Whereas Claiming Jewish Heritage, Anna Paulina Luna Forgot to Point out Her Nazi Grandfather

Because it first got here out final December that newly elected lawmaker George Santos had lied about roughly 99% of his biography, contemporary falsehoods and cons involving the New York congressman have emerged on a near-daily, typically hourly foundation. (The most recent? That he apparently fabricated a whole change with Senator Kyrsten Sinema, and was charged with theft in 2017 after somebody wrote about $15,000 price of dangerous checks in his identify to a bunch of canine breeders. Whereas the cost was dropped and the case was expunged, the lawyer who represented him now says she believes he did it.) Given the tempo with which these revelations have unfolded, and the sheer quantity of lies, it appears unlikely presently that any of Santos’s Republican colleagues will have the ability to outdo him in relation to apparently by no means telling the reality about something. However no less than one is attempting!

We communicate, after all, of Consultant Anna Paulina Luna, who was the topic of a Washington Put up exposé that urged the 33-year-old Florida lawmaker has performed it quick and free with the information regarding her background. For example, claiming to each have Jewish heritage and to have been raised as a Jew, regardless of individuals conversant in the matter saying that was not the case.

Per the Put up:

Luna additionally said on the marketing campaign path and in an interview with Jewish Insider in November that whereas she identifies as Christian, she was “raised as a Messianic Jew by her father.” Messianic Jews determine as Jewish and say they consider that Jesus is the Messiah. “I’m additionally a small fraction Ashkenazi,” she added, referring to Jews whose ancestors lived in Central or Jap Europe. Luna’s mom mentioned her father was a “Christian that embraced the Messianic religion.”

“He finally obtained clear and began attending a messianic Jewish church in Orange County. He introduced Anna to providers and he or she buried him to Jewish customs,” Monica Luna wrote in a textual content.

Nonetheless, three members of Luna’s prolonged household mentioned that her father was Catholic, and that they weren’t conscious of him practising any type of Judaism whereas Luna was rising up. George Mayerhofer’s father, Heinrich Mayerhofer, immigrated to Canada from Germany in 1954 and recognized as Roman Catholic, in keeping with an immigration file reviewed by the Put up.

One other unusual factor about Luna‘s claims re: Judaism? The bit about her grandfather having reportedly been a Nazi. Right here’s the Put up once more:

In accordance with a number of relations, Heinrich Mayerhofer, who died in 2003, served within the armed forces of Nazi Germany when he was a youngster within the Nineteen Forties. One among his sons, Edward Mayerhofer—Luna’s uncle—supplied the Put up what he mentioned was a portrait of Heinrich Mayerhofer wearing a uniform as a younger soldier in Germany. Consultants from the Simon Wiesenthal Middle who reviewed the picture confirmed the uniform was according to that of a member of the Wehrmacht, which was the armed forces of Nazi Germany.

Edward’s spouse, Jolanta Mayerhofer, and daughter, Nicole Mayerhofer, each confirmed to the Put up that Luna’s grandfather had fought for the Nazis. (In accordance Nicole Mayerhofer, her relationship with Luna went south after her father “publicly raised inconsistencies in Luna’s biography on social media throughout her first bid for Congress,” which Luna responded to by submitting a stalking injunction in opposition to him, in keeping with the Put up.)

Of the various lies Santos has advised, certainly one of them includes passing himself off as Jewish and having grandparents who fled the Holocaust. (The New York lawmaker has insisted he by no means mentioned he was Jewish however merely “Jew-ish.”)

Different inconsistencies raised by the Put up article about Luna embody a narrative a couple of residence invasion that her roommate on the time says was a break-in when Luna wasn’t residence; conflicting accounts about whether or not her father did time in jail; and the circumstances of her upbringing, which relations say was not the impoverished and remoted one Luna has claimed.

The congresswoman‘s workplace didn’t reply an in depth record of questions posed by the Put up; her communications director emailed the outlet saying the questions had been “weird,” including, “Our workplace won’t be responding to you any additional.” On Twitter on Friday, Luna insisted that features of the Put up story usually are not correct (she doesn’t seem to have particularly responded to the reporting about her grandfather and her supposed upbringing—and heritage—as a Jew).