How Jewish is Sarah Palin?

September 12, 2008
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Sarah Palin has already turned out to be a lively Republican candidate for US vice president. To our knowledge no one has yet inquired as to her Jewishness.

Against: There is plenty of stuff here, not least the fact that Palin, then Sarah Heath, was baptised as a Roman Catholic and then rebaptised into the Pentecotal church. Her hobbies are hunting, ice fishing and riding snowmobiles - these are practically enough to rule her out in themselves. She is thought to be a fan of former presidential hopeful Pat Buchanan, famous for his anti Israel diatribes.

For: The Jewishness comes from her husband, Todd Palin. The name is derived from Balin, the Yiddish word for "beautiful". Todd Palin's ancestors migrated from Russia to Alaska, when it was a Russian colony. His mother is called Blanche, a common Lithuanian Jewish first name. Todd may not know he is Jewish but we reckon he is. Sarah is known to have attended a Jews for Jesus lecture (although we don't know if this makes her more or less Jewish) and the boy who impregnated her 17-year-old daughter, Bristol, is called Levi (but we don't think he is one)

Verdict: About as kosher as a ham and cheese sandwich.

So we say she is 4% Jewish

    Last updated: 1:58pm, September 19 2010

    COMMENTS

    davidberens

    Sun, 09/14/2008 - 00:18

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    I know this tasteless column is not supposed to be taken seriously but it is a lie to say that Sarah Palin is a Buchanan supporter. In 2000 she served on the Steve Forbes Campaign's Alaska Leadership committee.

    Her views are in fact a million miles from Buchanan's see her recent interview with Charles Gibson of ABC: So what do you do about a nuclear Iran?

    PALIN: We have got to make sure that these weapons of mass destruction, that nuclear weapons are not given to those hands of Ahmadinejad, not that he would use them, but that he would allow terrorists to be able to use them. So we have got to put the pressure on Iran and we have got to count on our allies to help us, diplomatic pressure.

    GIBSON: But, Governor, we’ve threatened greater sanctions against Iran for a long time. It hasn’t done any good. It hasn’t stemmed their nuclear program.

    PALIN: We need to pursue those and we need to implement those. We cannot back off. We cannot just concede that, oh, gee, maybe they’re going to have nuclear weapons, what can we do about it. No way, not Americans. We do not have to stand for that.

    GIBSON: What if Israel decided it felt threatened and needed to take out the Iranian nuclear facilities?

    PALIN: Well, first, we are friends with Israel and I don’t think that we should second guess the measures that Israel has to take to defend themselves and for their security.

    GIBSON: So if we wouldn’t second guess it and they decided they needed to do it because Iran was an existential threat, we would cooperative or agree with that.

    PALIN: I don’t think we can second guess what Israel has to do to secure its nation.

    GIBSON: So if it felt necessary, if it felt the need to defend itself by taking out Iranian nuclear facilities, that would be all right.

    PALIN: We cannot second guess the steps that Israel has to take to defend itself.