Democrat Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York made a surprise revelation to a progressive Jewish group on the last night of Chanukah: She traces her ancestry back to 15th-century Sephardic Jews who fled to Puerto Rico during the Spanish Inquisition.
Speaking at an event organized by Jews for Racial and Economic Justice at the Jackson Heights Jewish Center in Queens, the rising Democratic-Socialist star drew cheers with the revelation, which she told Haaretz was the first time she had spoken publicly about her family’s Jewish heritage.
“I knew it! I sensed it!” she said, highlighting a member of the audience who reacted to her revelation.
“One of the things that we discovered about ourselves is that a very very long time ago, generations and generations ago, my family consisted of Sephardic Jews,” she said, referring to Jews who are originally from Spain or the Iberian Peninsula.
“And … the story goes that during the Spanish Inquisition, so many people were forced to convert on the exterior to Catholicism, but on the interior, continued to practice their faith, continued to be who they were, even though they were pressured to not be that on the outside world.”
[OUTRAGEOUS: Rep.-Elect Ocasio-Cortez Compares Immigrant Caravan to Jews Fleeing Nazi Germany]
She said that her knowledge of her ancestry came from “doing a lot of family trees in the last couple of years,” the Washington Post reported.
“I think what it goes to show is that so many of our destinies are tied beyond our understanding, beyond even what we know,” she also said.
At Hanukkah event with @JFREJNYC in an moving speech, @Ocasio2018 shares that her family were Sephardic Jews who fled to Puerto Rico. “So many of our destinies are tied beyond our understanding” pic.twitter.com/68bjuCFnDD
— Taly Krupkin (@TalyKrupkin) December 10, 2018
The 28-year-old also tweeted a video of her learning to dance the hora at the event, writing: “I can never turn down an opportunity to try a new dance.
[Ocasio-Cortez, New Socialist Political Star Accused Of Lying About Poor Bronx Roots]
Ocasio-Cortez is affiliated with the Democratic Socialists of America, which supports the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement targeting Israel.
She has called Israel’s defense against Palestinian protestors at the Gaza border a “massacre.”
She later said in an interview that her Puerto Rican roots helped her relate to the Palestinian protesters.
Before everyone jumps one me – yes, culture isn’t DNA.
But to be Puerto Rican is to be the descendant of:
African Moors + slaves,
Taino Indians,
Spanish colonizers,
Jewish refugees,
and likely others.We are all of these things and something else all at once – we are Boricua. https://t.co/IFC4mwAjor
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Ocasio2018) December 10, 2018
If anything, the stories of our ancestry give us windows of opportunity to lean into others, to seek them out, and see ourselves, our histories, and our futures, tightly knit with other communities in a way we perhaps never before thought possible.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Ocasio2018) December 10, 2018
Celebrating the 8th night of Hannukah w/ @Ocasio2018 and @JFREJNYC!
Alexandria spoke abt our need for resilience & light amidst darkness, for personal transcendence & solidarity toward justice.
(I told her the miracle of the oil could be a good metaphor for the #GreenNewDeal) pic.twitter.com/3AQ8XG0o35
— Brad Lander (@bradlander) December 9, 2018
We can wait to bring light together to DC. Thank you @Ocasio2018 for lighting #Chanukah's last candle with us tonight. pic.twitter.com/KMRrCelHX3
— Jews for Racial & Economic Justice (@JFREJNYC) December 9, 2018
Congressmember-elect @Ocasio2018 joins JFREJ members and partners to take in words from Rabbi @MiaSimring and JFREJ director @audrey_sasson in Jackson Heights Queens #Chanukah 📸 @rafaelshimunov pic.twitter.com/ryM0bvlhVr
— Jews for Racial & Economic Justice (@JFREJNYC) December 10, 2018
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12 Responses
To be fair it makes sense to be critical probably a majority of the world has jewish blood (we’ve been around everywhere and intermarriging for 2000 years) I hope this attempt of another “victim card” for her collection blows up on her
Liberals: “Race doesn’t matter. Also, vote for me because I’m your race.”
Really dumb. After Sen. Warren’s ill-fated claims to American Indian ancestry, you would think she learned a lessson. It i so blatantly false, nothing to gain with yidden and could actually be a negative with some of her lefty supporters.
Sounds like Pocahontas
With her IQ as low as it is she couldn’t possibly be jewish. But hey, in today’s world where if a guy decides he’s a woman then we all have to treat “her” as such, maybe she can be jewish if she so pleases.
I find it a little too convenient, like Elizabeth Sweden’s fake native American story.Let’s see some DNA of ancestry.
Almost all Hispanics, especially those with some European ancestry, have some Jewish ancestry. Indeed, almost all goyim with roots in European and the Middle East have some Jewish ancestry. That doesn’t make them Jewish.
Why is it so unbelievable that she has some relatives way back when that were Jewish? She is not saying SHE is Jewish. She had some ancestors, maybe even conversos. Who knows?
And I highly doubt it’s to court the Jewish vote. DNA testing like 23 and me and the like are very popular now.
No, it’s not to court Jewish votes, of which there aren’t many in her district; it’s to shield herself from accusations of antisemitism for her support for antisemites and antisemitic policies.
Now she can call crazy Bernie her ‘rabbi’.
Gadol,
While its indeed dumb on its own, but no comparison, Warren actually used it to her advantage and lied when applying for the college position. This is just typical political garbage.. which the Left will always get away with.
Gaon, there’s no evidence that Warren ever actually profited from her lie. The only job she got after she invented it was the one at Harvard, which she did not apply for, they headhunted her, and members of the committee that did so claim they (correctly) assumed she was a generic white woman and were unaware she was claiming to be a “minority”. If they’re lying, there’s no way to prove it.
Her claim really only came to light when Harvard’s HR department started promoting it, which could only have happened because she told them (though she denies it), but that would have happened after she got the job.