Mayor Brandon Johnson said Wednesday that the newly appointed Chicago Board of Education chairman “seeks redemption” for anti-Semitic comments, but just over half of the City Council They did not demand his dismissal.
The mayor’s comments come after board president Reverend Mitchell Ikenna Johnson made more than a dozen anti-Semitic statements on Facebook after the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, which led to deaths in Afghanistan. The announcement comes less than a day after Jewish Insider reported that it was linked to . According to Reuters, there are at least 1,200 Israelis. Israel then launched a full-scale assault on Gaza, resulting in the deaths of 45,000 Palestinians, Reuters reported.
“I know that Reverend Mitchell Johnson has been very active in interfaith work as a religious leader,” the mayor told reporters after Wednesday’s City Council meeting. “I know he has since come forward and apologized for what he said and how hurtful it was to people in the Jewish community.”
The mayor continued, “While these are not sentiments I agree with, I am grateful that Pastor Johnson is willing to take responsibility for his hurtful comments.”
The mayor appointed Johnson as school board chairman last month after the entire school board resigned. He has presided over one school board meeting, and the school board is scheduled to reconvene its first regular meeting on Friday, Nov. 1.
In a prepared statement, Johnson apologized “to the Jewish community” for his comments and said he has fought anti-Semitism throughout his career.
“The comments I posted were slow and insensitive, and I deeply apologize for not being more accurate and careful in expressing the comments I posted last year,” Pastor Johnson wrote. “Since then, I have sought and received feedback from Jewish friends and colleagues, who have helped me become more thoughtful in how I approach these sensitive issues.”
He added: “We are committed to ensuring that anti-Semitism and hatred of any kind have no place in Chicago Public Schools.”
Since the Oct. 7 attack, posts by Pastor Johnson, who is not affiliated with the mayor, have ranged from extreme to extreme. Several of his posts shared support for the Palestinians and called for a ceasefire in Gaza, which the Chicago City Council also formally did as part of a narrowly passed resolution earlier this year.
In December 2023, he shared a video of former US President Jimmy Carter saying: Additionally, Israel must retreat to its original land borders, which were illegally recognized by the United Nations. ”
Other posts go further. On February 20, Johnson wrote, “The ideology of the Nazi Germans has been adopted by the Zionist Jews.” In an apparent endorsement of Hamas, Prime Minister Johnson also wrote: “The people have the absolute right to attack their oppressors by any means necessary!!!”
Jewish Insider reported that the posts Johnson reshared were from anti-Israel and Russian propaganda accounts and conspiracy theorists.
On Wednesday, the mayor declined to directly address whether he knew about Johnson’s Facebook posts when he elected him to the school board.
Elected officials, at least one school board candidate and some political groups on Wednesday called for the resignation of the school board president, including 27 city council members, just over half of the city council members.
Asked about the comments, Gov. JB Pritzker, who is Jewish, said he did not condone them and said, “I don’t think there’s proper vetting going on here,” Capitol Fax reported. .
“Look, do you ever miss something at a veterinarian visit? Absolutely. But I feel like Facebook posts are pretty easy to find,” Pritzker said.
The board president also faces questions about another controversy. NBC Chicago reported earlier this month that Johnson was disbarred from practicing law in the 1990s and had a lien placed on his home in part for failing to pay child support.
Asked about these findings last week, Board Chairman Johnson told reporters, “The truth is, I was recommended for this position because of my leadership skills and my ability to get things done. It’s true. The good news is, I wasn’t hired to be an accountant, I wasn’t hired to be a lawyer.”
Ellen Rosenfeld, a school board candidate running for District 4 in North Lakeshore, said the “astonishing lack of scrutiny” surrounding school board presidents “shows how far we’ve gone.” spoke. [the mayor] He is willing to advance his own agenda at the expense of students and teachers. ”
The Chicago Education Democrats, a political group that opposes the Chicago Teachers Union and supports school board candidates, said Johnson’s comments “raise serious concerns about the safety and well-being of our city’s Jewish students and their families.” “I will cause it to happen.”
Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago public schools. Please contact Ramin at ramin@chalkbeat.org.
