George Allen's Jewish Roots

From: Tablet Magazine

In mid-June, a few days after winning the Republican primary for the Senate seat he lost six years ago, former Virginia Gov. George Allen strode onto a stage in downtown Washington, D.C., and gave a speech about religious tolerance. 

“I found out in the summer of 2006 that my grandfather was Jewish, and my mother hid this all these years,” Allen, flanked on the left by an American flag and on the right by an Israeli flag, told his audience at the annual convention of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, a group started by the Christian political activist Ralph Reed. 

“It’s very personal when the person who brought you life and raised you has these scars and fear, so that’s why it’s important for all of us as leaders … to stand up together for religious liberty.”

It was an appearance that would have been unthinkable for the candidate in his previous incarnation. In 2006, Allen vehemently denied his family’s Jewish roots following a bombshell report about his mother’s Tunisian Jewish background by the Forward’s E.J. Kessler. 

The energy with which he rejected the truth added an unpleasant frisson of self-hatred to a campaign already beset by charges of racism, after Allen was captured on video using an obscure North African slur against an Indian-American political operative: “macaca.” 

 Allen’s campaign spiraled in its final weeks, and he lost re-election by fewer than 9,000 votes, less than half a percent. Then he all but disappeared into the political wilderness, where he opened a political consulting firm and spent a few years keeping quiet about his new Jewish identity.