Sunday, December 9, the last day of Hanukkah is the youngest Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has surprised many, stating that her ancestors were Jews. About this 29-year-old Democrat said during the ceremony of lighting the Hanukkah lights in Jackson Heights Jewish Center in Queens (new York).
«One of the things my family not so long ago learned about myself, is that very, very long time, many generations ago, among our ancestors were Jews-Sephardim. It is the Jews who fled from the Spanish persecutions of the Inquisition in the late fifteenth century and settled in the middle East and North Africa. Then some of them went to Central America,» said Ocasio-Cortez.
According to eyewitnesses, this statement has delighted attendees at the Jewish Center, and someone even exclaimed, «I knew it! I could feel it!»
Ocasio-Cortez added that she is a Catholic and not practice Judaism, but «over the past couple of years learned a lot about their genealogy».
«Part of the Sephardic Jews at the time, moved to Puerto Rico, where my mother was borned,» said the Congresswoman. The father of Alexandria are also of Puerto Rican origin, although he was born in the Bronx.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said that the history of her family clearly shows the cultural diversity of Puerto Rico, where, figuratively speaking, «people can open the old wardrobe and discover the menorah».
«I think this story proves how our fates are linked, even beyond our understanding,» concluded the Democrat.
Recall that in late November, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has compared migrants from Central America with a Jewish family who fled from death from Nazi Germany.
