If Senator Bernie Sanders wins the Democratic nomination and is elected as the President of the United States, he will be the first Jewish President in the nation’s history. Although Sanders does not describe himself as particularly religious, his roots are in Judaism with a deep family history in Poland. As with many Jewish families who immigrated to the United States in the age of the Holocaust, their Jewish faith is deeply intertwined with this difficult history.
Polish Heritage
Sanders’ father, Eli Sanders, left Slopnice, Poland in 1921 and came to the United States. During the Nazi occupation of Poland, Slopnice was a central location for Nazi activities and most of the Sanders family died in concentration camps. Eli Sanders’ wife, Dorothy Glassberg, was a native of New York City and is also a descendent of Jewish parents from Poland and Russia.
