Kerry not really Kerry after all!

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BluberryPoptart

BluberryPoptart

War Child
Joined
Apr 18, 2004
Messages
532
I don't have the link, but one of my friends said he saw on the CNN that Kerry's family was actually of Austrian Jewish descent and converted to being Catholic in 1901. When they moved from Vienna to the US, they changed their name. How did they come by Kerry? Threw a dart at a map and hit Kerry, Ireland! LOL! So he's not really Irish, he's not really "Kerry." If his name is fake, what else is phoney about him?

disclaimer: This is NOT meant in any way to be 'anti-sematic"- it could have been any other ethnicity and it would have been the same basic story.
 
Actually read this in the Enquirer at my in-laws' house a couple months ago. Since it was coming from the Enquirer of all rags, I took it with a grain of salt.

Funny how this story ended up on CNN. :wink:

I have a gut feeling why Kerry's family changed their name, if this story is really true. My great Jewish grandmother (dad's side) did when they moved to the US back in the early 1900's. They settled in Chicago where they faced a lot of discrimination - they dropped the "witz" from their family name in an attempt to escape discimination so they could, at the very least, find work. Jews in the US changing their last names to avoid discrimination was not (and still is not) a highly unlikely occurance.

It would be interesting to hear what John Kerry has to say about all this, if it's indeed true.
 
First of all this is still speculation. Second of all how does this affect anything? So they changed their name in 1901 does this mean every descendent since then has been phoney, don't forget there are family trees out there that show Kerry and Bush may be very distant cousins.

What about this? I'm adopted and don't know my bloodline. If I ran, whould people be looking into my ancestory to claim I was a fraud? I sure hope not.
 
BluberryPoptart said:
If his name is fake, what else is phoney about him?
Click to expand...

:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

Many of us happen to arrive to the West, and then people look at our names on paper as if though we've fallen down from Mars. Therefore, people end up changing their names, or adopting an English version of the name because it's either that or people looking stumped every time they see our name on paper. Are we frauds now?

My mother has a very good friend who was a Jew growing up in Brooklyn in the 1960s. Every single one of her neighbours was Italian, and her mother, not wanting her daughter to stick out or be discriminated against, named her Paula, and her sister Luisa. Are they frauds too?
 
I have to say that using a family name that was adopted in 1901 does not make Kerry a fraud in any way. Like many have said. lots of immigrants either changed their names or had the immigration people dub them with new names that were easier to say or sounded more American.


And, if we are talking about names....is Bono a fraud for not strictly going by Paul Hewson?
 
BluberryPoptart said:
I don't have the link, but one of my friends said he saw on the CNN that Kerry's family was actually of Austrian Jewish descent and converted to being Catholic in 1901. When they moved from Vienna to the US, they changed their name. How did they come by Kerry? Threw a dart at a map and hit Kerry, Ireland! LOL! So he's not really Irish, he's not really "Kerry." If his name is fake, what else is phoney about him?

disclaimer: This is NOT meant in any way to be 'anti-sematic"- it could have been any other ethnicity and it would have been the same basic story.
Click to expand...


what exactly is your point?

My great grandfather was told at Ellis Island when he arrived in America that his last name was too long and too hard to pronounce. They told him he could pick a "new" name instead. My great grandpa asked what the man's last name in front of him was. That became his last name which he passed on to my grandfather. I guess my family is fake too. Good thing my grandpa was the only boy in his family and only had daughters because when my 89 year old grandpa dies his "fake" name that his father gave him will die with him too. The name that he has beat himself up over the years since his last daughter was born knowing that he won't be able to pass on the last name his father gave to him.
 
Yes, please clarify - and I do hope this was meant light-heartedly. Otherwise I see no point to this thread, as it insults anyone who changed their name and implies they're all phoney.
 
I happen to be a direct decendent of someone named Peter Pancake and I have no problem with the fact he changed the family name. He did it to blend in as a first generation American, something that was quite common 100 years ago.

This story about Kerry isn't new...but why does it matter anyway? He's not the one who changed the name 103 years ago. And yes, he is Kerry...legally and otherwise.
 
Bono's American Wife said:
I happen to be a direct decendent of someone named Peter Pancake
Click to expand...

That's a great name. Think of the fun you can have naming your kids.

BTW that wasn't meant as a jab at you or your family.
 
Hmm, no ;), :wink:, or even a :sexywink:. I'd like to believe this is a joke, but ...

And I was waiting to see how long it would take for Kerry's Jewish roots to come up, and in what context. It is true, I read it in Time a few weeks ago. Apparently John Kerry himself didn't know it until someone unearthed it doing research for a biography on him.
 
I don't see that it matters. It's interesting in that people felt (and in some cases still feel) the need or desire to change names when they come to this country. In some ways it would be interesting to know what prompts such a name change (not just in Kerry's ancestor's case), but I hardly think a name change makes someone a phoney -- if it did, many married women would be phoney. ;)
 
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If the fact that Kerry's family changed their surname over a hundred years ago is the worst thing you can criticise him for he's going to make a great president.

I actually find this post quite worrying, it reminds me of a press conference given in Burnley (a town in northern England) a few months ago. Michael Howard, the leader of the Tory party had given a speech there condemning racism and far-right parties. In response the BNP (an far-right, racist party) gave a speech denouncing Michael Howard. Their main criticism was that when his family moved to the UK in the twentieth century, they'd changed their name because their original named sounded distinctively Jewish. In their view the fact that his parents had changed their surname meant he was a fraud and not fit to lead one of Britain's main political parties.

I also think it reflects poorly on the mainstream media that stories originating in the trashy tabloids are now making it onto the screens of mainstream news channels. I shouldn't be suprised though, after all that's precisely how the majority of the so-called scandals about Clinton were publicised.
 
ok..for anyone who felt that I posted or started threads for purely partisan reasons, just to stir the pot....please...

I would like an apology.


This thread makes me want to vote for Kerry!
 
:banghead:

So much for disclaimers :rolleyes: :sigh:

Let me try again:

First, I also know a lot of families got their names changed at Ellis Island. My great grandfather had his name changed to "Mike Thomas" when his name was considered not only unpronounceable but unspellable in English! That doesn't make anyone a fraud! No!

However, according to CNN, it didn't happen at Ellis Island, it happened while they were still living in Vienna, and they chose to do it themselves to hide from their Jewish heritage, or something like that. So they were already "Kerry" coming to America. That ALSO doesn't make anyone a fraud.

My point is, he seems to be, now don't trash me, I'm not sure but said *SEEMS* to be, kind of running as a Kennedy-eque, evoke the memory of Kennedy, Irish Catholic famliy guy from Massachusetts, and in truth, he's not. There is nothing wrong with changing your name, I just think *HE* should have been the one to be very open and up front with this if he wasn't ashamed or 'pretending' to be Irish Catholic, as I said, which kind of appeals to the Kennedy loving types. So yes, I think he's denying his true heritage and putting on a 'character' that isn't true so yes I think that makes him a fake. If tabloids and CNN had to dig this out, it only makes it look like he was hiding something. Is it that HE'S not proud of his true heritage? Or does he think he can bilk a simple minded and impressionable electorate better with the "Irish Catholic Kennedy-esque" thing?

I DON'T think there's anything wrong with being a Jew, or Austrian, but I do think there's something wrong with passing yourself off as an Irish Catholic guy for possible political appeal when it's not the truth. I hope I have explained this clearly so that everyone understands what I'm getting at instead of grabbing for the totally lame and shallow and oh so handy cries of 'racism.' :tsk: Shit, I've got more mixed in me than most stray dogs. That's NOT the issue!!!
 
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But the last name Kerry and being Irish Catholic is all he's ever known. At some point a lot of our families may have changed religions or where they live. So do we all have to go back to our very origin to be real? This is how he grew up this is who he is, this wasn't something he did or his parents did to be more Kennedy like. I really think you are stretching here.
 
Thank you for the explanation, BP.

It does seem, however, that even Kerry himself wasn't aware of his Jewish roots until recently, and if he himself is now Catholic (arguments about that notwithstanding), then I think one is hard-pressed to claim that he's lying or trying to hide something. There's been no cover-up attempt or anything (that we know of), so it's probably just an interesting piece of Kerry family history that happened, let's not forget, WELL before John was even born.
 
I'd be very very careful about calling the kettle black, Blueberrypoptart. I mean, pretending for even one second that the topic of this thread has any relevance, don't forget that George W. Bush's Texan heritage doesn't run so very deep either. He's about one generation removed from the same East Coast culture as John Kerry.
 
It's obvious from this and other threads that are being started by the same person that they are only interested in promoting an anti-liberal viewpoint in these forums, and not really interested in well thought out fair-minded discussions.

First it was castigating Bono in his anti-AIDS efforts, now it's promoting ill-thought out anti-Kerry bias!

I think to cast dispersions on ANYONE's ethnic background to promote your point of view is in VERY POOR TASTE.:ohmy:

Why don't you call John Kerry's office in DC, Blueberry. since I think that is the area you live in and ask THEM these questions?

That would get to the bottom of your inquiry, wouldn't it?

If you REALLY want to know the truth, there are ways to uncover it. :yes:
 
As far as hiding their Jewish background.....it likely kept their family alive. Unfortunately millions of Jewish people around the world have been persecuted and killed. So, if I had a Jewish last name at that point in history I very well may have changed it too.
 
All right, there is no need to call out people individually. BP believed this was a significant issue to raise. If you have an individual problem, please discuss it off the forum. Thanks.
 
and it must not be an easy job :sigh: I'd be :scream: :crazy:

BTW I know Bush is not a real Texan, the Bushes are from Connecticut high society. I do not ignore that nor am I much of a fan of Bush. Just because I hate Kerry doesn't mean I think Bush is perfect. He's very, very far from it. I just get so tired of only Bush getting bashed, either no one gets bashed or give equal time to Kerry bashing :wink:
 
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