Is Paul Ryan Jewish?
It has emerged that Republican former US House Speaker Paul Ryan is part-jewish. Allyson Chiu writes in the Washington Post that:
‘A new fact about House Speaker Paul D. Ryan has emerged, one that until recently, he didn't even know himself.
Ryan, a practicing Catholic, is 3 percent Jewish. More precisely, he's 3 percent Ashkenazi Jewish, with eastern European roots.
[…]
"You could have knocked him over with a feather and then he was very proud of it," Gates said. "We don't know who that Jewish person was, but we know it was on his mother's German line, which makes sense."
Gates said his research took him all the way back to Ryan's 10th great-grandfather who was born in 1531 in Germany, AP reported.
Ryan tweeted "I hope all my friends in the Jewish community had a joyous and meaningful #Hanukkah."
[…]
While his heritage was only recently brought to light, Ryan has long voiced support for Israel. In 2016, in the wake of the Iran nuclear deal, he addressed the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and stressed that the U.S. needed to give Israel "more than vague assurances that we've got their back."
In January last year, Ryan delivered an impassioned speech on the House floor in defense of a measure calling for the repeal of a U.N. Security Council Resolution condemning Israeli settlements on disputed land.’ (1)
Now the interesting thing about his – as Chiu herself notes – (2) is that the jewish ancestry is on Ryan’s maternal ancestry, which means that while he may be only three percent jewish. However if – as with the late Christopher Hitchins and his brother Peter – he may in fact be halakhically jewish, because all that is required for that to be true is for say Ryan’s maternal grandmother to have been jewish and then Ryan would himself be halakhically jewish. Therefore he would – according to Israeli law – be classed as a jew.
It all makes sense now: doesn’t it?
References
(1) http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0818/ryan_jewish.php3 also https://worldisraelnews.com/house-speaker-paul-ryan-uncovers-jewish-roots/
(2) http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0818/ryan_jewish.php3