Mayor Brandon Johnson said Wednesday that his newly appointed president of the Chicago Board of Education He is “seeking atonement” for making anti-Semitic comments but did not call for his dismissal as requested by just over half of the City Council.

The mayor’s comments came less than a day later. Jewish Insider reported that the chairman of the board, Rev. Mitchell Ikenna Johnson, crafted more than a dozen Facebook posts with anti-Semitic statements following the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which left at least 1,200 Israelis dead. . according to Reuters. Israel has since launched a large-scale offensive against Gaza, resulting in the deaths of 45,000 Palestinians, Reuters reported.

“I know the Rev. Mitchell Johnson has worked hard as a faith leader in his interfaith work,” the mayor told reporters Wednesday after a City Council meeting. “I know that he has since come forward and apologized for his comments and how harmful they have been to people in the Jewish community.”

The mayor continued, “These are not sentiments I subscribe to, and I appreciate that Reverend Johnson is willing to be held accountable for statements he has made that have caused harm.”

the mayor appointed Johnson as chairman of the board last month after all The Board of Education resigned. he has presided more than one Board of Education meetingand the body will meet again for its first regular meeting on Friday, November 1.

In a prepared statement, Rev. Johnson apologized “to the Jewish community” for his comments and said he has fought anti-Semitism throughout his career.

“The comments I posted were reactive and insensitive, and I deeply regret not having been more accurate and deliberate in my comments posted last year,” Rev. Johnson wrote. “Since then, I have asked for and received feedback from my Jewish friends and colleagues, who have helped me be more thoughtful in how I approach these sensitive topics.”

He added that he is “committed to ensuring that anti-Semitism and hate of any kind have no place in Chicago Public Schools.”

Since the Oct. 7 attacks, posts by Rev. Johnson, who is not related to the mayor, have been extreme. Several of his posts shared his support for the Palestinians and called for a ceasefire in Gaza, which the Chicago City Council has also formally done. as part of a resolution passed narrowly earlier this year.

In December 2023, he shared a video of former US President Jimmy Carter in which he stated: “And, like him, I believe that Israel has the right to exist in the same way that the Palestinians have the right to exist. Furthermore, Israel must retreat to the original land border that was illegally granted to them by the United Nations.”

Other publications have gone much further. On February 20, Johnson wrote, “The ideology of the Nazi Germans has been adopted by the Zionist Jews.” In apparent support for Hamas, Johnson also wrote that “people have the absolute right to attack their oppressors by any means necessary!!!”

Jewish Insider reports that the posts Johnson shared came from anti-Israel and Russian propaganda accounts, as well as a conspiracy theorist.

On Wednesday, the mayor declined to directly say whether he was aware of Johnson’s Facebook posts when he elected him to the school board.

Elected officials, at least one school board candidate and some political groups called for the board president’s resignation Wednesday, including 27 councilors — just over half of the City Council.

When asked about the comments, Gov. JB Pritzker, who is Jewish, said he did not approve of them and that a proper background investigation “does not appear to have occurred here,” as reported by Capitol Fax.

“Look, can things get lost in people’s vets? Sure. But it seems like the posts on Facebook are pretty easy to find,” Pritzker said.

The board president has also faced questions about separate controversies. NBCChicago reported earlier this month that Johnson was disbarred as an attorney in the 1990s and had a lien placed on his home, in part for failing to pay child support.

When asked last week about those findings, board Chairman Johnson told reporters: “The truth is, I was suggested for this position because of my leadership ability and my ability to get things done. That’s the truth. The good news is that they didn’t hire me to be an accountant or to be a lawyer.”

School Board candidate Ellen Rosenfeld, who is running for District 4 on the north shore of the lake, said the “surprising lack of investigation” surrounding the board president shows “how far he is willing to go (the mayor) to push his agenda at the expense of students and teachers.”

Chicago Democrats for Education, a political organization that opposes the Chicago Teachers Union and endorses school board candidates, said Rev. Johnson’s comments “raise serious concerns about the safety and well-being of students.” and Jewish families in our city.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago public schools. Contact Reema at [email protected].