Ted Cruz’s Father Says Jews Are ‘Democrats First’

Image by Getty Images

By Rachel X. Landes June 23, 2015

The father of 2016 Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz told a Florida Tea Party audience that Jews are “Democrats first and Jews second.”

Rafael Cruz made the explosive comments, along with similar remarks about Catholics, on Saturday, in front of the Palm Beach County Tea Party.

“This is what has happened to a great many in the Catholic Church,” “They are Democrats first and Catholics second.”

Rafael Cruz is not officially part of his sons’ campaign team, but appears at his sons’ events. He is an evangelical preacher and director of the religious group, Purifying Fire International ministry.

“Hitler was very smart,” Cruz began. “Hitler went to the pastors and pat them on the back and said, ‘look, you take care of their souls, I’ll take care of all the rest of it. In other words, you keep locked inside your church and leave the rest to me’… and as a result of that, six million Jews were massacred.”

According to Cruz, the Church had a responsibility to monitor the government, and failed, so that was the reason for the Holocaust.

“We need to put principle above tradition,” he said. “There are people voting Democrat because, ‘My grandfather or my father voted Democrat.’ Let me tell you something. The Democratic party today is not the Democratic party of John Kennedy. John Kennedy would be a Republican today.”

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO