WASHINGTON _ Catholic Speaker of the House Paul D. Ryan is a little bit Jewish.
Ryan taped an episode of the PBS series "Finding Your Roots With Henry Louis Gates Jr." and found that he's 3 percent Ashkenazi Jewish, the Associated Press reported. He traced his heritage back to his 10th great-grandfather, who was born in Germany in 1531.
"We don't know who that Jewish person was, but we know it was on his mother's German line, which makes sense," Gates said of Ryan's ancestry. "So somebody who was a Christian German slept with a Jewish German person, and that's where that came from."
The Wisconsin Republican is a practicing Catholic. Fewer than 30 current members of Congress identify as Jewish.
The speaker will be on the show's fifth season, which will begin airing in January. Other lawmakers slated to appear are Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio and Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii.
