Opinion
By Joan Swirsky
11/18/25
Several years ago, my husband Steve and I were watching TV as an American politician of Hispanic descent responded to a challenging question from an antagonistic reporter.
The politician gave such an eloquent and informed answer, sprinkling his response with historical facts, literary allusions, and even dashes of humor, that when he completed his answer, Steve said, “Damn…that is one brilliant guy!”
Reflexively, I expressed what I’ve privately suspected for ages when witnessing similar scenarios: “He’s probably Jewish!”
Steve laughed, but I meant it.
Not long after this episode, I read a book by Jon Entine, a former producer for NBC News and ABC News, and author of several books. In Abraham’s Children, Entine tells the story of Father Bill Sanchez, a Catholic priest from Albuquerque, New Mexico, who had always been curious about the strange rituals his parents performed in their religiously observant Catholic home, such as lighting Friday night candles, spinning tops at Christmas, not eating pork, et al.
It’s relevant to mention that the Sanchez family migrated from Spain, where centuries before, in 1492––the year Christopher Columbus (who research indicates was probably Jewish) sailed the ocean blue––massive numbers of Sephardic Jews were expelled under threat of death unless they converted to Catholicism.
Historian and writer Eric Buesing says that the Spanish Inquisition, which began in 1478, “forced Jews to adapt or perish. Many chose secrecy, becoming crypto-Jews who practiced their faith in hidden cellars, or adopted Christian rituals publicly while whispering Hebrew prayers in private.”
ENTER DNA
In the early 2000s, Father Sanchez saw a television show that featured the research that Bennett Greenspan, the founder and president of Family Tree DNA, was doing on the then-fledgling subject of DNA, and how that genetic material could determine a person’s probable lineage, roots, country of origin, religion.
Curious, both Father Sanchez and his father volunteered to be subjects and promptly sent samples of their saliva to Mr. Greenspan’s lab in Houston, Texas.
It wasn’t long before he received the results: “You’re Jewish!”
In fact, Father Sanchez’ DNA included a signature associated with the Cohanim priesthood tracing back to biblical figures like Aaron, brother of Moses.
Upon learning this stunning news, Father Sanchez traveled to Israel, learned about and embraced both Jewish history and Jewish culture, and spoke openly and proudly of his Jewish heritage, even under the threat of censure by the Vatican.
But he still loved Jesus and continued being a priest!
There are countless others––including celebrities like Harrison Ford, Julianna Margulies, Rashida Jones, and the singer Pink––who didn’t learn of their Jewish roots until they were adults. And here is a visual panoramic view of Jewish actresses too numerous to list.
ON THE OTHER HAND
The other end of the spectrum is the likes of Holocaust-denier and Nazi sympathizer Nick Fuentes. According to Wikipedia, Fuentes––who shares an obsessive hatred of Jews and Israel with Tucker Carlson, and Candace Owens––all of them the David Dukes of the 21st century––is of Italian, Irish, and Mexican descent––his father is half Mexican.
I was going to include Ye (aka Kanye West), but to paraphrase the old Connie Francis hit of 1958, he’s sorry now.
Actually, that Wiki website features a huge list of Hispanics who are, in fact, Jewish!
Mmmm, Nick, better not take a gene test and find out that you have Jewish DNA coursing through your veins! I have gleeful schadenfreude imagining his unhinged reaction.
On the other hand, it is not only the Fuenteses out there whose entire life––morning, noon and night––is dedicated to fulminating hatred, or, as the peerless Clarice Feldman has quite accurately identified Fuentes, as a small man with poisonous notions.
There are also plenty of self-hating Jews. Why? Because it’s hard to be a Jew and this ilk is simply not up to it. They are all too eager to join the Jew haters and Israel bashers, hoping––actually, naively believing––that the anti-Semites they align themselves with will like and accept and embrace them.
But they always learn the hard way that the haters they seek approval from may exploit them for their own ends, but that to this species, a Jew is a Jew is a Jew is a Jew––endemically, intrinsically, irredeemably loathsome and detestable.
FOLLOW THE SCIENCE
According to Eric Buesing, the world is more Jewish than we realized.
“DNA testing is revealing that as many as 152 million additional people have Jewish roots. If more people knew they were part-Jewish, would they still hate Jews?”, Buesing asks.
In the thousands of years that the Jewish people lived all over the world in the diaspora, he says, in order to survive, “many Jews became crypto-Jews” ––known as Conversos––hiding their identities, “adopting new names and blending into Christian, Muslim, or secular societies under the shadow of inquisitions, pogroms, and forced conversions.”
Today, he says, “Advances in genetic testing have revealed that millions worldwide …carry traces of Jewish ancestry in their DNA. In the United States alone, an estimated that 15.8 million people, roughly 4.58 percent of the population, may have Jewish roots, often without knowing it.”
Here, writer Alex Graaff features five Hispanic Jews who are currently “impacting the world.”
STAGGERING RESULTS
Buesing reports that a 2018 study analyzed DNA from 6,589 individuals across five Latin American countries: Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru. The results were staggering. Approximately 23 percent of those sampled had at least 5 percent Sephardic Jewish ancestry, averaging 1-to-4 percent across these nations. This translates to an estimated 136-million Latin Americans who may carry Jewish DNA!
“These numbers,” Buesing says, “are more than statistics; they are stories of survival, of ancestors who hid their menorahs, whispered Shema Yisrael in secret, and passed down fragments of identity that science is now rediscovering.”
WHAT IF?
Buesing asks us to imagine what it would be like for a Christian––or someone of any other religion––to discover that a great-great-grandparent was a Converso and that his or her Jewish DNA traced back some 2,000 years.
“Antisemitism has plagued humanity for centuries,” he explains….” fueled by myths, stereotypes, and the scapegoating of Jews as ‘outsiders.’ But what if the world knew that millions––perhaps one in every 54 people globally––carried Jewish ancestry? If 152 million people, from São Paulo to Seville, from Johannesburg to Albuquerque, shared this heritage, the notion of Jews as ‘other’ begins to crumble.”
IDENTITY
A recent article about the punk-rock legendary icon Patti Smith revealed not only that she was an Ashkenazi Jew, but that the father who raised her and who she loved deeply. was not her biological father. After DNA testing, she said, “I wasn’t sure what to do with this information…”
Echoing that sentiment was the husband of a friend of mine, a macho police officer who always wondered why his sister cried so hard when he danced with her at his wedding. He later learned from an aggrieved relative that his sister was really his mother (who had given birth to him at the age of 13) and his mother was really his grandmother.
“Everything he thought he knew, his whole identity…who his uncles, aunts, cousins were…went out the window. It drove him crazy,” my friend told me. So crazy that the day after this revelation, he turned in his gun and his badge at the police department, abandoned his marriage, and joined a carnival in the Midwest!
And that is not to omit mention of the great Elvis Presley, whose Jewish ancestry––through his mother, Gladys––has been documented exhaustively by Roselle Kline Chartock in “The Jewish World of Elvis Presley.” In fact, Elvis not only wore a Star of David necklace, but had a Jewish star placed on the coffin of his mother Gladys.
Yoo Hoo and Heads-Up all you Jew haters. The people you are spending your time vilifying and lying about and jealous of and hating could be you!
Joan Swirsky is a New York–based journalist and author. Her website is www.joanswirsky.com, and she can be reached at [email protected].
The views expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Citizens Journal Florida
