Sen. Allen says he has Jewish ancestry

WASHINGTON – Sen. George Allen, R-Va., said for the first time publicly Tuesday that he has Jewish ancestry, a day after responding angrily to an exchange that included questions about his mother’s racial sensitivity and whether his family has Jewish roots.

At a campaign debate with Democratic challenger James Webb on Monday, a reporter asked Allen whether his mother’s father, Felix Lumbroso, was Jewish. He became visibly upset, saying his mother’s religion was not relevant to the campaign and chiding the reporter for “making aspersions about people because of their religious beliefs.”

Allen’s campaign manager said the senator believed the question was hostile because it followed another one about whether Allen had learned the word “macaca” from his mother. The word, which Allen used last month to describe a Webb volunteer, is a French slur for a dark-skinned person. Allen’s mother, Henriette “Etty” Allen, is a native of Tunisia and speaks French.

In a statement released by his campaign Tuesday, Allen said he was proud to have recently discovered that his grandfather, a Nazi resistance fighter in North Africa, was part of a well-known Jewish family.

“I was raised as a Christian and my mother was raised as a Christian,” Allen, 54, said. “And I embrace and take great pride in every aspect of my diverse heritage, including my Lumbroso family line’s Jewish heritage, which I learned about from a recent magazine article and my mother confirmed.”

Allen’s religious background has not been a campaign issue. But when the reporter asked Allen about it Monday, the exchange triggered a flood of critical commentary on Internet blogs Tuesday, demanding that Allen clarify his ancestry.

The Forward, a Jewish weekly newspaper, recently explored Allen’s possible Jewish roots and his connection to the Lumbrosos, a prominent Jewish family that settled in Italy in the 15th century.

Peggy Fox, the WUSA reporter who asked the question at the debate, said she read the article in the Forward. “I had heard from other reporters that his staff had been asked the question before. I thought it was fair game,” she said Tuesday.