Mayor of Santa Barbara and 2016 congressional candidate Helene Schneider spoke to local college students Tuesday evening, tackling several hot button issues and explaining her diverse personal background, something she claims would be an asset in Congress.
“My dad’s Jewish — my mom’s Protestant. I have in my family Ukrainian Catholic and Mexican Spanish, and as I said Jewish from Boston, Protestant from Long Island, and some of my step-brothers and step-sisters married people from Germany and Mexico,” Schneider said. “My dad would tease at Thanksgiving that it was more like a UN convention,” Schneider continued.
Schneider addressed an intimate group of students at Santa Barbara Hillel in Isla Vista. Santa Barbara Hillel is a nonprofit student life organization affiliated with Hillel International, a global Jewish campus organization with chapters at more than 550 colleges and universities.