Lyndon Johnson may have been Jewish
Mahdy
Chapter 9: Johnson�s Hidden Loyalties
Secret Ethnicity
As previously stated, the Johnson administration implemented a dramatic
shift in US-Middle East policy. Every president after Johnson has
totally capitulated to Israel and ignored the plight of Palestinians.
But Johnson marked the turning point. The reason he was so loyal to
Israel lies within his own ethnicity. It appears that he and his wife
were secretly Jewish. To many, this may seem laughable at first, but in
reality Jews were an integral part of Texas history throughout the
nineteenth century.1 Jacob and Phineas De Cordova sold land and
developed Waco. Simon Mussina founded Brownsville in 1848. Michael
Seeligson was elected mayor of Galveston in 1853. Morris Lasker was
elected to the state Senate in 1895.2 The list goes on.
The first Jewish settlers of note in Texas were Samuel Issacks (1821)
followed by N. Adolphus Sterne (1826).3 By 1838, Jews were living in
Galveston, San Antonio, Velasco, Bolivar, Nacogdoches, and Goliad.4 In
the early part of the twentieth century, a large of number of Russian
Jews migrated to Texas to escape persecution from the Russian Czar.
Between 1900 and 1920, the Jewish population in Texas grew from 15,000
to 30,000. Major cities, Dallas, Houston, Fort Worth, and San Antonio,
experienced enormous growth in Jewish populations.5 The overall number
of Jews in Texas has steadily increased ever since. After World War II,
the abundance of Jewish residents grew from an estimated 50,000 in 1945
to 71,000 in the mid-1970s and 92,000 in 1988.6
Before 1821, Texas was still a Spanish colony where only Catholics could
take up residence. Jews who openly acknowledged their ethnicity could
not legally live there.7 Originally, Jews migrated to Texas to seek
fortune and freedom. The earliest Jews, who arrived with the
conquistadors, came from Sephardic (Spanish-North African-Israel)
communities.8 After the Mexican period, Jewry in Texas was essentially
populated by immigrants from Germany, eastern Europe, and the Americas.9
Lyndon Johnson�s maternal ancestors, the Huffmans, apparently migrated
to Frederick, Maryland from Germany sometime in the mid-eighteenth
century. Later they moved to Bourbon, Kentucky and eventually settled in
Texas in the mid-to-late nineteenth century.10
According to Jewish law, if a person�s mother is Jewish, then that
person is automatically Jewish, regardless of the father�s ethnicity or
religion. The facts indicate that both of Lyndon Johnson�s
great-grandparents, on the maternal side, were Jewish. These were the
grandparents of Lyndon�s mother, Rebecca Baines.11 Their names were John
S. Huffman and Mary Elizabeth Perrin.12 John Huffman�s mother was
Suzanne Ament, a common Jewish name. Perrin is also a common Jewish name.
Huffman and Perrin had a daughter, Ruth Ament Huffman,13 who married
Joseph Baines14 and together they had a daughter, Rebekah Baines,15
Lyndon Johnson�s mother. The line of Jewish mothers can be traced back
three generations in Lyndon Johnson�s family tree. There is little doubt
that he was Jewish.