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Congressman-elect George Santos campaigned as a Jewish Republican. Was he lying?
(JTA) — On Sunday night, George Santos joined the Republican Jewish Coalition on Long Island, where he was just elected to Congress, for a menorah-lighting to mark the first night of Hanukkah. He’d been invited as one of just two freshmen Republican Jews elected to Congress in November.
On Monday morning, The New York Times published a blockbuster expose alleging that much of what Santos, 34, had said about his education, his wealth, his business experience, and even where he lives is false or at least questionable.
Not addressed in the article: Was he lying about his Jewish background? As with so much else in his personal narrative, there’s little to suggest truth beyond his own past comments.
The Times noted that Santos, 34, has identified to Jewish Insider as Jewish through his mother and Catholic through his father. Both parents were born in Brazil. Santos has said on Twitter that he is a practicing Catholic — and it is not unusual for some Americans to identify as ethnically Jewish and religiously Christian.
“Whether my mother’s Jewish background beliefs, which are mine or my father’s Roman Catholic beliefs, which are also mine, are represented or not,” he told Jewish Insider after his election, “I want to represent everyone else that practices every other religion to make sure everybody feels like they have a partner in me.”
His campaign biography begins, “George’s grandparents fled Jewish persecution in Ukraine, settled in Belgium, and again fled persecution during WWII. They were able to settle in Brazil, where his mother was born.”
That story could well be true. Many European Jews fled to South America during the leadup to the Holocaust. But Santos’ mother, Fatima Devolder (Santos sometimes goes by the name George Devolder), died in 2016 in New York. Nothing in her online obituary, which often is posted by family, indicates any Jewish background. Fatima is one of a number of Roman Catholic appellations for the Virgin Mary, derived from what the church claims are apparitions of Jesus’s mother in 1917 in the Portuguese city of the same name. Devolder is a Flemish/Dutch name, which at least validates Santos’s claim that his mother has Belgian ancestry, but the Flemish people are overwhelmingly Catholic.
Matt Brooks, the RJC CEO, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in a text, “I asked him about this. He identifies as Jewish.”
Santos was a featured speaker last month at the RJC’s annual Las Vegas event, billed as one of two freshmen Jewish Republicans in Congress. (The other is Ohio’s Max Miller.) He campaigned heavily among Orthodox Jews living in New York’s 3rd District, encompassing parts of northern Long Island and a part of Queens. “It was an honor to address fellow members of the Jewish community in #NY03,” he tweeted Nov. 3 after attending a Chabad event also attended by Israeli Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi David Lau.
At Sunday’s Hanukkah event, Santos joined Lee Zeldin, the outgoing New York Jewish congressman who gained traction among New York’s politically conservative Orthodox Jewish voters.
Santos did not return emails sent by JTA to multiple addresses or messages sent through a number of social media platforms. His sister, Tiffany, also did not reply to an email, nor did his lawyer, Joe Murray.
Santos’ claims about his religious and ethnic origins are minor compared to the revelations in the Times expose, which offered new details as well as ones published previously elsewhere and uncovered by Democratic Party opposition research. There are no records of Santos attending the institutes of higher learning he claims to have attended, or of working at some of the financial brokerages he claims have employed him. A charitable institution he started has no evidence of being charitable. He has repeatedly identified with the far right, and then attempted to scrub such expressions from his social media.
Santos faces outstanding charges in Brazil for allegedly stealing a checkbook from a man in the care of his mother, a nurse, and then cashing checks, according to the New York Times’ report. He has twice been evicted. His financial reporting as a candidate is missing required information, omissions that could bring legal jeopardy. The Times sought Santos out at the address where he is registered to vote; the person there said she did not know him.
It’s not the first time a politician has campaigned as identifying as having a Jewish background that evaporates under scrutiny. In 2018, Julia Salazar, a progressive Democrat who won a seat in the New York state legislature, said she identified as Jewish in part because of her father’s Jewish roots; her brother said their father was not Jewish.
Salazar and her defenders said that she identified as Jewish and it was untoward to demand proof. The RJC’s Brooks sounded a similar note regarding Santos. “He considers himself a Jew. That’s good enough for me,” he texted.
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The post Congressman-elect George Santos campaigned as a Jewish Republican. Was he lying? appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Protesters at Tel Aviv Rally Call for State Inquiry into Oct. 7 Failings
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu participates in the state memorial ceremony for the fallen of the Iron Swords War on Mount Herzl. In Jerusalem on 16 October 2025. Photo: Alex Kolomoisky/POOL/Pool via REUTERS
i24 News – Israeli protesters gathered on Saturday in Tel Aviv, to demand the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appoint a committee to initiate a state inquiry on the security failings of October 7.
Saturday night rallies in Tel Aviv have been a fixture of the two-year-long war in Gaza that was triggered by the Hamas-led cross-border attack on October 7, 2023, that saw the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.
Protesters charged that Netanyahu refuses to be held accountable for his share of responsibility in Israel’s blackest day. They likewise took exception to Netanyahu’s wish to select the members of the committee, arguing this represented subversion of the democratic process.
Protesters also demanded the return of remains of the three deceased hostages still remaining in Gaza: Ran Gvili, Dror or and Sudthisak Rinthalak.
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Ukraine ‘Ready to Discuss’ Trump Admin’s Plan to End War, as US Official Says Plan Not Up for Negotiation
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks at the press conference after the opening session of Crimea Platform conference in Kyiv, Ukraine, 23 August 2023. The Crimea Platform – is an international consultation and coordination format initiated by Ukraine. OLEG PETRASYUK/Pool via REUTERS
i24 News – Kyiv will engage with Washington’s 28-point plan to end the war with Russia and demonstrate it is open to substantive discussions, a senior Ukrainian official said on Saturday, even as an official from the US administration of President Donald Trump indicated that the plan was not up for negotiation.
“In the coming days in Switzerland we are launching consultations between senior officials of Ukraine and the United States on the possible parameters of a future peace agreement,” Rustem Umerov, secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, wrote on his official Facebook account.
“Ukraine approaches this process with a clear understanding of its interests. This is another stage of the dialogue that has been ongoing in recent days and is primarily aimed at aligning our vision for the next steps,” he further added. “We value the involvement of the American side and its readiness for a substantive discussion. Ukraine will continue to act responsibly, professionally, and consistently — as required by our national security.”
This comes after President Volodymyr Zelensky warned on Friday that Ukraine risked losing its dignity and freedom — or Washington’s backing — over a US peace plan that endorses key Russian demands.
Washington’s 28-point plan calls on Ukraine to cede territory, accept restrictions on its military and renounce its bid to join NATO.
Meanwhile, Financial Times reported on Saturday that US army secretary Daniel Driscoll communicated in no uncertain terms to Ukrainian and European officials there was no room to negotiate on its plan and Washington would show little flexibility.
“We are not negotiating details,” he was quoted as saying.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has previously refused to budge on Russia’s demands, said on Friday the US plan could be the basis of a final resolution to the nearly four-year-old conflict. He said Kyiv was against the plan but neither it nor its European allies understood the reality of Russian advances in Ukraine.
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MAGA Favorite Marjorie Taylor Greene to Resign After Split with Trump
U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) announces her resignation from her position, in this screen grab from a statement released on social media, November 21, 2025. Marjorie Taylor Greene via X/Handout via REUTERS
Saying she refused to be a “battered wife,” US Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene announced on Friday she was resigning from the House of Representatives in the wake of a dramatic falling out with President Donald Trump.
Her exit marks a stunning turn of events that few would have imagined months ago. Greene, a Republican from Georgia, was once one of Trump’s closest allies and an outspoken advocate of his “America First” agenda, but the rift between the two widened in recent months over the release of government files related to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and other matters.
In a 10-minute video posted on social media, Greene said she was spurred to resign by the prospect of having to face a Trump-backed Republican primary challenger and the potential takeover of the House by Democrats in next year’s midterm elections. She also complained that Congress has largely been “sidelined” since Trump returned to the presidency in January.
RUPTURE PROMPTS CONCERNS OVER MAGA BASE BEFORE MIDTERMS
“I have too much self-respect and dignity, love my family way too much, and do not want my sweet district to have to endure a hurtful and hateful primary against me by the president we all fought for, only to fight and win my election while Republicans will likely lose the midterms,” Greene said.
“I refuse to be a battered wife hoping it all goes away and gets better,” she added.
Interviewed by ABC News, Trump said Greene’s resignation, to take effect on January 5, was “great news for the country. It’s great.”
Greene lamented the state of American politics, contending that neither Republicans nor Democratic lawmakers were working to solve the nation’s problems, including the rising cost of living.
She said voters were tuning out Washington because “they know how much credit card debt they have, they know how much their own bills have gone up over the past five years, they actually do their own grocery shopping and know food costs too much, their rent has increasingly gone up, they have been outbid by corporate asset managers too many times when they put in an offer to buy a house.”
The public dispute between Trump and Greene had fueled concerns among some Republicans that Trump’s “Make America Great Again” base could fracture a year before the midterms, when Democrats hope to regain control of Congress.
Greene’s resignation will narrow the Republican majority in the House to 218 members over the Democrats’ 213. Republicans have a 53-47 majority in the Senate.
Greene had been increasingly exhibiting her independence from Trump, joining a House effort to force the release of the Epstein files over his objections, blasting House leadership for not doing more to address healthcare costs during the recent government shutdown and calling Israel’s assault on Gaza a genocide.
Trump, in turn, became more critical of her.
Before the House voted overwhelmingly to release the Epstein files, he called her a “traitor” and “disgrace” to the Republican Party. He withdrew his support for her and called her a “ranting lunatic.”
GREENE SAYS ORDINARY AMERICANS BEING ‘CAST ASIDE’
In her video, Greene defended her Epstein vote.
“Standing up for American women who were raped at 14, trafficked and used by rich powerful men, should not result in me being called a traitor and threatened by the president of the United States, whom I fought for,” she said.
Greene said she was proud of her conservative voting record, adding, in a swipe at Trump, that “loyalty should be a two-way street.”
Her ally in the House, Representative Thomas Massie, posted on X that Greene “embodies what a true representative should be.”
Barbara Comstock, a former Republican House member and a Trump critic, lauded Greene’s decision on social media.
“She doesn’t want to be a Republican ‘battered wife’ taking Trump’s abuse and getting death threats and pretending it’s all ok only to end up in the minority. Good for her,” Comstock posted.
Greene won her northwest Georgia district with 64% of the vote in 2024. Residents there said this week they hoped her rift with Trump would soon heal and expressed a willingness to support both of them. But Greene made clear on Friday that she had no interest in sparring with a Trump-backed opponent.
Even if she prevailed, she said, she likely would be in the House minority after the midterms and would have to defend Trump in impeachment proceedings, a situation she called “absurd” and “completely unserious.”
“If I am cast aside by MAGA Inc and replaced by Neocons, Big Pharma, Big Tech, Military Industrial War Complex, foreign leaders, and the elite donor class that can’t even relate to real Americans, then many common Americans have been cast aside and replaced as well,” she said.