Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, who claimed Jewish heritage, instead reportedly had a grandfather who fought for the Nazis

(JTA) — Florida Republican Anna Paulina Luna beat a Jewish Democrat to represent her district in Congress last fall, but she had Jewish ancestry, too — or so she claimed at the time.

The freshman representative told Jewish Insider during her campaign that she was “a small fraction Ashkenazi,” in addition to having been “raised as a Messianic Jew by my father.” While mainstream Judaism does not consider Messianic Jews, who believe in the divinity of Jesus, to be Jewish, Luna’s additional claim of Ashkenazi heritage was of interest enough for her to use it to deflect accusations that her politic...