George S. Patton

George S. Patton was many things: a brilliant, if controversial, military strategist; a man who believed in reincarnation; and, apparently, a distant cousin of the future President George H.W. Bush. What he was not, by any stretch of the imagination, was Jewish. His lineage traces back to English, Scottish, and Irish Protestant stock, firmly planting him in the "Gentile" column.

Patton's religious views were a mix of traditional Christianity and a personal belief in destiny and reincarnation, which he often expressed, much to the bewilderment of those around him. He famously ordered a prayer for clear weather during the Battle of the Bulge, perhaps demonstrating that when divine intervention was needed, he wasn't calling on Abraham's God in particular.

While his military prowess helped defeat Nazi Germany, an achievement many Jews would "kvell" over, Patton himself was less than kvell-worthy. His post-war comments about displaced persons, referring to them as "DPs" and comparing them unfavorably to Germans, were deeply offensive and showed a profound lack of empathy, tarnishing any potential nachas from his wartime efforts. He even dismissed the idea of Jewish distinctiveness, finding it inconvenient for his administrative purposes.

So, while he fought the good fight against Hitler, he certainly wasn't doing it for the Tribe, nor did he ever show any particular affinity for it. His contributions were significant, but from a "Jew or Not Jew" perspective, they were purely secular, leaving his score in the K-category quite low.