US Navy SEALs
US Navy SEALsReuters

Eric Greitens, a Jew and former Navy SEAL, is the Republican candidate for the Missouri governorship for the November elections.

For service in the Iraq War, from 2003 to 2007, Greitens was awarded the prestigious awards of Bronze Star for bravery, and Purple Heart for injury in battle.

This past Tuesday, he was victorious in primary elections against his three rivals for the Republican candidacy.

Adding to Greiten's unique background: he holds a PhD from Oxford University and was a recipient of the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship awarded for academic excellence. He has written four books, including one that is a collection of letters to a friend that suffered PTSD from the war.

Greitens told the Forward that he is a "proud Jew," and that he sees his entrance into political life as an application of the Jewish ideal of "tikun olam" ("repairing the world).

Greitens public pronouncement of Jewish pride is particularly dramatic when compared with the assertion of another Missouri gubernatorial candidate last year, Tom Schweich.

Schweich claimed that party members were spreading the rumor behind his back that he was Jewish so as to damage his chances of election in the face of a large evangelical Christian population.

Schweich committed suicide shortly thereafter.