this part of his heritage, because if it is nobody knows it. Do you deny part of your heritage for political reasons?"