Facing criticism from John Tory and others for comments he made about Jewish people at a debate on Sunday, Doug Ford (open Doug Ford's poilcard) fought back Monday with a statement he had never before made publicly.

“My wife is Jewish,” he told reporters, impassioned. “Her mother’s Jewish. They have to come after me? You got to be joking. My wife was furious last night at John Tory’s statement. It’s disgusting. Absolutely disgusting.”

Talking to reporters again later in the day, Ford adjusted his claim. Rather than simply saying Karla Ford was Jewish, he said she “comes from Jewish heritage.”

When asked by a reporter to clarify, he said: “Her mother. Her parents. Her mother’s parents were Jewish, OK? . . . Her grandparents, on the mother’s side. They were Russian Orthodox Jews, OK?”

Tracing a person’s complete heritage can be a difficult, sometimes impossible venture, and Karla Ford has not spoken publicly about her religious identification or family heritage. But the available written evidence suggests that her maternal grandparents did not identify themselves as Jewish either when they travelled to Canada or got married in Canada — but, rather, as Orthodox Christians from a Russian-speaking part of Europe.

Karla Ford did not immediately respond to a phone message. When told of documents that identify her maternal grandparents as Christians, Doug Ford suggested they had concealed their identities to protect themselves from anti-Semites.

“Do you understand the persecution they went through?” he said. “Do you think I’d make this up?”

RELATED

He said: “Let me be very clear. Her grandparents were Jewish. They left an area, they were being persecuted. They came over here. I never said they were practicing the Jewish faith. Her mother didn’t practice the Jewish faith, and neither did my wife. But the bloodlines, as I told you right from day one, I never misled you, her parents, grandparents were Jewish. And I’m not going to make a big deal about it and that’s it.”

In Doug Ford’s initial comments, he simply asserted that his wife was Jewish and that her mother was Jewish. Asked Tuesday if his wife actually identifies as Jewish, he said, “No, she doesn’t. She hasn’t.”

“Jewish bloodlines,” he repeated.

The question “who is a Jew?” is a famously difficult and contentious question among the Jewish community itself. The Orthodox and Reform denominations offer different answers. An overarching principle, though, is that Jewishness is passed down through the mother’s side — so anyone born of a Jewish mother is Jewish, regardless of what religion they may or may not practice.

As a result, if one of Karla Ford’s ancestors on her mother’s side was Jewish — even if it was her great-great-grandmother — and it was passed through maternal relatives, then she would technically be considered Jewish.

Former Canadian Jewish Congress CEO Bernie Farber — who said that he does not believe Ford harbours any ill will against Jews — said that perhaps somewhere, many generations ago, Karla Ford has Jewish relatives and the lineage was passed on to her. But for Doug Ford to claim she is Jewish, he said, is “totally disingenuous.” He sarcastically said the search might as well go back even further.

“Maybe even Adam and Eve — maybe we’re all Jewish,” he said. “The more he speaks about this, the more ridiculous it seems.”

The saga began at a Sunday debate organized by two Jewish organizations. Longshot candidate Ari Goldkind criticized Rob Ford (open Rob Ford's poilcard) for showing up at a debate organized by the Jewish community after he has been documented using offensive language that included a slur against Jews.

Doug Ford, responding to that criticism, listed off people he knows who are Jewish — his doctor, dentist, lawyer and accountant. That comment, which has been criticized for perpetuating stereotypes, was loudly booed.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

It appears Ford was correct about the Orthodox part of his amended claim, but not the Jewish part.

According to newspaper archives and ancestral records, Karla Ford’s maternal grandparents did not identify as Jews when they arrived in Canada, or later when they married on Canadian soil.

Karla Ford was born Karla Middlebrook, daughter of Julie Renwick. Her grandparents were George (born John George Arenowicz) and Eleanor Renwick.

Eleanor Renwick was born Eleonora Marko in a part of the old Austro-Hungarian Empire which is now divided between Ukraine and Romania.

An Eleonora Marko, who was 18 at the time, landed in Halifax on the S.S. Brandenburg on July 30, 1913, according to passenger lists kept by Library of Archives Canada and digitized on FamilySearch.org.

On the passenger manifest, Marko, was recorded as “Ruth,” which likely refers to the Ruthenia region of Eastern Europe. Under “religious denomination,” she was marked down as “gr. cath.,” taken to mean Greek Catholic.

Many Jews did flee her area in the years leading up to the First World War, fearing persecution. But she identified as a Christian even in Canada.

A wedding certificate for an Eleonora Marko and John Arenowicz dated 1916 shows the two were married in Ottawa. Their wedding certificate, available on Ancestry.com, also asked for religious denomination. For both, the answer was “Russian Greek Orthodox.”

They were married by a reverend at the Holy Trinity Church in Ottawa’s Carleton County.

Marko died on Oct. 20, 1982. Her gravestone — shared with her husband and daughter Gloria — reads: “Always in our hearts/The Lord is my shepherd.”

That often-cited opening verse of the Old Testament’s Psalm 23 is commonly associated with Christian culture, but is also part of the Jewish Torah.

At least one of Karla Ford’s aunts was married as a Christian. A story in the Star, printed in 1947, shows her wedding was held in an Evangelical church.

The possibility of Karla Ford being raised as a practicing Jew appears to be ruled out by her own father’s obituary.

When William John Middlebrook died in 1994, his death notice printed in the Star read: “Known for his devotion to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”

Read more about: