Jersey City school board member facing calls to resign for calling Jews ‘brutes’ after kosher market killings

A member of the Jersey City Board of Education is facing calls from both the city’s mayor and New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) to resign after she called Jews “brutes” on Facebook less than a week after a shooting at a kosher market.

School board member Joan Terrell-Paige in a lengthy Facebook comment on Sunday referred to the local Jewish community as “brutes” who have “threatened, intimidated and harassed” black homeowners, according to NJ.com.

Now, Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop and Murphy are calling on Terrell-Paige to resign from her position following the Facebook post. Her comment has since been deleted.

The comment came after a shooting at a kosher market in Jersey City claimed four lives, including two members of the Hasidic community. Officials say the two shooters targeted the kosher market and the incident is being investigated as a hate crime.

Terrell-Paige’s comment underscored the divide between the local Hasidic and black communities, as she alleged that members of the Hasidic community were pushing black residents out of their neighborhoods.

“Where was all this faith and hope when Black homeowners were threatened, intimidated, and harassed by I WANT TO BUY YOUR HOUSE brutes of the jewish community?” Terrell-Paige wrote, according to the news outlet.

“She should resign,” Fulop said in a tweet. “That type of language has no place in our schools and no place amongst elected officials. Imagine she said this about any other community — what would the reaction be? The same standard should apply here.”

I also said I’m not going to mix words. My opinion is she should resign. That type of language has no place in our schools and no place amongst elected officials. Imagine she said this about any other community – what would the reaction be? The same standard should apply here https://t.co/QMLOlBuarR

— Steven Fulop (@StevenFulop) December 17, 2019

Terrell-Paige noted in her comment that she was speaking “as a private citizen, not as an elected member of the Board of Education.”

School board president Sudhan Thomas in a statement said Terrell-Paige’s comment does not reflect the sentiment of the board.

“Trustee Paige’s comments do not reflect the JCBOE outlook or value system. The JCBOE is home to 30,000 students and 6,000 employees from various ethnicities, religions, cultures and sexual orientation,” she said, according to NJ.com. “There is no room for any kind of hate or bigotry in Jersey City.”

Terrell-Paige was not remorseful for her post and said she was not the one who removed it, according to Politico. When asked by the news outlet if she regretted writing the post, Terrell-Paige said she did not.

Her term on the school board goes through Dec. 31, 2020.