Taitz Orly

About

An Israeli-American political conspiracy theorist and political candidate. A dentist, lawyer, and former real estate agent, Taitz was a figure in the "birther" movement, which promoted the conspiracy theory that Barack Obama was not an eligible citizen for the U.S. presidency. Taitz also promotes other conspiracy theories, related and unrelated to Obama. Taitz initiated lawsuits on behalf of the "birther" movement; all were dismissed by courts, and on one occasion, Taitz was ordered to pay $20,000 as a sanction for misconduct in filing frivolous claims. Taitz unsuccessfully ran for state-level office in California three times. Taitz was born into a Jewish family in Chișinău, Moldavian SSR, in the Soviet Union (present-day Moldova). Both her parents were science professors. In 1981, Taitz immigrated to Israel, where she earned a degree in dentistry from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In 1987, she met Yosef Taitz, who proposed to her four months later. Taitz immigrated to the United States in May 1987, marrying Yosef, who was born in Latvia, in Las Vegas. Taitz became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1992. She earned her law degree from Taft Law School and was admitted to practice law in California in December 2002. Taitz lives in Laguna Niguel, California, and owns dental practices near Mission Viejo and Rancho Santa Margarita. He has three sons, holds a second-degree black belt in Taekwondo, and speaks five languages: English, Hebrew, Moldovan, Russian, and Spanish. Before reaching national news, Taitz was quoted in The Orange County Register in 2006, supporting Israeli military actions against Hamas and Hezbollah and downplaying the impact of the espionage trial of two American Israel Public Affairs Committee staff members. (Charges against both were later dropped) Taitz also said she lost relatives in the Holocaust and that her grandmother witnessed the Kishinev pogrom.