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Showing posts with label Politicians. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Politicians. Show all posts

Is Sheldon Silver Jewish?

Sheldon Silver is an Orthodox Jew. He was born February 13, 1944. The lawyer and Democratic Party politician lives in New York and became Speaker of the New York State Assembly in 1994. On January 30, 2015, eight days after his arrest on federal corruption charges, Silver submitted his resignation as Speaker, effective February 2, in order to defend himself against the charges. On November 30 Sheldon Silver was found guilty on all charges.

Sheldon Silver's parents were Russian immigrants. He graduated from the Rabbi Jacob Joseph High School on Manhattan's Henry Street, where he was captain of the basketball team.[2] Silver graduated from Yeshiva University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1965, and received his J.D. from Brooklyn Law School in 1968.

Is Bernie Sanders Jewish?

Oh, c'mon! Of course!

But if you came here looking for the facts, here they are: Bernard Sanders was born in Brooklyn, New York on September 8, 1941. He is of Ashkenazi Jewish descent.

Bernie Sanders is the son of Dora/Dorothy (Glassberg) and Eli Sanders. His father was a Polish Jewish immigrant. His mother was born in New York, to Russian Jewish parents. Bernie Sanders' paternal grandparents were Leon Sander and Ettel “Ethel” Horn.

Bernie’s maternal grandparents were Benjamin Glassberg/Glassburg (the son of Abraham Glassburg) and Brayna “Bessie” Greenberg. The American politician served as a United States Senator from Vermont since 2007; an independent, he caucuses with the Democrats in the Senate. He has previously been Mayor of Burlington, Vermont (from 1981 to 1989), and a U.S. Representative from Vermont (from 1991 to 2007).

Bernie Sanders is currently a candidate for the Democratic Party’s nomination for President of the United States in 2016.


Is San Diego Mayor Bob Filner Jewish?

San Diego Mayor Bob Filner is Jewish. Filner was born September 4, 1942 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood. He is the son of Sarah F. and Joseph H. Filner, both Jewish.

Filner is divorced from his first wife, Barbara (Christy) Filner, a retired mediation specialist;[59] they have a daughter, Erin Filner, a middle school social studies teacher who lives in Bedford, New York, and a son, Adam Filner, who is married and is the father of two young children. Filner was later married to Jane Merrill. At his first news conference after his election as mayor, Filner introduced his fiancee, Bronwyn Ingram, a disability analyst who works for the Social Security Administration. However, on July 8, 2013, she announced via email to a group of her supporters that the engagement had been called off and the relationship is over. In a subsequent statement, Ingram cited Filner's verbal abuse and blatant sexting as reasons for the split.

Filner attended Cornell University, where he worked on the Cornell Daily Sun, the student newspaper, and took part in civil rights demonstrations. In June 1961, after pulling into the bus station in Jackson, Mississippi as a Freedom Rider, Filner was arrested for "disturbing the peace and inciting a riot." He refused to post bond for his release and remained incarcerated for two months.

Mayor Filner graduated from Cornell in 1963 with a degree in chemistry, and earned his doctorate in history of science from Cornell six years later. While finishing up his PhD, he moved to San Diego, becoming a history professor at San Diego State University for more than 20 years.

Filner is the 35th and current Mayor of San Diego. Filner was previously the U.S. Representative for California's 51st congressional district, and previously the 50th, serving from 1993 to 2012, and was chairman of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs 2007-2011. He is a member of the Democratic Party.

In the summer of 2013 Mayor Bob Filner was accused by several former employees of sexual harassment. 

Is Eliot Spitzer Jewish?

Eliot Spitzer is Jewish. Spitzer was born June 10, 1959 in the Bronx. Spitzer is the son of Anne (née Goldhaber), an English literature professor, and Bernard Spitzer, a real estate mogul.[10][11] His paternal grandparents were Galician Jews, born in Tluste, Poland (now Ukraine). His maternal grandparents, born in the 1890s, were Jewish immigrants from Palestine.

Spitzer is the youngest of three children. He was raised in the affluent Riverdale section of The Bronx in New York City. His family was not particularly religious, and Spitzer did not have a Bar Mitzvah. He was raised in New York by his father, real estate tycoon Bernard Spitzer. He attended Princeton University for undergraduate studies and then Harvard Law School for his Juris Doctor. It was there that he met his future wife, Silda Wall. He went on to work for the law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, and subsequently the Manhattan District Attorney's office to pursue organized crime. He launched the investigation that brought down the Gambino crime family's control over Manhattan's garment and trucking industries. In 1994, Spitzer left to work at the law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom and, later, Constantine and Partners.

In 2007, Spitzer was inaugurated Governor of New York after defeating Republican John Faso. During his time in office, he proposed a bill to legalize same-sex marriage in New York and issued an executive order allowing undocumented immigrants to be issued driver's licenses; both attracted controversy. In July 2007, he was admonished for his administration's involvement in ordering the New York State Police to record the whereabouts of State Senate majority leader Joseph L. Bruno. On March 10, 2008, it was reported that Spitzer was a client of Emperors Club VIP. The scandal prompted him to resign as Governor on March 17. On July 7, 2013, Spitzer announced he would be running for New York City Comptroller, adding he was, "hopeful there will be forgiveness. I am asking for it."

Spitzer is a graduate of Horace Mann School. After scoring 1590 out of 1600 on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), Spitzer attended Princeton University and majored in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. At Princeton, he was elected chairman of the undergraduate student government, and graduated in 1981. He claims he received a perfect score on the Law School Admission Test (LSAT),  and went on to attend Harvard Law School, where he met and married Silda Wall. Spitzer was an editor of the Harvard Law Review.

Is Anthony Weiner Jewish?

Anthony Weiner is Jewish. Weiner was born September 4, 1964. Weiner was born in Brooklyn, New York on September 4, 1964, one of three sons of Mort Weiner, a lawyer, and his wife Frances (née Finkelstein), a public high school mathematics teacher. The family lived for a time in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn. His older brother, Seth, was killed at age 39 in a hit-and-run in May 2000. His younger brother, Jason, is a chef and co-owner of several New York restaurants.

Anthony Weiner is an American politician and former U.S. representative who served New York's 9th congressional district from January 1999 until June 2011. A member of the Democratic party, he won seven terms, never receiving less than 59% of the vote. Weiner resigned from Congress in June 2011, due to a sexting scandal. In May 2013, Weiner announced via a YouTube video that he would run for mayor of New York City in 2013.

Regarding the Jewish Anthony Weiner's second sexting scandal in July-August 2013, an article by Jodi Kantor in the NY Times compared Anthony Weiner's fall from grace (and that of Eliot Spitzer and San Diego Mayor Bob Filner) with Philip Roth's Portnoy's character:

When Politics Catches Up With ‘Portnoy’
By JODI KANTOR

THE plots and details seem lifted from Philip Roth or the early work of Woody Allen. Anthony D. Weiner, the Brooklyn bar mitzvah boy and would-be mayor whose intimate anatomy has now become a matter of public broadcast. Bob Filner, proud son of Forest Hills, Queens, whose California dream of a life — history professor, congressman, San Diego mayor — was undone by so much alleged lechery that the city he governed established a hot line for victims.

“I haven’t read a novel in 30 years, I’ve lived one,” Eliot Spitzer said in an interview. His version: the city boy with perfect LSAT scores, who was once called a potential first Jewish president and would now count himself lucky to be elected city comptroller.

Nearly half a century after the publication of “Portnoy’s Complaint,” politics is finally catching up with fiction, as libidinous, self-sabotaging politicians are causing grimaces among fellow Jews and retiring outdated cultural assumptions — that Jewish men make solid husbands and that sex scandals belong to others. “What’s wrong with Jewish men today?” Josh Greenman, opinion editor of The Daily News, recently tweeted.

The scandals are also leading to an unusual merging of political and religious questions that could help determine the outcome of the New York primary. That vote will take place on Sept. 10, right between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, bringing to vivid life the High Holy Days themes of repentance and forgiveness. During this year’s Days of Awe, New York Jews will literally render judgment on Mr. Spitzer and Mr. Weiner: as the liturgy goes, who will be degraded and who will be exalted. In rabbinic sermons and at holiday meals, they will debate questions like: If former president Bill Clinton can be absolved, can Jews extend similar treatment to two of their own? Do the sages, or the voters, feel that the slate can ever truly be wiped clean?

The confluence of scandals is an accident of timing; Jewish men have gotten themselves in trouble since the days of King David. But a cluster of scandals within one group tends to arouse the insecurities in its collective psyche; when David A. Paterson, then the governor of New York, and Representative Charles B. Rangel, a Harlem Democrat, were embroiled in simultaneous allegations of impropriety, some African-Americans feared that the leaders were targeted because they were black. Jews harbor their own historically grounded fears about reputation, acceptance and negative stereotypes, and those anxieties have flared recently in articles in the Jewish press and in conversations about Mr. Weiner, Mr. Spitzer and Mr. Filner.

On a recent Friday night, after Mr. Filner announced he would not resign, Rabbi Michael Berk of Congregation Beth Israel, San Diego’s largest synagogue, tore into him from the pulpit. “I’m sure I’m not the only Jew who is embarrassed,” he said. In a later interview, he expressed relief that to his knowledge, Mr. Filner is not a member of a synagogue.

Evangelical Christian politicians who cheat often raise questions about hypocrisy, especially if they preached piety in public and disregarded it in private. When Jewish politicians fall, they shatter different expectations, particularly that American Jews need to work together to preserve respectability and fireproof against anti-Semitism. Embarrassing the community is a grave transgression, defined in the Talmud as a “chilul Hashem,” or desecration of God’s name. In a poll conducted in early July by The New York Times and Siena College, Jews were substantially tougher than other primary voters on both Mr. Weiner and Mr. Spitzer, a reversal of the usual vote-your-kind rules of city politics, with 51 percent of Jewish Democratic primary voters expressing unfavorable impressions of each of the two candidates.

Even though Mr. Spitzer and Mr. Weiner are not terribly alike — the former prosecutor and governor running for a relatively modest position, and the provocateur with a thin legislative record who dreams of being mayor — many Jewish voters regard them in a similar light. Erica Jong, whose sexually frank novels make her possibly one of the least prudish voters in New York, said she could not forgive Mr. Spitzer. “It’s bad for the Jews, and it makes the anti-Semites say, ‘See, I told you they’re animals,’ ” she said. She considers sex a private matter in Jewish families: only after her father died did she discover that he had been a frequent visitor to massage parlors.

Similarly, when Mr. Weiner stopped in Flatbush, Brooklyn, last week at a kosher soup kitchen, an unnamed woman called him “a piece of dirt.” “I’m an observant Jew, and we want nothing to do with the likes of Anthony Weiner,” she added.

But Mr. Weiner’s latest waves of troubles may be helping Mr. Spitzer, making his comeback look more dignified, his sins less exotic. Shimon Rolnitzky of Der Shtern, a Yiddish-language magazine, said many fellow ultra-Orthodox Jews are planning to vote for Mr. Spitzer in part because they see his penance as more sincere than Mr. Weiner’s. Mr. Spitzer, a wealthy, assimilated Jew who never had a bar mitzvah, must now continue to ask forgiveness from a group he never identified with much. Though he is a member of Emanu-El in Manhattan and has also attended High Holy Days services with his parents at Central Synagogue in Midtown, he still does not seem at ease talking about faith.

Asked if Jewish faith or clergy helped after his fall, he demurred. Though he spoke at the time with Rabbi David M. Posner of Temple Emanu-El, he said: “I don’t remember specifically if my conversations with him were pivotal in any particular way.”

Some younger Jews say that they do not shudder over every wayward member of the tribe, that they don’t feel the same horror their parents once experienced over figures like Bernard L. Madoff, the Ponzi scheme king; David Berkowitz, the Son of Sam killer; or Joel Steinberg, convicted of manslaughter in the 1987 death of an illegally adopted daughter. Every prominent Jew who falls from grace cannot be a tragedy, “because we just have too many of them,” said Alana Newhouse, editor in chief of Tablet magazine. In recent weeks, Ryan (The Hebrew Hammer) Braun was suspended from the Milwaukee Brewers for using banned substances, and SAC Capital Advisors, the giant hedge fund run by Steven A. Cohen, was charged with insider trading.

Besides, as the country grows more ethnically scrambled, it is no longer easy to tell who should be proud or ashamed of whom. Many Jews say they felt relief upon learning that George Zimmerman, who shot Trayvon Martin, did not share their faith. Eric Garcetti is the first Jewish mayor of Los Angeles, but that is not very well known because his father, a former district attorney, is a Mexican-American with an Italian surname.

Some Jews even make the case that the Spitzer, Weiner and Filner stories are signifiers of integration, acceptance in an era in which the United States has at least 10 senators with some Jewish background and Jewish mayors of its three largest cities.

“Jewish politicians have achieved the standing and stature to be embroiled in classic American sex scandals,” said Matthew Hiltzik, a public relations consultant who worked with Mr. Spitzer on his 1998 attorney general race. “Some would say this is great news.”

Is Frank Lautenberg Jewish?

Frank Lautenberg was Jewish. The United States Senator from New Jersey, who died on June 3, 2013, was a practicing Jew.

Lautenberg was born in Paterson, New Jersey, to Mollie (née Bergen) and Sam Lautenberg, impoverished Jewish immigrants from Poland and Russia, who had arrived in the United States as infants.

Is Margaret Thatcher Jewish?

Margaret Thatcher was not Jewish. Thatcher was the longest serving prime minister of the United Kingdom during the 20th century.

Margaret Thatcher was born Margaret Roberts in Grantham, Lincolnshire, on 13 October 1925. Her father was Alfred Roberts, originally from Northamptonshire, and her mother was Beatrice Ethel (née Stephenson) from Lincolnshire.

Thatcher died of a stroke on April 8, 2013. "It is with great sadness that Mark and Carol Thatcher announced that their mother Baroness Thatcher died peacefully following a stroke this morning," Lord Tim Bell said, according to Reuters.


According to the Jewish Chronicle:

Baroness Thatcher, was described as "a giant who had a transformative impact on Britain" by chief rabbi Lord Sacks. He added: "I first got to know her early on in my life when she was the local MP. She was loved and admired by many in the Jewish community who will miss her deeply. Few people in my lifetime have left such a personal imprint on British life. She was always extremely supportive and admiring of the ethos of the British Jewish community," said Vivian Wineman, president of the Board of Deputies. "This close relationship began when her family took in a young Austrian Jewish refugee from Nazism in the late 1930s. When she entered Parliament as MP for Finchley, a very Jewish constituency, her relationship with local Jewish institutions blossomed and continued throughout her illustrious career as Prime Minister.

Is Ed Koch Jewish?

Ed Koch was Jewish. The former mayor of New York City died on February 1, 2013 of congestive heart failure.

Getty Images

Edward Irving "Ed" Koch was born December 12, 1924. He was known for being an American lawyer, politician, political commentator, movie critic and television reality show judge. He served in the United States House of Representatives from 1969 to 1977. He also served three terms as mayor of New York City, from 1978 to 1989. He also became known as a judge on the television judge show The People's Court from 1997 to 1999.

Born in The Bronx at New York–Presbyterian Hospital, Koch was the son of Yetta (née Silpe) and Louis Koch, immigrants from Poland. His father worked at a theater. The family affiliated with the Conservative Movement of Judaism. Koch was a strong advocate for the Jewish State of Israel.


Koch grew up in Newark, NJ and he graduated from South Side High School in Newark in 1941. He was drafted into the United States Army in 1943 where he served as an infantryman with the 104th Infantry Division, landing in Cherbourg, France in September 1944.

As mayor of NYC, he brought the city out of bankruptcy. He was outspoken and always said what he was thinking. Koch died on February 1, 2013 at 88 years old.

Is Brian Schatz Jewish?

Brian Schatz is a Jew. Schatz was named to the Senate to replace Hawaii Senator Daniel Inouye after his death.

Brian Schatz Jewish


Schatz lists his religion as Jewish on his Facebook page, bringing the number of Jewish senators to 11. Schatz was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan. His father is Irwin Schatz, a cardiologist and native of Saint Boniface, Manitoba. When Brian was two years old, his family moved to Hawaii. Schatz studied at Pomona College in Claremont, California and he spent a term studying in Kenya as part of the International Training Program, where he developed skills in public service.

Schatz began his political career in 1998 in the Hawaii House of Representatives and his congressional career began in 2006. In 2010 he became the Lieutenant Governor of Hawaii. Hawaiian senator Daniel Inouye died on December 17, 2012 and Schatz was appointed to replace Inouye, filling the Democratic seat that was once filled by Inouye.

Is Robert Levinson Jewish?

Robert Levinson is Jewish. He was born on March 10, 1948 and is an American private detective who was formerly a top FBI agent. Robert (Bob) Levinson disappeared in March 2007 when visiting Iran's Kish Island while apparently researching a cigarette-smuggling case.


On March 6, 2012, the FBI announced the offer of $1 Million for information leading to the direct and safe return of Robert Levinson. Because of Bob Levinson's 22 years with the FBI as a Special agent, the Agency is making every effort to get him returned safely. He is a husband, a father and a grandfather and suffers from diabetes and high blood pressure.

Is Andrew Breitbart Jewish?

Was Andrew Breitbart Jewish? Yes Andrew Breitbart was Jewish, but it is more complicated than a simple answer. The writer and political commentator was adopted by Gerald and Arlene Breitbart. Andrew Breitbart died on March 1, 2012. Breitbart's father is a restaurant owner and his mother is a banker. Andrew Breitbart was raised Jewish because his adoptive mother had converted to Judaism before she married Breitbart's adoptive father.


There is no published information on whether Breitbart ever converted to Judaism after he was adopted by his Jewish parents Gerald and Arlene Breitbart. Just because his adopted parents were Jewish (his mother through conversion) doesn't mean that Andrew Breitbart was automatically Jewish when he was adopted according to traditional Jewish interpretation. Breitbart's biological father was a folk singer. Breitbart was ethnically Irish by birth, and his adopted sister is Hispanic.

Breitbart was also involved in the 2009 ACORN video controversy. Breitbart found himself enmeshed in controversy within the conservative movement relating to the participation of gay group GOProud in the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), an annual conference held in Washington, D.C. by the American Conservative Union. Breitbart also helped launch the NY Rep. Anthony Weiner sexting scandal when he showed a sexually graphic photo of Anthony Weiner naked (from Weiner's Twitter feed) in a radio interview with hosts Opie and Anthony. He also developed a reputation for

Breitbart died unexpectedly on March 1, 2012. A man saw him collapse while walking in Brentwood, California shortly after midnight and called paramedics, who rushed him to the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center where he was declared dead.

In an article announcing his sudden death, the Jewish Journal wrote:

Breitbart, who once proudly called himself a "biased journalist" worked at the Drudge Report and the Huffington Post before starting his own family of conservative web-based media outlets. He is best known for publishing the damning photographs in 2011 that forced Anthony Weiner, then a Democratic congressman from New York, to resign. Breitbart was adopted as a child and raised as a Jew, and he enjoyed needling the Jewish community for what he saw as its liberal leanings. At a Republican Jewish Coalition event in June 2011, Breitbart gleefully regaled the audience with the story of his being kicked out of Hebrew school at University Synagogue as a child. "That’s where the battle started with the liberal Jewish community," he said. Speaking at the Republican Jewish Coalition event in 2011, Breitbart said journalistic objectivity, when covering Israel, was misplaced. "You cannot be objective when it comes to right and wrong,” Breitbart said. “And Israel is in the right. So I’m a biased journalist, and I’m having a great time doing it."

Is Dave Camp Jewish?

No Dave Camp is not Jewish. Dave Camp is a U.S. representative in Congress serving Michigan's 4th congressional district. He is a practicing Roman Catholic.


In 2011 when the Republicans took back the House of Representatives Rep. Dave Camp took over the chairmanship of the House Ways and Means Committee from fellow Michigan representative Sandy Levin, who is Jewish.

Rep. Dave Camp has a Jewish staff member named Aharon Friedman who is Jewish and refuses to grant his ex-wife a Jewish bill of divorce known as a get. The couple has been divorced since 2009.

Is Oscar Goodman Jewish?

Yes, Mayor Oscar Goodman is Jewish. The former mayor of Las Vegas was born to two Jewish parents.

Is Mayor Oscar Goodman Jewish

Goodman was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, but has spent most of his life in Las Vegas. He made a name for himself defending such famous Jewish organized crime figures in Las Vegas, including Meyer Lansky, Herbert "Fat Herbie" Blitzstein, and Frank 'Lefty' Rosenthal.

Oscar Goodman is a member of Beth Sholom, a Conservative synagogue in Las Vegas.