The day after an Aug. 27, 2025, mass shooting that resulted in the deaths of two children in a Minneapolis church, a rumor spread online that the shooter, Robin Westman, was Jewish.
For example, a post by someone who described herself as a "Christian nationalist" on X said a "transgender Jewish man" had ended the lives of Christian children (archived):
(@LaurenWitzkeDE on X)
As of this writing, the post had gained more than 530,000 views and 8,000 likes. The claim appeared several times on X, including by an account that called itself "Six Million," presumably a reference to the 6 million Jews Germany's Nazis killed during World War II.
In a direct message on X, Lauren Witzke — the poster who spread the rumor — told Snopes she believed Westman was Jewish because, she claimed, "his mother was Ashkenazi Jewish, so, ethnically. Based off her maiden name with the Askenazi [sic] Jewish surname 'Heler'."
"According to Jewish law, the MOTHER has to be Jewish in order for the descendants to be considered Jewish," Witzke added.
However, there was no proof of the claim. In fact, reports indicated that Westman's family and Westman had ties to the Catholic church in which the shooting took place. Further, an obituary and a 1985 news article showed that Westman's mother, Mary Grace Westman, née Heleringer and not "Heler," as Witzke said, has Catholic heritage. It is true that according to strict Jewish law, a person is Jewish when their mother is Jewish or when they convert to Judaism (some communities accept patrilineal descent if the person was raised Jewish). There was no evidence that Robin Westman had converted to Judaism.
Snopes identified Westman's maternal grandmother as Mary Lou Heleringer, née O'Donnell. According to her 2004 obituary, she received a Catholic education. Her family celebrated a funeral Mass for her and urged mourners to send gifts to the Dominican Renovation Project at St. Louis Bertrand Church, a Catholic church in Louisville, Kentucky, where she lived.
Westman's maternal uncle, named in Heleringer's obituary, is former Kentucky state Rep. Robert "Bob" Heleringer. A 1985 article in The (Louisville) Courier-Journal reported that he had graduated from a Catholic high school and university and that he was "chairman of a legislative committee of Catholic PTAs."
News reports indicated that Westman's mother, in keeping with her family's tradition, had worked as a secretary at the Catholic school Westman attacked. Further, CNN reported that according to a yearbook photo, Westman graduated from the Annunciation Catholic Church's school in 2017. ABC affiliate KSTP confirmed the story, showing the yearbook photo.
As for their last name, given their background, it seemed more plausible that Heleringer was a different spelling of Ehleringer, a surname that traces its roots to Germany. As people emigrate to new countries, their surnames sometimes become misspelled or mispronounced, leading to new spellings.
In addition, police were investigating videos supposedly posted by the shooter in which firearms appeared with names and slogans scribbled on them, including antisemitic ones. According to KSTP, the suspect had written "Robert Bowers" on one of the weapons, referring to the man who committed the 2018 mass shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. The New York Post posted screen captures of videos it attributed to Westman on YouTube. On them, writing on weapons read "6 million wasn't enough" and "Jew gas" on a smoke canister.