Is Zac Goldsmith Jewish?
Back in 2015 Jewish News claimed that Zac Goldsmith - former Conservative party candidate for the position of Mayor of London and current electoral candidate - ‘is not Jewish, [and] has previously told Jewish News he has suffered from anti-Semitism online due to his name.’ (1)
This is complete balderdash as one can quickly ascertain by reading the related ‘Times of Israel’ piece:
‘Goldsmith’s grandfather, Frank Goldschmidt, was born in Germany to a multi-millionaire Jewish banking family. Changing his name to Goldsmith and marrying a French Catholic woman, Goldsmith became a Conservative MP in Britain in 1910, a position he held for eight years.
But despite having married “out,” Frank Goldsmith stayed close to the Jewish community and helped many refugee Jewish charities. He went into the hotel business after standing down as an MP and was one of the founder group which built the King David Hotel in Jerusalem. Settling in France before World War II, he managed to escape on one of the last ships leaving the country as the Nazis invaded, leaving most of his assets behind.’ (2)
Oh, and aside from the fact that Zac Goldsmith’s paternal grandfather was a jew, which makes Zac a jew in Israeli law but not one halakhically (i.e., in jewish religious law). It turns out that his second wife is a jewess named Alice Rothschild (3) with whom he has two children; who – as their mother is jewish – are both halakhically jewish and jewish according to Israeli law.
So his grandfather was jewish and his second wife is jewish as are his two children by her.
So what’s that about not being part of the tribe again Zac?
References
(1) http://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/zac-goldsmith-election-placard-defaced-with-swastika/
(2) http://www.timesofisrael.com/will-it-be-jew-vs-muslim-in-londons-next-mayoral-election/
(3) Ibid.