WP,pg1: Senator Allen's Mother Revealed Jewish Heritage to Him Last Month

[DeepModem Mom]

Allen's Mother Revealed Jewish Heritage to Him Last Month
By Michael D. Shear
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, September 21, 2006; Page A01


Sen. George Allen (R-Va.) at a Senate debate Monday where he was questioned about his heritage. (By Alex Wong -- Getty Images)

RICHMOND, Sept. 20 -- Henrietta "Etty" Allen said Wednesday that she concealed her upbringing as a Jew in North Africa from her children, including Sen. George Allen (R-Va.), until a conversation across the dining room table in late August.

She said Allen asked her directly about his Jewish heritage when he was in Los Angeles for a fundraiser. "We sat across the table and he said, 'Mom, there's a rumor that Pop-pop and Mom-mom were Jewish and so were you,'" she recalled, a day after Allen issued a statement acknowledging and embracing his Jewish roots as he campaigns for a second term in the U.S. Senate.

At the table in Palos Verdes, Calif., Allen's mother, who is 83, said she told her son the truth: That she had been raised as a Jew in Tunisia before moving to the United States. She said that she and the senator's father, famed former Redskins coach George Allen, had wanted to protect their children from living with the fear that she had experienced during World War II. Her father, Felix Lumbroso, was imprisoned by the Nazis during the German occupation of Tunis.

"What they put my father through. I always was fearful," Etty Allen said in a telephone interview. "I didn't want my children to have to go through that fear all the time. When I told Georgie, I said, 'Now you don't love me anymore.' He said, 'Mom, I respect you more than ever.' "

Allen's heritage became an issue in the Virginia Senate campaign Monday, when television reporter Peggy Fox raised it at a televised debate in front of 600 business executives in Fairfax County. Allen repeated what he has said in the past: "My mother's French-Italian with a little Spanish blood in her. And I was raised as she was, as far as I know, raised as a Christian."...Allen had just recently learned about their Jewish roots when he made those comments. Allen declined to comment, but his mother said she had sworn him to secrecy....Etty Allen said Wednesday that she had never used the word "macaca" before and had to go to a dictionary to look it up when she heard of the controversy....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/20/AR2006092001965.html

[ginnyinWI]

1. he should have told the truth

The fact that he thought there was something to hide speaks volumes. Kerry didn't hide it when the true heritage of his grandparents was uncovered by some journalists. Because there is no reason to--at least these days. (unless you are a racist at heart, I suppose...)

Then in the interview Allen switches the argument to a religious one--nobody should attack anyone's religion! But that wasn't the question--it was about cultural/ethnic background.

[seriousstan]

2. It's his Mom...I'll cut him some slack if she says so

[Erika]

3. Why didn't the idiot just answer the question?

But instead he brings up ham sandwiches and pork chops?

I could never be a republican.

[alittlelark]

4. Macaca ASSHAT.

LIE...LIE...LIE...LIE...LIE...LIE...LIE... :mad: :puke:

I can't believe this pathetic excuse for a human being is in congress... Uh, I guess I can - come to think of it, there are a few hundred others like him there as well.

[zonkers]

6. Let's just call him Senator Macaca for now on.

[murielm99]

9. Let's just call him ex-Senator Macaca,

very soon!

[NOLADEM]

13. Ex-Senator FELIX MACACA

Or GRAND WIZARD FELIX MACACA.

[apnu]

14. what are the poll numbers for this race these days?

Do you think its likely that Virgina will toss him?

[zonkers]

5. Bull fucking shit. The whole family are liars. They make me sick.

[sendero]

15. Isn't just too damn..

... convenient :)

[Virginian]

7. when he was in Los Angeles for a fundraiser.

Last time I looked at a map, LA was not in Virginia. Has it moved? Why are our candidates going there to get money to run here? If he was raising money in Hollywood, why was he criticizing Webb for doing the same thing?

Well at least his mother can't vote for him.

If his mother did say all that, (I don't believe it) why did she raise a bigot? Didn't her family suffer enough persecution and discrimination that she wouldn't want her son inflicting it onto others? I would have thought she would have sat him down and explained his background to him as soon as he came home with a confederate flag.

[keopeli]

8. actually, she may have grown quite tolerant of bigotry as a young person

Just a thought. I believe that most people grouped with racists are simply passively tolerant of the aberration. It is an ethic that they grew up with and have come to expect. Eventually, they grow dependent on the furor that feeds racism.

I don't know anything about this woman's background apart from what is in this article. I can believe she is being honest as easily as I can believe she is lying. The real issue, as I see it, is why Allen made his bizarre characterization of the reporter as "macaca". Everything else is a distraction. This fundamental behavior is, at the very least, odd.

Peace

[Tin Man]

16. Yep, Felix learned macaca (the Tunisian "n word") from his Tunisian mother

...the real issue is not his heritage, but what his heritage tells us about the "macaca incident"... Felix didn't "just invent a nonsense word" like he claims - he learned it from his Tunisian mother, where the word is the equivalent of our N word. Felix is a racist AND a liar.

[bklyncowgirl]

10. Allen pandering to right wing anti-semite vote

If the family chose to convert to Christianity to avoid persecution and later embraced that religion then that's their business and no one else's. It's a family story similar to that of several other public figures, Madeline Albright and John Kerry for example.

What's interesting to me is the way he reacted when it came out--as if it was some sort of shameful secret that had to be covered up.

There's only a tiny section of the population who would consider being part Jewish to be a bad thing. I think that George Allen needs every vote he can get and the revelation of his Jewish heritage could hurt him with a group of voters he was absolutely depending on to vote for him. The guys in the white sheets will vote for a tobacco chewing, God fearing, Confederate flag waving good ol' boy. They may not be too thrilled to learn that he's actually from California and that his family heritage is not what he told them it is.

If Jim Webb's campaign were smart, they'd start a stealth campaign insinuating that George Allen is an Israeli mole--A Manchurian Candidatechik, if you will.

[Virginian]

27. What's interesting to me is the way he reacted when it came out.

Richmond has a strong Jewish community. Let's hope they found that part interesting, also.

Maybe that point should be emphasized. He acted ashamed of his Jewish ancestry rather than he has Jewish ancestry.

This is about his character, not his bloodline.

[no_hypocrisy]

11. That's funny, my mother told me she was Jewish when I was 5 years old.

It wasn't until I was 27 that she told me she was really third generation atheist.

[Eurobabe]

12. Mom-mom and pop-pop?

Fire this asshole now.

[LostinVA]

21. Him calling his grandparents that isn't weird

Those aren't unusual terms. It what we called ours.

[Eurobabe]

33. Coming from Felix, it sounds juvenile

Plus Allen's a fucking liar.

[displacedtexan]

17. File this under: News From Planet OH RIGHT SURE!

What a crock! And the WaPo thinks we'll actually believe this?

[Joe Bacon]

18. soooo, how is Felix gonna celebrate Rosh Hashanah?

Let me guess, Felix, gonna eat another Edwards Ham on Friday night?

[Vinca]

19. Guess that'll cost him the Klan vote. nt

[LostinVA]

20. Seriously? This probably devastated him

He is a total white supremist -- and they loathe blacks, Catholics, Jews, etc. For him to find this out probably freaked out his little Freeper mind. Kinda like a Grand Dragon finding out he's part black.

Man, I cannot stand him...

[KamaAina]

28. A Grand Dragon finding out he's part black, you say?

It was funny as hell when it was a sketch on Chappelle's Show. But in real life?!



That was from the Klan rally at Gettysburg, of all places. :puke:

http://www.newsvine.com/_news/2006/09/03/349362-klan-holds-rally-at-gettysburg

GETTYSBURG, PA. — About 30 Ku Klux Klan members proclaimed hatred for blacks, Jews, gays and Latinos as they stood behind barricades at the Civil War battlefield where Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address.

[LibDemAlways]

22. She's claiming that when she told him she said,

"Now you won't love me anymore." Does anyone else think that's a very strange statement for a mother to make to a son right after telling him about her Jewish heritage. If that's what she said she had to be scared shitless that he was going to start throwing things. If anyone knows how bigoted Allen is, she does.

[BlueJackal]

23. What does "Macaca" mean anyways?

Is it derogatory towards Jews?

:Nevermind:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macaca_(slur)

[DeepModem Mom]

24. Thanks for posting, BlueJackal -- welcome to DU!

[BlueJackal]

26. Thanks for the welcome! :) nt

[No Exit]

31. It means George Felix Allen is a stupid, hypocritical p.o.s.

Go ahead, Repukelicans--run him for president! I can't wait.

[rocktivity]

25. This is turning into an episode of Keeping Up Appearances, LOL

Just as Hyacinth Bucket never learns that she creates her own personal hells with her pretentious selfishness, Allen has turned what should have been a non-issue into a total self-indictment, particularly unfortunate in the shadow of the Macaca episode. All he needed to have said was what Wesley Clark did: "Yes, my mother was born and raised Jewish, but she became a Christian, raised me as such and I've been perfectly satisfied to be one." Instead, Allen gets all shocked, outraged and defensive--which, for the record, I do NOT believe is the result of his having found out recently!

:rofl:
rocknation

[yojon]

29. Reminds me of an old Chris Rock routine

in which Chris plays a blind black guy who runs KKK rallies. Since he is in a hood, no one can tell he is black. Eventually his is discovered but no one has the heart to tell him..

[No Exit]

30. Forget the Jewish part. He's part FRENCH. French, French, French!

Isn't that just about the WORST thing you can be in red-state-moonbat land?? And isn't Senator Shithead angling to be the presidential candidate of red-state moonbat Amur'ka?

Nyah nyah nyah!! Hey, freeptards, your future candidate is FRENCH! French Felix! French Felix!:)

[Anakin Skywalker]

32. Heh Heh Heh. Funny.

[provis99]

34. Forget the French part,

isn't he a Californian? Doesn't that make him a carpetbagger, too? A little like a Connecticut yankee moving to Texas and claiming to be a cowboy. (Whoops, sorry papa Bush)

[MrScorpio]

35. Welcome To DU

Stick around

[unhappycamper]

37. Hi provis99

Welcome to DU! :hi:

[Laughing Mirror]

36. Did he learn the racist word macaque from his father then, Etty?

Or is that another "secret" he is sworn to uphold?

[Irreverend IX]

38. So it's running on A1 in the WaPo...

What page is it running in Virginia's papers? Cause that's where it matters most. Also, wouldn't it be hilarious if a bunch of "Jews for Allen" started visiting all his campaign events to hand out blintzes and dreidels and explain how Allen is _so_ devoted to furthering the Jewish community? Bonus points if they claim he's endorsed by Steven Spielberg and other eeeevil Hollywood Jewish liberals.

[IndianaGreen]

39. Having a Jewish ancestry is reason to be ashamed?

What a strange family!

[Supersedeas]

40. Why would she think that Felix wouldn't love her anymore???

[warrens]

41. "Sheee-it, I bin a goddam kike all this time and never knowed it"

Man, that's one fucked up family.