Allen�s mother, Henriette (Etty), whose maiden name was Lumbroso, is indeed Francophone and Tunisian born, a heritage that forms a romantic theme in �Fifth Quarter: The Scrimmage of a Football Coach�s Daughter� the memoir of Allen family life written by Allen�s sister Jennifer. What�s more, it is likely that she�s Jewish by birth, although no acknowledgment of that heritage appears in the memoir. Allen�s campaign spokesman, Bill Bozin, did not return several detailed messages, left over two days, that asked what the senator and his family know about his mother�s heritage.Depending on what additional information comes out on the matter, the controversy could end up resurrecting a dominant theme of the Democratic primaries four years ago, when it turned out that no fewer than four presidential hopefuls had significant Jewish ties: Senator Joseph Lieberman was an Orthodox Jew; Senator John Kerry was descended from Jews and had a brother who converted to Judaism; former general Wesley Clark had a Jewish father; Howard Dean was married to a Jewish woman and raised Jewish children....It is really striking, as E.J. Kessler notes, how many prominent Americans have a connection with Judaism, whether that be as an ethnicity, a religion, or a system of law. And I have to say, as odd as George Felix Allen's personal story is, there's something oddly comforting and even marvelous in it, because it reveals that America remains, even in this age of Google, much the same as it was in the age of Moll Flanders: a place in which people can thoroughly reinvent themselves. Only in America can a man who is a French-African Jew by ancestry become a white Southern Confederate-sympathizing Episcopalian with a Roman Catholic football coach for a dad. God bless America, I say -- the land where everyone is free to be whoever they want to be, regardless of who they are, or ever were....Though Etty Allen seems not to have dwelled on it during her years in the spotlight as a coach�s wife, she comes from the august Sephardic Jewish Lumbroso family. Her father, who was the main importer of wines and liquors in Tunis � including the Cinzano brand � was known in France, where he lived after World War II, as part of the family, according to French Jewish sources. If both of Etty�s parents were born Jewish � which, given her age and background, is likely � Senator Allen would be considered Jewish in the eyes of traditional rabbinic law, which traces Judaism through the mother.
This might complicate life for Allen, a practicing Episcopalian who besides running for re-election this year in Virginia is often mentioned as a possible Republican 2008 contender.
Allen's current problem, though, is that he seems to have chosen his adult identity badly, and picked one that doesn't work so well with his political aspirations, or with the nation's future.
--Garance Franke-Ruta
