I had never felt any interest in the California Legislative Jewish Caucus before. To be honest, I hadn’t even known there was one. Or especially cared.

Then Gov. Gavin Newsom went to a Politico event, attacking President Trump’s fight against campus antisemitism and cited the authority of the ‘California Legislative Jewish Caucus’ in a somewhat dismissive fashion.

“And by the way, Jewish caucus and others had the guts to finally finally pushing back,” Newsom claimed, describing the caucus signing on to a letter, not against antisemitism, but a defense of the new UCLA administration which they claim will fix things.

Considering that the California Legislative Jewish Caucus consists of Dems, this isn’t surprising. Newsom’s contemptuous tone, scolding the caucus for not immediately ‘pushing back’ as if the main fight is against Trump, not mobs attacking Jews on UC campuses (of which Newsom is a provost) is despicable.

But I don’t expect much from a body of Jewish Dems. And indeed, the Twitter account for the California Legislative Jewish Caucus consists of defenses of the UC system, a celebration of Caesar Chavez, a greeting to the Persian community, condemnations of hatred against Hindus, a condemnation of Newsom’s remarks about men competing against women, Ramadan greetings, Black History Month, support for illegal aliens and presumably at some point, something Jewish.

So business as usual.

But out of curiosity, I took a look at the membership of the California Legislative Jewish Caucus and it includes members who are not Jewish. And I don’t mean in the usual ‘their religion is liberalism’ kind of way. Like the Rubio sisters whom I had previously written about.

They spent their childhood on both sides of the Mexican border, on both sides of U.S. immigration laws. Dad was a factory worker, mom a housekeeper. The family spoke little English. In high school, in the 1980s, when Blanca and Susan Rubio expressed interest in college, a high school counselor suggested they look instead at home-economics classes to get ready for marriage and children.

In a surprise, the sisters recently discovered they have Jewish relatives on their mother’s side who came from Spain. They’ve become members of the California Legislative Jewish Caucus. “We’re Catholic, but I would love to know the (Jewish) traditions and participate,” Blanca said. “I have a lot of learning to do.”

I’m skeptical to say the least. But this is a thing in the Caucus.

Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur announced today that he has joined the California Legislative Jewish Caucus as an Associate Member for the 2023-2024 Legislative Session.

The Jewish Caucus includes 18 members of the California Legislature who self-identify as Jews, as well as Associate Members who have strong personal or familial connection to the Jewish community.

Through research by a family member, Assemblymember Zbur discovered the he is the descendent of Jewish Conversos, who arrived in what is now New Mexico in the 1500s, fleeing Spanish persecution for their heritage.

The 1500s?

This has become a thing among Latino Democrats with even AOC, who’s one step away from openly supporting Hamas, at one point quite dubiously claiming Jewish ancestry.

“One of the things that we discovered about ourselves is that a very very long time ago, generations and generations ago, my family consisted of Sephardic Jews,” she said, referring to Jews who are originally from Spain or the Iberian Peninsula. “And … the story goes that during the Spanish Inquisition, so many people were forced to convert on the exterior to Catholicism, but on the interior, continued to practice their faith, continued to be who they were, even though they were pressured to not be that on the outside world.”

This is 99.99% nonsense. It’s the equivalent of Sen. Elizabeth Warren claiming to be Cherokee.

Now there are people who feel connected to the Jewish people and the last thing I want to do is dismiss the sincerity of their feelings. When those people are not in politics.

Finding this stuff when you’re in politics is highly suspect. It’s not actually offensive until it’s leveraged to support actual persecution of Jews, like AOC or her pal Sen. Julia Salazar in New York, but then going ahead and citing the California Legislative Jewish Caucus to support the UCs when its members include Latino Democrats who claim that they had Jewish ancestors 500 years ago is pushing it.