{"id":110332,"date":"2018-12-10T06:44:49","date_gmt":"2018-12-10T10:44:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=110332"},"modified":"2018-12-10T06:54:33","modified_gmt":"2018-12-10T10:54:33","slug":"like-so-many-closet-communist-ocasio-cortez-admits-to-her-crypto-jewish-background","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=110332","title":{"rendered":"Like so many closet communists, Ocasio-Cortez admits to her crypto-Jewish background"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Claims Sephardic Jewish Roots<\/h1>\n<p><!--more-->By Dave Goldiner<br \/>\nFAST FORWARD<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-image-left article-size-normal share-cta\">\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"loaded alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.forwardcdn.com\/images\/300x225\/aoc-1544409990.jpg?1544410007\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" data-src=\"https:\/\/assets.forwardcdn.com\/images\/300x225\/aoc-1544409990.jpg?1544410007\" data-high-res=\"https:\/\/assets.forwardcdn.com\/images\/cropped\/aoc-1544409990.jpg?1544410007\" data-srcset=\"\" data-was-processed=\"true\" \/><figcaption><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the newly elected firebrand congresswoman, has revealed for the first time that she has Sephardic Jewish heritage.<\/p>\n<p>The 28-year-old Democrat said her distant ancestors fled the Spanish Inquisition to emigrate to Puerto Rico, where her immediate family roots lived until they moved to New York.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGenerations and generations ago, my family consisted of Sephardic Jews,\u201d said Ocasio-Cortez. \u201cSo many people practiced Catholism on the exterior but on the interior they continued to practice (Judaism).\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">At Hanukkah event with <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JFREJNYC?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@JFREJNYC<\/a> in an moving  speech, @Ocasio2018 shares that her family were Sephardic Jews who fled to Puerto Rico. \u201cSo many of our destinies are tied beyond our understanding\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/68bjuCFnDD\">pic.twitter.com\/68bjuCFnDD<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Taly Krupkin (@TalyKrupkin) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TalyKrupkin\/status\/1071937301209595904?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 10, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s believed to be the first time Ocasio-Cortez has publicly mentioned her Sephardic roots. Haaretz first reported the revelation Sunday night.<\/p>\n<p>She didn\u2019t explain why she has apparently never mentioned the issue before. In recent months, she has burst onto the national political scene with a leftist critique of the Democratic establishment and its stands on a variety of issues including Israel and the Palestinians.<\/p>\n<p>Ocasio-Cortez told Haaretz that she didn\u2019t plan to talk about her family history on Sunday, either. \u201cSometimes I feel the space, I feel the moment,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n<p>Ocasio-Cortez, who pulled off a stunning upset over Democratic powerhouse Joe Crowley in a primary last spring, suggested that her relatives and other Puerto Rican families hid menorahs and other artifacts of Jewish practice in their homes on the overwhelmingly Roman Catholic island.<\/p>\n<p>She used her unusual family history to draw a parable about the polyglot history of Puerto Rico, where many trace their roots to a mix of Spanish colonizers, indigenous native Americans and black slaves.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo many of our destinies are tied beyond our understanding,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking next to a Hanukkah menorah, Ocasio-Cortez was addressing a friendly audience at a Jews For Racial And Economic Justice event in New York.<\/p>\n<p>A few gasps and an audible, \u201coh really?\u201d greeted her initial statement that she has Sephardic roots. A crying baby and a wandering toddler later interrupted her speech.<\/p>\n<p>The claim of Sephardic heritage echoes the claim by her political ally Julia Salazar, who snatched a Brooklyn state senate seat from an incumbent establishment Democrat. Salazar says her father\u2019s Colombian family had Sephardic roots, but her brother disputes the assertion.<\/p>\n<p>Ocasio-Cortez raised hackles among supporters of Israel when she decried the killing of dozens of unarmed Palestinians in Gaza as a \u201cmassacre\u201d by Israeli troops.<\/p>\n<p>Along with fellow newbie lawmakers Ilhan Omar of Minneapolis and Rashida Tlaib of Detroit, Ocasio-Cortez may shake up the normally one-sided conversation about Israel in the new Congress. But they will have little actual power to affect policy.<\/p>\n<p>Tlaib has said she will not go on a trip to Israel sponsored by the powerful pro-Israel AIPAC lobby and instead plans to lead her own trip to the occupied Palestinian territories.<\/p>\n<p>___<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/forward.com\/fast-forward\/415690\/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-claims-sephardic-jewish-roots\/\">https:\/\/forward.com\/fast-forward\/415690\/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-claims-sephardic-jewish-roots\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Claims Sephardic Jewish Roots<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-110332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=110332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110332\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=110332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=110332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=110332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}