So on erev Shabbos, I received an email chain forward with the title UNBELIEVABLE. Indeed. The claim is that Sarah Palin is Jewish, by maternal descent. I tend to doubt many things sent by email forwards, and the claim itself is in itself somewhat dubious. First the text, and then the debunking.
The text:
Based on Jewish tradition that makes one Jewish if born to a mother of Jewish ethnic decent, Sarah Palin is Jewish, though she touts a mask of evangelical christianity. Sarah Palin's mother, Sally Sheigam, was of Lithuanian Jewish heritage and so were both of her mother's parents, Louise Sheigam and Shmuel Sheigam. Her father, Chuck Heath, also comes from Jewish blood because his mother, Beatrice Coleman, was of Jewish decent. Further information on GovernorA good debunking is here at wiki answers. Basically, you can find a detailed ancestry of Sarah Palin at this website. On the maternal side, there are many generations which were born in America, not Lithuania. A partial excerpt from the wiki answers site:
Palin's ancestors can be found in the vital records in the Lithuanian State Historical Archives in Vilnius ( http://www.archyvai.lt/ here).
The Archives holds birth, marriage, divorce, and death records for the Lithuanian Jewish community from 1851 until 1915 when the Jews were required to leave the country because of World War I. They are in 18th Century Cyrillic script and Yiddish. Many of these records include the mother's maiden name and town of registration.
Palin's maternal grandfather, Schmuel Sheigam, was a Lithuanian Jew, born in 1912 in Vilkaviskis, Lithuania, The Sheigams' grandmother was a Jewess named Gower. At the Ellis Island Immigration Center, the name was entered as Sheeran, instead of Sheigam, a standard practice when immigration officers were unable to understand the pronunciation of non-English speaking immigrants. They are buried in the Jewish cemetery at Budezeriai.
*Palin's mother was born Sally Sheeran, in Oct 1940, in Richland, WA
*Her mother was born Helen Louise Gower, on 22 Jan 1910 in WI
*Her mother was born Cora Strong, on 4 Nov 1886, in Chippewa Co., WI
*Her mother was born Augusta L[odema] Godfrey, in Jul 1854, in Waverly, Morgan Co., IL
and so on and so forth, for several more generations.
My guess is that this is either from an Obama supporter who wants to alienate the Neo-Nazi from McCain, and thought to himself, "what would a Neo-Nazi hate more than an African-American President"; or a McCain supporter who thought (most likely incorrectly) that this would persuade Jewish voters to vote for McCain-Palin, rather than the Democratic candidate.
I did not see this on snopes, so it is important, I think, to post it here.
6 comments:
That wiki article has been edited in the last few weeks. I "wiki-ed" Sarah Palin Jewish a while ago and found all the info about her Jewish ancestry.
since then, they've replaced it with the Jewish stuff taken out.
she is definitely "technically" jewish, and this paragraph below is correct (formerly also on wikipedia)
Palin's maternal grandfather, Schmuel Sheigam, was a Lithuanian Jew, born in 1912 in Vilkaviskis, Lithuania, The Sheigams' grandmother was a Jewess named Gower. At the Ellis Island Immigration Center, the name was entered as Sheeran, instead of Sheigam, a standard practice when immigration officers were unable to understand the pronunciation of non-English speaking immigrants. They are buried in the Jewish cemetery at Budezeriai.
See this:
http://newsfromthewest.blogspot.com/2008/09/is-sarah-palin-jew.html
If you scroll down on the wiki page, the Jewish stuff is indeed still there, as it was when I wrote the post.
Just because someone writes things and posts them on the Internet, and people forward them, does not make them true. Of course, this goes in the other direction as well.
So we have two competing genealogies. Which one to believe? Well, the Jewish one is more surprising, and is thus the type that email hoaxters would be more willing to put up. Plus, for "documentation", all they put up is a link to the *front* page of the Vilnius historical records. Without showing any evidence that anyone you could look up was specifically the ancestor of Palin. This is typical of hoaxes, putting up links to lend credence which do not really lend credence.
On the other hand, you have a thoroughly researched genealogy, at a genealogical website, ancestry.com, not made 2 weeks before the elections, but last updated Sept 15th, and which is *much* more comprehensive, going back many, many generations, which many different sources for all the details, and does not have any surprising, exciting revelations. See here:
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~battle/palin.htm
I would therefore lend much more credence to the genealogy which is less exciting, and much more documented, than some random email forward.
Kol Tuv,
Josh
Also, note that the latest thing you linked to in support of this, from newsfromthewest, has anti-Semitic basis. See at the end:
"It is starting to look as though Palin has Jewish blood. Palin just didn't come out of nowhere. McCain won't last 8 years, so this girl will be president. The Zionists just didn't let her appear out of thin air."
And indeed, do a search for Jews at the top, and you will see many anti-Semitic things this blogger has written. Not exactly something which bolsters his credibility.
Kol Tuv,
Josh
First, it might interest your readers to know that this item comes up on many anti-Semitic sites. Sad to say, it seems to be raw meat for these people.
Second, the whole premise that "Jewish blood" makes any difference is more like an Aryan perspective than a Jewish one, since she is a devout and committed Christian raising Christian children. There have been many rumors to the effect that Hitler had Jewish blood, as well as many other scourges in our history, so I am sure that you and your readers agree that, even if true, it would be nisht ahin, nisht aher.
Being Lithuanian, I went to primary sources. Yes, Sarah is Jewish, if defined by maternal lines.
Her handlers have cleverly masked this fact.
Her relatives are on some forums and state that , though raised Roman Catholic, Sarah's mother was indeed Jewish.
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