Some Jews Don’t Want Ocasio-Cortez, Just Like With Paul Ryan
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Image by Getty Images
At a Hanukkah party Sunday evening, Ocasio-Cortez shared in a speech that Puerto Ricans can have descendants from several ethnicities, including Jewish refugees, Spanish colonizers and indigenous peoples. But as when outgoing Speaker of the House Paul Ryan discovered Jewish ancestry, politics determined whether or not AOC got a warm Jewish welcome.
No. You don’t get to co-opt sephardi tradition for your political game. There is nothing jewish about you, so you are not a jew. At the very most, your family is Anusim, and I’d like to see a dna test on that.
Also, you’re not even working class. https://t.co/8FfYld58pU
— JudeaPride.Com (@JudeaPride) December 10, 2018
Definitely not Jewish…
— Drake Pipkin™ (@drakepipkin) December 10, 2018
Is @Ocasio2018 doing a Senator Warren?
— Hank Miiller (@miiller) December 10, 2018
The situation could read to some like the day in August when House Speaker Paul Ryan enthusiastically revealed he is 3% Ashkenazi Jewish, with eastern European roots.
“I’m sorry but no, we don’t want him,” tweeted Ayelet Waldman, an Israeli-American novelist and essayist.
Another tweeted: “As if the Jewish people people haven’t suffered enough.”
Alyssa Fisher is a news writer at the Forward. Email her at [email protected], or follow her on Twitter at @alyssalfisher
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.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Dive In
-
Fast Forward Mohsen Mahdawi, who led Columbia pro-Palestinian protests, freed from detention
-
Fast Forward Right-wing activists riot outside Israeli-Palestinian memorial event at Reform synagogue in Israel
-
Fast Forward Trump fires Doug Emhoff from Holocaust Memorial Council
-
Fast Forward Facing police investigation, Irish band Kneecap denies supporting Hamas, Hezbollah
Most Popular
- 1
Fast Forward Why the Antisemitism Awareness Act now has a religious liberty clause to protect ‘Jews killed Jesus’ statements
- 2
Culture Trump wants to honor Hannah Arendt in a ‘Garden of American Heroes.’ Is this a joke?
- 3
Fast Forward The invitation said, ‘No Jews.’ The response from campus officials, at least, was real.
- 4
Opinion A Holocaust perpetrator was just celebrated on US soil. I think I know why no one objected.
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward Mohsen Mahdawi, who led Columbia pro-Palestinian protests, freed from detention
-
Opinion The Trump administration just gave a gigantic gift to extremists in the West Bank
-
Opinion In this Hegelian age, we should be talking about Herzl not Trump
-
Culture What a lion, a rabbi, and a dog taught me about grief
-
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.