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 fisher@forward.com, or follow her on Twitter at @alyssalfisher
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
