Ocasio Cortez Jewish Ancestry

Like many women of color with Puerto Rican roots, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez bears a multilayered identity rife with complexity. The Puertoriquena, who will become the youngest congresswoman in U.S. history next month has revealed that on top of her identity as a feminist, a woman of color, a Latina is also of Jewish Heritage. During a week that has been so important to the culture and beliefs of Jewish people, one which celebrates the rededication of the Holy Temple and the surprise that came when oil meant to last for one day burned for eight, the up and coming politician revealed a surprise of her own.

At a Hanukkah celebration hosted by the Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, Ocasio-Cortez told the crowd that she is a descendant of Sephardic Jews.

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Ocasio-Cortez is Nuyorican (a person of Puerto Rican-descent, born and raised in New York). In the interview, she talked about her heritage citing: “My identity is the descendant of many different identities. I am the descendant of African slaves. I am the descendant of Indigenous people. I am the descendant of Spanish colonizers. Given centuries when Jewish ancestry was, for non-Jews, a stigma, a stain, something one ought to hide rather than proclaim, it is curious to me at this tense moment of Jews and the progressive left, that one of its leaders proudly attests her Jewish heritage. And while Ocasio-Cortez may not have attempted to affiliate, her desire to proclaim.

On the eve of the last night of Hanukkah, the Congresswoman-elect attended a celebration at the Jackson Heights Jewish Center in Queens, New York. To much elation, Ocasio-Cortez shared that her family in Puerto Rico has Jewish ancestry.

“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 to the crowd who cheered her on.

Sephardi Jews are a group of people, originally from Sepharad, Spain or the Iberian peninsula, that is a Jewish ethnic division. “Around 300,000 Jews lived in Spain before Catholic monarchs Isabella and Ferdinand ordered Jews and Muslims to convert to the Catholic faith or leave the country,” according to Haaretz. The Jewish publication also reports that there are “roughly 3.5 million direct descendants of those expelled from Spain in 1492, living in countries like Israel, France, the United States, Turkey, Mexico, Argentina, and Chile.”

“The story goes that during the Spanish Inquisition,” she said, “so many people were forced to convert on the exterior to Catholicism, but on the interior continued to practice their faith even though they were pressured to not be that on the outside and a strong group of people, strong-willed that were determined to continue living their life as they wanted to live it, decided to get on a boat and leave Spain. And some of those people ended up in Puerto Rico.

For the most part, during her campaign, Ocasio-Cortez had identified as a Catholic, though said she has discovered more information by “doing a lot of family trees in the last couple of years.”

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

Today, after news broke about her jewish history, Ocasio-Cortez — in anticipation of any negative response, she clarified her statements about her ancestry.

“Before everyone jumps one me — yes, culture isn’t DNA,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. “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.”

She also added: “Just because one concrete identity may not be how we think of ourselves today, nor how we were raised, it doesn’t mean we cannot or should not honor the ancestors and stories that got us here. I was raised Catholic, and that identity is an amalgam too — especially in Latin America. 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.”

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On Tuesday night, Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief Ben Shapiro, appearing on Fox News @ Night with host Shannon Bream, was asked about the claim by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez that she had Jewish ancestry. Shapiro pointed out that Ocasio-Cortez gave cover to anti-Semites who supported sanctions against Israel, like Linda Sarsour, Rashida Tlaib, and Ilhan Omar, by associating with them, and noted that Ocasio-Cortez was simply following in the footsteps of other Democrats, notably Hillary Clinton and John Kerry, who had made similar claims in order to distract from the policies they espoused that were bad for the Jewish people. He stated, “It’s an easy way of avoiding the question but it has about as much political weight as somebody being accused of racism and then saying, ‘Well, I once had a black friend.’”

Bream also brought up a Washington Post op-ed from a Democrat which criticized the March for Life for making Shapiro its keynote speaker in January, prompting Shapiro to answer, “The real question here is whether it is indeed about the unborn children, and that’s why whatever I’ve said about abortion has no relevance to Democrat or Republican other than the Democratic party has become the party of abortion.”

Bream started by playing a clip of Ocasio-Cortez claiming she has Jewish heritage, then commenting, “Ben, I know that you’ve raised some concerns or at least put it out that this potentially does not line up with some of her political leanings.”

Shapiro replied:

I’m very sick of politicians just generally claiming that some sort of heritage allows them to get off the hook for their current political positions. I’ve never heard anything about Ocasio-Cortez’s Jewish heritage before this. We’ve seen politicians like Hilary Clinton and John Kerry do the same thing talking about their Jewish heritage so they don’t actually have to talk about their policies with regard to Jews.

Ocasio-Cortez is incredibly close with people like Linda Sarsour, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, and she’s not shy about associating with folks who are fans of the anti-Semitic boycott, divestment and sanctions regime so, again, it’s an easy way of avoiding the question but it has about as much political weight as somebody being accused of racism and then saying, “Well, I once had a black friend.”

Bream mentioned one Twitter user who attacked Shapiro, calling him an Uncle Tom of Jews and adding, “In his mind, endorsing BDS somehow outweighs being Jewish …”

Shapiro answered;

Well, this is the usual line, that if you criticize Ocasio-Cortez in any way this is because you’re obsessed with Ocasio-Cortez. Again, here’s the reality: if you are in favor of boycotting, divesting and sanctioning the Jewish state but you’re fine with everything the Palestinians are doing, the Iranians are, the Saudis are doing, the Yemenis are doing, the Afghanis are doing or any other country in the region that has no human rights so speak of, but you’re somehow going to boycott Israel because somebody’s building an extra bathroom in Jewish East Jerusalem, then suddenly that’s not anti-Semitic? Of course that’s anti-Semitic by definition. The State Department says, if you are to treat Israel in a way you would treat no other state, then this is the definition of anti-Semitism. BDS is anti-Semitism and Ocasio-Cortez has not disassociated with anyone who has associated with BDS or radical anti-Israel activities.

Bream segued to Shapiro being named the keynote speaker at the March for Life in Washington, D.C. She asked, “Tell us about how you became associated with them and what message you hope to bring this year.”

Shapiro replied, “The March for Life is an amazing event. I’ve been watching it for years and I never had a chance to attend. When they came to me and offered me a keynote slot at the March for Life, I thought, what better way to bring attention to the most pressing social issue in America and of the time? It is the moral issue upon which all Americans will be judged, I think not only in this life, but in another. And future generations are going to look back and wonder how it is that so many Americans stood by and basically shrugged their shoulders as babies in the womb were killed for the sake of convenience. So I couldn’t be more excited about standing with the folks who are marching for life and standing with the unborn.”

Bream mentioned an op-ed in The Washington Post on Tuesday from a Fordham University professor and member of Democrats for Life that criticized the March for Life for selecting Shapiro as their keynote speaker. The professor tweeted, “Hey, March for Life, who will be featured this year to represent the millions and millions of pro-lifers who don’t identify as politically conservative?”

Shapiro stated:

Ocasio Cortez Jewish Ancestry

Well, again, I’m more than happy and I wish that there were more Democrats who identified as pro-life, but the question here is not whether it’s a conservative or leftist issue; the real question here is whether it is indeed about the unborn children, and that’s why whatever I’ve said about abortion has no relevance to Democrat or Republican other than the Democratic party has become the party of abortion. I wish that more Democrats were pro-life. It is not my fault or the fault of Republicans that so many Democrats have moved out of the pro-life category and into the radical pro-choice category and pretending otherwise is not going to change the facts on the ground.

Alexandria Ocasio Cortez Jewish Roots

Video below:

Ms Ocasio Cortez

Alex Ocasio Cortez