12/20/08

Don't--and I mean DON'T--look back!

Greetings,

I begin this post in Draft Letter form ("Greetings from the President of the United States...") because I've just received a note of almost equally disturbing proportions. I'm posting the entire message below, but let me state for the record that I hope it ain't so. I mean, I'm not responsible for the actions of strangers, still, if there's anyone with whom I would prefer not to share genetic material, it's the following. What was it they used to say in my grandparents day: Bad for the Jews? I couldn't have said it any better. Read it and weep:

Based on Jewish tradition that makes one Jewish if born to a mother of Jewish ethnic decent, Sarah Palin is Jewish, though she touts a mask of evangelical Christianity.

Sarah Palin's mother, Sally Sheigam, was of Lithuanian Jewish heritage and so were both of her mother's parents, Louise Sheigam and Shmuel Sheigam. Her father, Chuck Heath, also comes from Jewish blood because his mother, Beatrice Coleman, was of Jewish decent. Further information on Governor Palin's ancestors can be found in the vital records in the Lithuanian State Historical Archives in Vilnius (http://www.archyvai.lt/archyvai/index.jsp).

The Archives holds birth, marriage, divorce, and death records for the Lithuanian Jewish community from 1851 until 1915 when the Jews were required to leave the country because of World War I. They are in 18th Century Cyrillic script and Yiddish. Many of these records include the mother's maiden name and town of registration.

Palin's maternal grandfather, Schmuel Sheigam, was a Lithuanian Jew, born in 1912 in Vilkaviskis, Lithuania, The Sheigams' grandmother was a Jewess named Gower. At the Ellis Island Immigration Center, the name was entered as Sheeran, instead of Sheigam, a standard practice when immigration officers were unable to understand the pronunciation of non-English speaking immigrants. They are buried in the Jewish cemetery at Budezeriai.

{Matzav.com Newscenter}

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