The New Jersey NAACP suspended one of their board members for six months after he railed against the local Jewish community during a meeting.
The Montclair, New Jersey, branch of the NAACP voted to suspend education Chairman James Harris for six months, according to the Montclair Local. The unanimous vote, which took place on Monday, came after he argued that the Jewish community gentrified Montclair and made housing less affordable.
Harris argued, the “Jewish community controls the Board of Education and the City Council, but they spend huge amounts of money sending their kids to the yeshivahs, and they’ve gutted the budget for the black and Latino students who are left in public schools,” at a meeting on Dec. 30.
He also said that local residents feared “being replaced by these strangers who really weren’t friendly,” referring to Orthodox Jews. Harris also noted that “people are very, very quick to label anything that’s critical of Israel or the Jewish as anti-Semitic. Excuse me, if the facts are facts, that doesn’t necessarily make it anti-Semitic.”
Montclair NAACP President Al Pelham issued a statement, “While Mr. Harris clearly stated at the beginning of his address that he was representing the New Jersey Association of Black Educators, he went out of his way to mention and bring the NAACP into the conversation. Some of Mr. Harris’s overall comments and tone that evening were in clear contradiction of the NAACP’s mission and thus the Montclair Branch condemns them.”
Harris issued an apology for the comments following his suspension. He also condemned the uptick in anti-Semitic crimes in New Jersey and New York.
“I condemn the recent violence in Jersey City, NJ, Monsey, NY and all of the recent hate crimes against the Jewish communities. I offer my condolences. I would like to express my sincere regret and apologize for the remarks I made about the Hasidic community and the development of Montclair, NJ,” he explained. “My personal statement was meant to focus on the impact of gentrification on lower socioeconomic communities in Montclair, NJ. Instead, I used a regional example of Lakewood, NJ real estate and public education funding. Unfortunately I used terms and examples that have been interpreted as anti-Semitic.”
The comments are similar to those made from Jersey City Board of Education member Joan Terrell. Following a deadly attack at a Jewish market in Jersey City, Terrell unleashed an anti-Semitic tirade on Facebook arguing that the shooters “knew they would come out in body bags,” and wondered, “What is the message they were sending? Are we brave enough to explore the answer to their message?”
Terrell remains on the board despite calls for her resignation from Democratic New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop, though she refused.
