George Allen's mom claims she hid Jewish heritage from Confederate groupie son

California Spot Prawn, originally uploaded by MatthewA.

Senator George Allen's mother claims that she hid her Jewishness from her son because she didn't want him to be "afraid" in the same way that her father, a Nazi resistance fighter, had been because of his Jewishness: Allen's mother hid Jewish heritage:

"What they put my father through. I always was fearful," the Post quoted Henriette "Etty" Allen of Palos Verdes, Calif., as saying in a telephone interview. "I didn't want my children to have to go through that fear all the time."

Forgive me for my skepticism. Maybe Allen's mom hid her true identity from him while he was a kid, but don't ask me to believe that she kept up the ruse until last friggin' month. The dude constructed an image for himself as a heritage-obsessed Confederate groupie! Do you really believe he never figured out that his mom is a full-blooded Sephardic Jew, and therefore that he too is MOT (as we like to say).

"When I told Georgie, I said, 'Now you don't love me anymore.' He said, 'Mom, I respect you more than ever,'" she told the newspaper.

"Now you don't love me anymore"!?

Pardon me if I scoff. It seems like Allen's press team has been feeding his mom some lines evocative of some rather creepy stereotypes. I'm sure they don't know any better. In fact, if they had, I'm sure they wouldn't have allowed this.

Granted the same clueless crew probably told Allen to say that eating pork products diminishes his Jewishness.

As a Reform Jew, all I can do is tell George Allen to go suck my prawn.

Comments

[mike]

MOT???

[Lindsay Beyerstein]

MOT=Member of Tribe.

[1984 Was Not a Shopping List]

>George Allen's mom claims she hid Jewish heritage from Confederate groupie son

I have to say, this headline is even more provocative than the prawn 69.

[John Lucid]

It's such a bad cover story that it almost seems like satire. Still, I can appreciate where he's coming from. I didn't know my mother was an Eskimo until she told me one day while we were driving the sled dogs back to the village with a fresh load of whale blubber. It hit me like a ton of igloo bricks.

[fishbane]

As a Reform Jew, all I can suggest is that George Allen suck my prawn.

I would pay good money to see that.

[anjali]

John Lucid, truedat. I didn't know I was a macaca until George Allen pointed it out to me. Thanks georgie. Now I remember my grandmother's warm words as I sat in the toddler chair, saying "dear little macaca, now now, eat your rice."

[Alon Levy]

Do you really believe he never figured out that his mom is a full-blooded Sephardic Jew, and therefore that he too is MOT (as we like to say).

Hey, he also has some non-white heritage!

It must mean the macaca thing couldn't really be racism.

So, what're you gonna do? As a Reform Jew, all I can suggest is that George Allen suck my prawn.

As someone who's ostensibly an Orthodox Jew but is in reality as Jewish as the Pope, all I can suggest is that people stop trumping the "I'm oppressed" card as a substitute for really not acting like a racist.

[1984 Was Not a Shopping List]

>all I can suggest is that people stop trumping the "I'm oppressed" card as a substitute for really not acting like a racist.

I think that once I've parsed this sentence, I'll agree with whatever you mean.

[1984 Was Not a Shopping List]

;)

[Alon Levy]

It's not that difficult: instead of ranting about how they're members of oppressed groups, politicians should just promote racial equality.

From a Jewish angle, it's "George Allen should publicly denounce anti-Semitic hate crimes instead of trying to bring up some Jewish heritage."

[1984 Was Not a Shopping List]

Just teasing you, I knew what you meant.

I've never actually heard of George Allen. Whenever I see his name, I keep thinking of Steve Allen.

[anon]

1984 Was Not a Shopping List: Your ideas intrigue me, and I would like to subscribe to your newsletter --- Homer Simpson

[Lindsay Beyerstein]

In Allen's case, he's frantically trying to deny his Jewish heritage.

[none]

Jack Balkin posted some news about a similar incident involving Preznit Bush:

http://balkin.blogspot.com/2006/09/at-least-hes-principled-about-it.html>At least he's principled about it

"Senator George Allen isn't the only politician to be surprised about his religious heritage. Yesterday former First Lady Barbara Bush revealed to her son George that she had been raised as a Muslim. The President immediately went to Congress and demanded the right to waterboard himself."

[Frankenstein]

I keep suggesting that my [very kosher] law school cafeteria add deep-fried shrimp wrapped in bacon and topped with cheese to the menu, but for some reason, they've never taken me up on it.

[Dabodius]

Didn't Dylan sing, "He's only a praawwwwwwwwnn in their game"?
Trouble is, it's Allen's game, or he'd like it to be.
Good thing I'll have apple and honey to blot out out these abominable food evocations.

Shanah Tovah to all!

[mudkitty]

The fact is, if you're mother is jewish, then you are jewish, according to jewish religious law.

Hense, Sen. Allen is a jew himself.

[The Phantom]

--The fact is, if you're mother is jewish, then you are jewish, according to jewish religious law. --Hense, Sen. Allen is a jew himself. --

Which is fine, but if you don't adhere to Jewish religious law, he isn't Jewish at all. He has Jewish heritage, and thats it.

Don't see any reason not to believe his recent account, either. I'll suppose that it's easy to disbelieve anything said by someone you hate, like the Republicans about Clinton.

George Allen is the devil! I can still smell the sulfur!

Prawns are delicious, we can agree on that.

[Mnemosyne]

Don't see any reason not to believe his recent account, either. I'll suppose that it's easy to disbelieve anything said by someone you hate, like the Republicans about Clinton.

Like when Hillary Clinton discovered she had a Jewish grandmother, and all the Republicans could talk about was that she'd known all along but revealed it for political gain? Or when John Kerry found out that his grandfather was a Jewish immigrant, and Republicans said he'd known it all along but only revealed it for political gain? Or when Madeleine Albright found out that she was Jewish and Republicans ...

... wait for it ...

Said she'd known it all along but only revealed it for political gain?

Republicans: the party of titty-ass whiny babies who can dish it out but can't take it.

[JR]

To protect the children? That's what she says at the top of the story. But further down you get a hint of the truth:

"Etty Allen said she began concealing her Jewish past after meeting the man she would marry, George H. Allen, who became a legendary football coach with the Los Angeles Rams and the Washington Redskins."

Doesn't it make more sense that she decided to pass because her prospective husband told her to? That she wanted to be accepted into her new family?

It's possible that he never knew- but only if he never met his grandfather or any relatives on his mother's side.

[cfrost]

Maybe mom really did tell a little fib. Maybe she really was afraid that the kids in Palos Verdes would pick on little George if he wore a yarmulke. Not being Jewish I wouldn’t know anything about that. I do however count cowboys and Confederates among my ancestors and I find it a bit odd that a punk from one of LA’s tonier suburbs dons cowboy boots, waves the stars & bars and bills himself a member of that tribe. Of course maybe Allen has a lot of cotton chopping and saddle tramping in his background we also don’t know about.

[The Phantom]

Mnemosyne

Don't include me in that lot. I opposed impeachment, and didn't like the incidents you speak of.

The race-baiting question asked by this reporter, again presented in the context of a debate for Gods sake, is despicable.

Oh, the oh so clever Kerry did play up his nonexistent Irishancestryin Boston , for his entire career up to that point. Wonder what religious law says about that.

[SLC]

1. Let's remember that George Allens' mother isn't running for anything. Pick on macaca George all you want but lay off his mother.

2. For the edification of Mr. Levy, George Allen Senior was a football coach for the Los Angeles (now St. Louis) Lambs and the Washington Deadskins.

[Bruce]

George Allen should have suspected that he had a Jewish background when he saw Woody at that family reunion.

[Thomas]

Lindsay, I simply don't believe you. Short of some absurd utilitarian-baiting hypo, there is not set of circumstances under which you would permit Allen to suck your prawn.