Is Evan McMullin Jewish?
Evan McMullin - the 2016 third party presidential candidate paired with jewish feminist Mindy Finn (1) whose campaign was created by neo-conservatives displaced from the Republican party by the rise of Donald Trump - (2) is an interesting case of how the ‘system’/’deep state’ tries - successfully and unsuccessfully - to ‘manufacture consent’ with a good example being an attempt by the mainstream media to gas light Republican voters in 2016 to vote for McMullin by (falsely) claiming he was leading the polls in Utah. (3)
I assumed at the time - like everyone else - that McMullin was an ordinary non-jewish neo-conservative ex-CIA Beltway drone. However readers have let me know that there might be more to the story.
In his 2016 official statement on Immigration McMullin begins by writing:
'The story of America is the story of immigration. Evan McMullin’s family left Ireland in the 1600s to seek a better life in the New World. Part of his mother’s family fled Poland because of the Nazi menace.' (4)
He later clarifies in a blog post that:
'My mother’s family also came to the United States in search of liberty and opportunity.
Fleeing the Nazis, the Jastremski family escaped from Poland and eventually made its way to Philadelphia, where the Founders of this nation first declared that all of us are created equal and endowed by their Creator with inalienable rights.' (5)
The interesting thing about this is that relatively few ordinary Poles 'fled the Nazis' - they had little time to do so - after all they would have had little to fear other than occupation (placing to one side any later claims of Nazi brutality – real or otherwise – as these were not their previous experiences of German rule).
The fact that the Jastremski family had to 'escape Poland' because of 'the Nazis' suggests that they did so in the period 1939 to 1944 not after the Second World War. If McMullin had said his family left Poland after the Soviet Union occupied it then that would be one thing, but because he suggests it was when the Nazis occupied it. It therefore suggests they had a very specific reason to flee.
That reason can only be one of two (or both together):
A) They were prominent anti-German political activists.
B) They were going to subject to 'Nazi persecution' regardless (i.e., they were jewish).
Now this isn't evidence per se, but as most Polish political activists stayed and even fewer had even the opportunity of leaving German-occupied Poland. It rather suggests that the Jastremski family left because they had a more pressing reason for doing so: jewishness.
Is this solid evidence of McMullin's jewish heritage?
No, but if the manner in which McMullin presents his mother's family's flight from Poland is correct then it rather seems like he is indeed likely to have maternal jewish ancestry (i.e. he is jewish both halakhically and in Israeli law).
References
(1) https://forward.com/breaking-news/351687/nevertrump-independent-evan-mcmullin-names-jewish-running-mate/
(2) https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/josh-rogin/wp/2016/08/22/the-story-behind-evan-mcmullins-run-for-president/?utm_term=.3c86913b2ab7
(3) https://www.businessinsider.com/evan-mcmullin-utah-poll-trump-hillary-clinton-2016-10?r=US&IR=T
(4) https://www.evanmcmullin.com/immigration
(5) https://www.evanmcmullin.com/blog?page=7