Congresswoman’s Contested Claim of Jewish Heritage Omits Nazi Grandfather
The U.S. Capitol building is seen in Washington, U.S., December 6, 2021. Photo: REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz/Files
i24 News – A Republican congresswoman whose claim regarding being “raised as a Messianic Jew by her father” could not be verified by fact checkers, appears to have distorted her family history in an even more striking manner: by omitting mention of her paternal grandfather’s military service in Germany during Nazi rule.
Anna Paulina Luna, 33-year-old Florida lawmaker, made a number of unsubstantiated claims about her background, the Washington Post alleged, including claiming to both have Jewish heritage and to have been raised as a Jew; the report cites “people familiar with the matter” saying that was not the case.
Luna stated that while she presently identifies as Christian, she was “raised as a Messianic Jew by her father,” and was ”also a small fraction Ashkenazi.” Messianic Jews is a movement in Judaism whose adherents accepts Jesus as the Messiah.
However, three members of Luna’s extended family said that her father was Catholic, and that they were not aware of him practicing any form of Judaism while Luna was growing up. George Mayerhofer’s father, Heinrich Mayerhofer, immigrated to Canada from Germany in 1954 after serving in the ranks of the Nazi military as a teenager. He identified as Roman Catholic, according to an immigration record cited by the Post.
The report comes shortly after another Republican politician, George Santos, was also revealed to have lied about being Jewish among a litany of other untruths he spread during his campaign.