Representative Anna Paulina Luna, a Florida Republican, faced criticism online Friday after a report revealed that she was not raised Jewish, according to some of her family members, despite previously claiming Jewish heritage.
This past November, Luna, who identifies as Christian, told Jewish Insider days before the midterm elections that she was “raised as a Messianic Jew” by her father. Messianic Jews believe that Jesus is the Messiah.
At the time, she was defending Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican, over past comments that some viewed as antisemitic.
“I am also a small fraction [of] Ashkenazi. If she [Greene] were antisemitic, why did she endorse me?” Luna asked the publication.
The details in a Friday report by The Washington Post contradicted Luna’s previous claims of Jewish heritage. Luna’s mother, Monica Luna, said that the Republican’s father George Mayerhofer—who Luna and other family members said was a drug addict—was a Christian who embraced the Messianic faith.
“He eventually got clean and started attending a messianic Jewish church in Orange County. He brought Anna to services and she buried him to Jewish customs,” Monica Luna said, according to the Post.
However, Luna’s father was Catholic, according to three members of Luna’s extended family who said that they were not aware of him practicing any form of Judaism while the Florida congresswoman was growing up.
Mayerhofer’s father, Heinrich Mayerhofer, identified as a Roman Catholic. He immigrated from Germany to Canada in 1954, according to records viewed by the newspaper.
“Anna Paulina Luna is a fraud. The media won’t need to dig deep. Next, look into the claimed hit on her life by REPUBLICAN primary opponents. She may be worse than [New York Republican Representative George] Santos,” said gun control activist Fred Guttenberg on Friday.
Additionally, the report by the Post further revealed that Luna reportedly had Nazi roots, with several family members saying that Heinrich Mayerhofer, who died in 2003, served in the armed forces of Nazi Germany when he was a teenager in the 1940s.
Luna’s uncle, Edward Mayerhofer, gave the newspaper what he said was a picture of his father Heinrich dressed in a uniform as a young soldier in Germany.
The photo was reviewed by experts at the Simon Wiesenthal Center who confirmed that Heinrich’s uniform matched that of a member of the Wehrmacht, the military of Nazi Germany.
