I hope my non-Jewish readers out there do not take this the wrong way, but the moment schlubs like me hears there's a new Treasury Secretary we turn into our mothers."Is he Jewish?" we ask.
With a name like Timothy Franz Geithner, I tended to doubt it. But when I checked Wikipedia on Friday they listed (without a source) his religion as Jewish.
Alas, when I checked today, there was no religion listed at all. Moreover, Wiki said that he and his wife, Carole Sonnenfeld, were married by a reverend for the United Church of Christ.
Proving yet again you should never really trust Wikipedia for anything...
But it was a nice little rumor while it lasted.
(A couple of reasons why I think he still might be Jewish: He was born in Brooklyn. His mother is named Deborah. And his children are named Benjamin and Elise. On the other hand, his name is Timothy Geithner. I'm going to wait until I find a profile in The Forward.)
(Oh, and if you'd like to know something substantive about Geithner's personality and policies and whatnot, check out Noam Scheiber's profile in The New Republic.)
