Gov. JB Pritzker and more than two dozen aldermen criticized Mayor Brandon Johnson for not fully vetting his choice for school board president — citing the hand-picked candidate’s history of posting repeatedly about Israel’s yearlong offensive in Gaza.
The Rev. Mitchell “Ikenna” Johnson was appointed by the mayor to the school board’s top leadership role after all seven previous members resigned earlier this month. But some state legislators and City Council members questioned that decision and called for his resignation because of dozens of anti-Israel posts he’d made, first reported by Jewish Insider.
“To the extent that someone has been put up for a position, especially one as important as chair of the Chicago schools, I think vetting is vitally important. That doesn’t seem to have occurred here,” Pritzker said when asked about the posts at a news conference in the Loop about a new state initiative, “Help Stop Hate.”
The Rev. Johnson, who is no relation to the mayor, has worked with the American Jewish Committee and the Simon Wiesenthal Center. Following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, he started posting about the Israel-Hamas war on Facebook. He would often post several times a day, increasing in frequency over the winter.
“My Jewish colleagues appear drunk with the Israeli power and will live to see their payment,” he wrote in a post Dec. 19. “The Nazi Germans’ ideology has been adopted by Zionist Jews,” in another dated Feb. 20. The dozens of Facebook posts by Rev. Johnson about Israel continued into the spring.
After the posts were made publicly known on social media, more than 20 aldermen signed a letter asking for Johnson’s immediate resignation, stating that his “continued role on the school board is non-negotiable.” They called on both Rev. Johnson and the mayor to correct “this terrible mistake.”
“This situation is a failure of leadership and judgment on the part of Mayor Johnson and his executive team,” the letter reads. “Earlier this month, Mayor Johnson told reporters his appointees would be thoroughly vetted before they were sworn in. It is clear that did not take place.”
The letter directly addressed Rev. Johnson’s December Facebook post about being “drunk with Israeli power.” That post was unfairly “holding American Jews responsible for the actions of military halfway across the world,” the letter states.
In a statement to the Tribune Wednesday, the Rev. Johnson said he has worked “hand in hand” with the Jewish community in Chicago to fight antisemitism.
“I am deeply sorry for not being more precise and deliberate in my comments posted last year,” he said. “Since that time I asked for and received feedback from my Jewish friends and colleagues who helped me be more thoughtful in how I address these sensitive matters.”
Ald. Debra Silverstein, 50th, the council’s lone Jewish member, said “(her) community is just really upset.” She brought up a Saturday shooting in West Rogers Park, noting that the shooting victim attended her synagogue. Silverstein said the shooting “didn’t get the proper attention from City Hall.”
“I don’t feel that this administration has the Jewish community’s back, and I don’t know how the vetting process let this person get through onto our school board,” said Silverstein. “I am so worried about our Jewish students in CPS and their protection. To have somebody on the school board that has tweeted out antisemitic anti-Zionist tweets is appalling to me.”
Responding to Rev. Johnson’s posts Wednesday, Mayor Johnson said the board president has since apologized for the comments made and how “harmful they have been to people of the Jewish community.”
“I know he’s going to … sit down with Jewish leaders in the city of Chicago and beyond to begin to work toward restoration and healing,” Johnson said. “These are not sentiments that I subscribe to, and I do appreciate Reverend Johnson being willing to be held accountable for statements that he has made that (have) caused harm.
The mayor said Rev. Johnson’s comments “in no way reflect … his commitment to ensure that every single child in our public school system is seen and heard.”
Aldermen have long been divided on the war in Gaza. City Council narrowly passed a resolution last year calling for a permanent cease-fire in Gaza, after Mayor Johnson cast a tie-breaking vote. It made Chicago the largest American city to call for a cease-fire between Hamas and Israel.
Mayor Johnson, a former teacher and CTU organizer, also might have had a hand in the resignations of the previous school board after unsuccessfully pressuring Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez to take out a controversial loan and then threatening to oust him.
Ten members of the Board of Education will be elected in November, and Mayor Johnson will appoint 11 next year to join them. If the mayor chooses to appoint the Rev. Johnson, he can stay on as president. This worries some lawmakers.
Democrat state Rep. Sara Feigenholtz said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, Tuesday night she was “shocked and appalled that the Mayor wouldn’t vet someone before he appointed them.” She asked for the mayor to call for the school board president’s resignation. Otherwise, she threatened state intervention.
Last week, NBC reported that the newly appointed president had been disbarred from his job as a lawyer in Ohio and a lien had been placed on his home due to not paying child support.
When asked whether the accusations were accurate, Rev. Johnson responded last Friday that he was “suggested for this position because of (his) leadership capacity and ability to get things done.”
“That’s the truth,” Rev. Johnson said. “The good news is, I wasn’t hired to be an accountant, and I wasn’t hired to be a lawyer.”
One of the seven appointed school board members, Debby Pope, who recently went private on X, had also reposted several pro-Palestinian and anti-Zionist tweets.
The school board, which Rev. Johnson currently heads, will likely decide the fate of Martinez and the controversial $300 million high-interest loan sought by the mayor to help fund a new CTU contract and balance the district’s budget.
The next Board of Education meeting is scheduled for Friday.
Chicago Tribune’s Alice Yin and Jake Sheridan contributed.
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