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George Santos maintains Jewish heritage claim even as he admits to lying about resume
(JTA) — George Santos, the congressman-elect whose resume and personal story have collapsed under scrutiny this month, said Monday that he still identifies as “Jew-ish” despite reports showing that his grandparents were Catholics born in Brazil, not Jews who fled the Nazis in Europe as he previously claimed.
The Long Island Republican also questioned why “people are rushing to disinherit me from being Jewish” given his support for Jews and Israel at a time of rising antisemitism.
The comments came during Santos’ first media appearances since the New York Times published a story last week raising questions about virtually ever aspect of the Republican’s resume.
“Even though I’ve always I’ve always said I’m Catholic, I grew up Catholic, I’ve always loved and had a deep respect for my Jewish heritage and I will continue to,” Santos told a reporter from City & State, a publication covering New York politics. In similar comments to the New York Post, he said, “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.’”
In fact, Santos had told Jewish Insider that his mother’s Jewish beliefs were his own. He had also accepted invitations from the Republican Jewish Coalition honoring him as one of two incoming Jewish Republican representatives in Congress.
In a 2021 Jewish News Syndicate interview, Santos repeated the same “Jew-ish” line and talked about how his grandfather fled the Holocaust, which the Forward first reported last week was not supported by genealogical records in two countries.
To City & State, Santos said he had been repeating longstanding family lore. “I’ve made that joke because growing up I grew up fully aware that my grandparents are Jewish, came from a Jewish family, and they were refugees to Brazil,” he said. “That was always the story I grew up with. And I’ve always known it very well. And I’ve told it the way it was told to me.”
Santos told the news organization that he was surprised that Jews were distancing themselves from him amid mounting evidence that his profile as a Jewish Republican was fueled by inaccurate information.
“It just strikes me as so odd that people are rushing to disinherit me from being Jewish or even allowing to care for Israel and Judaism in a time and era where antisemitism is at an all-time rise,” Santos said. “And here somebody who actually cares about Jews, cares about Israel and somebody willing to fight for them, and we have people pushing me away.”
In his media appearances, Santos admitted to fabricating his resume, including his education and work history, and he apologized for doing so. He also said he would not be deterred from representing New York’s 3rd Congressional District, which includes parts of Long Island and Queens and includes a sizable Orthodox Jewish population.
“I am not a criminal,” Santos told the New York Post. “This will not deter me from having good legislative success. I will be effective. I will be good.”
To City & State, he suggested that he might still have some Jewish support. He said that he had gotten a text from someone — he did not say who — who told him, “I don’t care what you say you’re still an MOT,” using the acronym meaning “member of the tribe” that is a shorthand for Jewish. He added, “It feels good.”
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The post George Santos maintains Jewish heritage claim even as he admits to lying about resume appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Tucker’s Ideas About Jews Come from Darkest Corners of the Internet, Says Huckabee After Combative Interview
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee looks on during the day he visits the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest prayer site, in Jerusalem’s Old City, April 18, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
i24 News – In a combative interview with US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, right-wing firebrand Tucker Carlson made a host of contentious and often demonstrably false claims that quickly went viral online. Huckabee, who repeatedly challenged the former Fox News star during the interview, subsequently made a long post on X, identifying a pattern of bad-faith arguments, distortions and conspiracies in Carlson’s rhetorical style.
Huckabee pointed out his words were not accorded by Carlson the same degree of attention and curiosity the anchor evinced toward such unsavory characters as “the little Nazi sympathizer Nick Fuentes or the guy who thought Hitler was the good guy and Churchill the bad guy.”
“What I wasn’t anticipating was a lengthy series of questions where he seemed to be insinuating that the Jews of today aren’t really same people as the Jews of the Bible,” Huckabee wrote, adding that Tucker’s obsession with conspiracies regarding the provenance of Ashkenazi Jews obscured the fact that most Israeli Jews were refugees from the Arab and Muslim world.
The idea that Ashkenazi Jews are an Asiatic tribe who invented a false ancestry “gained traction in the 80’s and 90’s with David Duke and other Klansmen and neo-Nazis,” Huckabee wrote. “It has really caught fire in recent years on the Internet and social media, mostly from some of the most overt antisemites and Jew haters you can find.”
Carlson branded Israel “probably the most violent country on earth” and cited the false claim that Israel President Isaac Herzog had visited the infamous island of the late, disgraced sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“The current president of Israel, whom I know you know, apparently was at ‘pedo island.’ That’s what it says,” Carlson said, citing a debunked claim made by The Times reporter Gabrielle Weiniger. “Still-living, high-level Israeli officials are directly implicated in Epstein’s life, if not his crimes, so I think you’d be following this.”
Another misleading claim made by Carlson was that there were more Christians in Qatar than in Israel.
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Pezeshkian Says Iran Will Not Bow to Pressure Amid US Nuclear Talks
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian attends the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit 2025, in Tianjin, China, September 1, 2025. Iran’s Presidential website/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Saturday that his country would not bow its head to pressure from world powers amid nuclear talks with the United States.
“World powers are lining up to force us to bow our heads… but we will not bow our heads despite all the problems that they are creating for us,” Pezeshkian said in a speech carried live by state TV.
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Italy’s RAI Apologizes after Latest Gaffe Targets Israeli Bobsleigh Team
Milano Cortina 2026 Olympics – Bobsleigh – 4-man Heat 1 – Cortina Sliding Centre, Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy – February 21, 2026. Adam Edelman of Israel, Menachem Chen of Israel, Uri Zisman of Israel, Omer Katz of Israel in action during Heat 1. Photo: REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha
Italy’s state broadcaster RAI was forced to apologize to the Jewish community on Saturday after an off‑air remark advising its producers to “avoid” the Israeli crew was broadcast before coverage of the Four-Man bobsleigh event at the Winter Olympics.
The head of RAI’s sports division had already resigned earlier in the week after his error-ridden commentary at the Milano Cortina 2026 opening ceremony two weeks ago triggered a revolt among its journalists.
On Saturday, viewers heard “Let’s avoid crew number 21, which is the Israeli one” and then “no, because …” before the sound was cut off.
RAI CEO Giampaolo Rossi said the incident represented a “serious” breach of the principles of impartiality, respect and inclusion that should guide the public broadcaster.
He added that RAI had opened an internal inquiry to swiftly determine any responsibility and any potential disciplinary procedures.
In a separate statement RAI’s board of directors condemned the remark as “unacceptable.”
The board apologized to the Jewish community, the athletes involved and all viewers who felt offended.
RAI is the country’s largest media organization and operates national television, radio and digital news services.
The union representing RAI journalists, Usigrai, had said Paolo Petrecca’s opening ceremony commentary had dealt “a serious blow” to the company’s credibility.
His missteps included misidentifying venues and public figures, and making comments about national teams that were widely criticized.