Paul Ryan Is Part-Jewish — But Some Jews Wish He Wasn’t

Paul Ryan Image by Getty Images
House Speaker Paul Ryan, a practicing Catholic, recently learned he’s 3% Jewish — to the chagrin of much of the tribe.
His family history — which includes the revelation that he’s 3% Ashkenazi Jewish, with eastern European roots — was revealed during the filming of an upcoming season of PBS’s “Finding Your Roots With Henry Louis Gates Jr,” the Washington Post reported Wednesday.
Gates, the show’s host and a professor at Harvard University, said his research took him all the way back to Ryan’s 10th great-grandfather, who was born in Germany in 1531. He told reporters that Ryan was surprised, but proud of his previously unknown heritage.
Twitter was buzzing with hot takes.
I’m sorry but no, we don’t want him. “House Speaker Paul Ryan Discovers Ashkenazi Jewish Heritage On ‘Finding Your Roots’ – TCA” https://t.co/vfR1SAbSEX via @deadline
— Ayelet Waldman (@ayeletw) August 1, 2018
As if the Jewish people haven’t suffered enough. https://t.co/73N6BOl5o9
— Jeet Heer (@HeerJeet) August 1, 2018
3% Jewish 97%asshole https://t.co/Rg5PJAcVKa
— Dennis Wilson (@Dsw1957Dennis) August 1, 2018
Paul Ryan:
Part Jewish? Skeptical.
Part gefilte fish? More likely. https://t.co/xTW04K2fE4— hil.i.am (@hilaryluros) August 1, 2018
Alyssa Fisher is a news writer at the Forward. Email her at [email protected]
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.
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
2X match on all Passover gifts!
Most Popular
- 1
Film & TV What Gal Gadot has said about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- 2
News A Jewish Republican and Muslim Democrat are suddenly in a tight race for a special seat in Congress
- 3
Culture How two Jewish names — Kohen and Mira — are dividing red and blue states
- 4
Opinion Mike Huckabee said there’s ‘no such thing as a Palestinian.’ It’s worth thinking about what that means
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward The NCAA men’s Final Four has 3 Jewish coaches
-
Fast Forward Yarden Bibas says ‘I am here because of Trump’ and pleads with him to stop the Gaza war
-
Fast Forward Trump’s plan to enlist Elon Musk began at Lubavitcher Rebbe’s grave
-
Film & TV In this Jewish family, everybody needs therapy — especially the therapists themselves
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.