Bernie Sanders
official photo: “Bernie Sanders” by United States Congress c. 2007 – http://sanders.senate.gov/. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.
Birth Name: Bernard Sanders
Place of Birth: Brooklyn, New York City, New York, U.S.
Date of Birth: September 8, 1941
Ethnicity: Ashkenazi Jewish
Bernie Sanders is an American politician. He has served as a U.S. Senator from Vermont, since January 3, 2007. He was previously Mayor of Burlington, Vermont, from April 6, 1981 to April 4, 1989, a Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Vermont, from January 3, 1991 to January 3, 2007, Chair of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, from January 3, 2013 to January 3, 2015, and Chair of the Senate Budget Committee, from February 3, 2021 to January 3, 2023, among other duties.
He was a candidate for the Democratic Party’s nomination for President of the United States in 2016 and 2020. While he was not on the ballot, he received an electoral vote for President from a faithless elector in the 2016 presidential election.
Bernie is the son of Dorothy “Dora” (Glassberg) and Elias Ben Yehuda Sanders. His father was a Polish Jewish emigrant, who was born in Słopnice, Galicia, then in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and moved to the U.S. in 1921. His mother was born in New York, to Jewish emigrant parents, from Poland and Russia. Bernie had a Bar Mitzvah ceremony. Bernie’s uncle, Abraham “Romek” Schnützer, was killed in the Holocaust in Poland in 1942. Abraham was Bernie’s father’s half-brother.
Bernie is married to social worker, college administrator, and political staffer Jane O’Meara Sanders, who is of Irish descent. He has a son with his former partner, Susan Campbell Mott. Bernie’s brother, Larry Sanders, lives in the U.K., and is an academic and Green Party spokesperson.
A picture of young Bernie (left) with his mother and brother can be seen here.
A DNA test whose results were displayed on the show Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (2017) stated that Bernie’s genetic ancestry is:
*97.7% Ashkenazi Jewish
*0.1% East Asian/Yakut
Genetically, he was found to have a common ancestor with comedian, actor, writer, and producer Larry David, to whom he is often compared, and actress Anjelica Huston, likely through shared Ashkenazi DNA.
Bernie’s paternal grandfather was named Leibisch “Leon” Yehuda Sander.
Bernie’s paternal grandmother was Ettel/Etla/Jetti “Ethel” Guttman (the daughter of Elias Horn and Chaia Guttman). Ettel likely was born in Słopnice, Galicia.
Bernie’s maternal grandfather was Benjamin/Benyamin Ben Avraham Meier Glassberg (the son of Abraham Moshe/Avraham Meir Ben Eliezer Glassberg and Frejda/Frajda Mindla Mlynarz). Benjamin was born in Radzyń/Radzin Podlaski, Lubelskie, Poland. Bernie’s great-grandfather Abraham Moshe was the son of Eliezer “Louis” Glassberg/Glasberg and Sarah Feige/Fajge. Frejda was the daughter of Chaim Mlynarz and Zelda Appeloig/Appelolg.
Bernie’s maternal grandmother was named Breine “Bessie”/Bettie Greenberg. Breine was born in Russia.
Bernie Sanders is the first person of Jewish religion to have won a caucus and/or primary for a major American political party’s Presidential nomination. He won 23 contests in 2016, with the New Hampshire primary being the first, and 9 contests in 2020.
Two people of Jewish heritage have been nominated for President of the United States by a major party. Barry Goldwater, nominated by the Republican Party in 1964, was the first (Goldwater was born to a Jewish father and a non-Jewish mother, and was raised an Episcopalian). John Kerry, nominated by the Democratic Party in 2004, was the second (Kerry’s paternal grandparents were born Jewish, though Kerry’s father and Kerry himself were raised Catholic).
Joe Lieberman, who was Jewish, was nominated for Vice President of the United States by the Democratic Party in 2000.
Other than Bernie Sanders, four people of Jewish heritage have won a major party’s presidential caucus and/or primary:
*Barry Goldwater (1964, the year he was nominated; Republican; won 7 states; Goldwater also sought the 1960 Republican nomination)
*John Kerry (2004, the year he was nominated; Democratic; won 51 contests)
*Wesley Clark (who sought the 2004 Democratic nomination; won 1 state, Oklahoma; Clark was born to a Jewish father and a non-Jewish mother, and is a practicing Catholic)
*Michael Bloomberg (who sought the 2020 Democratic nomination; won 1 territory, American Samoa)
Of the five, Bernie Sanders and Michael Bloomberg are Jewish by religion.
Other people of significant Jewish heritage who have mounted plausible or semi-plausible campaigns for a major party’s nomination for President of the United States are:
*Milton Shapp (who sought the 1976 Democratic nomination)
*Larry Agran (who sought the 1992 Democratic nomination)
*Arlen Specter (who sought the 1996 Republican nomination)
*Joe Lieberman (who sought the 2004 Democratic nomination)
*John H. Cox (who sought the 2008 Republican nomination)
*Fred Karger (who sought the 2012 Republican nomination)
*Marianne Williamson (who sought the 2020 and 2024 Democratic nominations)
*Michael Bennet (who sought the 2020 Democratic nomination)
*Tom Steyer (who sought the 2020 Democratic nomination)
*Dean Phillips (who sought the 2024 Democratic nomination)
Shapp, Agran, Specter, Lieberman, Karger, Williamson, and Phillips were/are all Jewish by religion. Bennet and Steyer were raised in mixed-faith households, Bennet with a Jewish mother and Steyer was a Jewish father. Shapp was the first person of Jewish religion to mount a prominent campaign for a major party’s nomination for President of the United States.
Kirsten Gillibrand, a Catholic with a Jewish great-grandfather, also sought the 2020 Democratic nomination.
Sources: Genealogies of Bernie Sanders – http://www.geni.com
https://www.wikitree.com
Genealogies, and obituaries, of Bernie’s parents – http://www.findagrave.com
Bernie’s parents on the 1940 U.S. Census – https://familysearch.org
Genealogy of Bernie Sanders (focusing on his mother’s side) – http://famouskin.com
Bernie’s mother on the 1930 U.S. Census – https://familysearch.org
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUPgGttdIs0 Bernie Sanders if you see this video on your profile, bearboy says hi :)
I’ve noticed from my friend who is polish jew and Hungarian jew that polish people sorta have a round head shape, very symmetrical features and their noses are that big. My partners nose is small too. English, polish mix.
Along with Ashkenazi Jews having a lot of Roman ancestry i read that they are on average 3% black/Sub Saharan African if you go back thousands of years where there was mixing in the Roman Empire.
Yes, I know. Like I said, the “ancient” Jews were not a particularly homogeneous ethnic group, partly due to the relative frequency of conversions back then (which stopped 1000+ years ago and have now started again), and partly due to their geographic location.
Not sure if you agree but I would find DNA testing a lot cooler if they had the technology to go back more than only 500 years to find out how much Roman, Viking, Celtic etc. blood everyone has. I look up random people’s DNA tests (too much free time) and a lot of Ashkenazi Jews don’t see a drop of Sub Saharan African because the mixing was before 500 years ago.
And yea you’re right people haven’t started converting to Judaism until recent years but there have been a lot of conversions out of Judaism such as the Spanish Inquisition.
A friend of mind is a polish jew and Hungarian Jew. His mom is polish and dad Hungarian. He has blondish hair, blue eyes with a round head… very much resembles Bernie sanders head shape.
Makes sense. Ashkenazi Jews are genetically very tight-knit. Your friend is likely to be genetically as close as a fifth cousin to Bernie Sanders.
Fifth? Wow my friend is also I think 45. If they are related he doesn’t now. My friend was also born in Australia. His mom fled Poland before world world two because Hilter invaded Poland. Her family fled to Australia. His dad fled Hungary doing the revolution there. Budapest. His parents met at a Jewish gather in 1962. Some trivia for you. :-)
I knew he had polish with his round head! Polish people tend to have those round facial structures.
He is part Polish.
What makes you think that? Polish Jews have very little to no non-Jewish Polish ancestry.
Sorry, Meant to write part Polish Jewish. As I was shocked to figure that out you’re right. I have a Jewish friend who is of Polish Jewish ancestry got DNA tested by ancestry DNA mostly “European Jewish” and absolutely no “Europe East.” I would have thought there would of been some mixing or something over the years. Oh and is Dwight Eisenhower part Irish?
Ashkenazi Jews have very little to no ancestry from the countries they recently lived in. On the rare occasion when a Polish Jew married a Polish Christian, the Polish Jew usually converted to Christianity and the children were raised Christian.
Ashkenazi Jews have Roman ancestry, though, as well as much other ancestry they’ve picked up over the centuries from various groups, both “European” and “Middle Eastern”, from 1500-3000 years ago, when conversions to Judaism were much more common than they later became.
The funny thing is that the Jews who lived 1800 years ago or so (the time NeilTennant harkens back to) were actually far less homogeneous (they were much more “mixed” with this group or that) than today’s Ashkenazi Jews/Sephardi Jews/etc. are (although of course now they’re “mixing” again). It’s pretty funny to physically compare a modern-day homogeneous group to their “ancient” non-homogeneous predecessors.