‘He deceived us’: GOP Jewish group pans congressman-elect who lied about being a Jew
Republican Jewish Coalition dissociates from George Santos after he acknowledged ’embellishments’ in bio but insisted he never said he was Jewish, as new evidence shows otherwise
Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief
The Republican Jewish Coalition on Tuesday said that US Congressman-elect George Santos would not be welcome at any future events for claiming Jewish heritage while running for office.
“We are very disappointed in Congressman-elect Santos. He deceived us and misrepresented his heritage,” RJC CEO Matt Brooks said in a statement.
“In public comments and to us personally he previously claimed to be Jewish. He has begun his tenure in Congress on a very wrong note. He will not be welcome at any future RJC event,” Brooks added.
It was the latest blow to Santos, a New York Republican, who has begun giving his first interviews since a series of media reports drew into question large swaths of his resume.
Footage from a speech Santos gave to the RJC last month showed him declaring that there would now be three Republican Jews in the House of Representatives — including him — following his victory in the November midterm election.
On Monday, Santos asserted he had merely “embellished” parts of his resume while admitting that he had been wrong for doing so.
Still, he insisted, “I never claimed to be Jewish… I am Catholic. Because I learned my maternal family had a Jewish background I said I was ‘Jew-ish.’”
But a day later, that claim to was proven to be false.
"Shabbat Shalom. My name is George Santos." Lee Zeldin "really paved way for all of us in NY…Lee has served as inspiration, as friend & a leader for the Jewish folks in Congress…for all of us in this room, at one point being just 2 members. Now we're going to be 3"
11/19/2022 pic.twitter.com/Xn8Ws3D7bL— Howard Mortman (@HowardMortman) December 27, 2022
Until Tuesday, the understanding was that Santos’s embellishments regarding his heritage were limited to his grandparents.
On his campaign website, Santos said his maternal grandparents were refugees who fled the Nazis for Brazil. He also said that he counted as his own his mother’s “Jewish background beliefs” as well as his father’s Catholicism.
But the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported last week that there was no evidence to support Santos’s claim that his mother was Jewish and raised suspicious given her name, common among Brazilian Catholics, and her online obituary, which did not mention any Jewish identity.
On Tuesday, the Forward uncovered a position paper the Santos campaign shared with Jewish and pro-Israel leaders in which he referred to himself as “a proud American Jew.”
It also identified records indicating that Santos’s grandparents had not in fact fled the Nazis. Santos’s claim to be the descendant of refugees of anti-Jewish persecution, it appears, is also a lie.
Genealogist Megan Smolenyak told CNN after researching Santos’s family history: “There’s no sign of Jewish and/or Ukrainian heritage and no indication of name changes along the way.”
Santos also claimed to “have been to Israel numerous times from educational, business, and leisurely trips.” A brief search of his social media accounts found no images or documentation of his alleged trips to Israel. https://t.co/XpLIitQmqB pic.twitter.com/jH8J0UAYMW
— Jacob Kornbluh (@jacobkornbluh) December 27, 2022
The New York Times raised questions last week about the life story that Santos, 34, had presented during the campaign.
The Queens resident had said he had obtained a degree from Baruch College in New York, but the school said that couldn’t be confirmed.
“I didn’t graduate from any institution of higher learning. I’m embarrassed and sorry for having embellished my resume,” he told the Post. “I own up to that… We do stupid things in life.”
Santos had also said he had worked for Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, but neither company could find any records verifying that.
He told the New York Post Monday he had “never worked directly” for either financial firm, saying he had used a “poor choice of words.”
Santos first ran for Congress in 2020 and lost. He ran again in 2022 and won in the district that includes some Long Island suburbs and a small part of Queens. With his win last month, Santos became the first openly-gay Republican elected to Congress. He has pledged to enter Congress next week, despite the revelations against him.
Agencies contributed to this report.
