Chicago Jewish leaders decry mayor, laud police, as no hate crime charges issued for gunman
“The community is shaken and, frankly, outraged,” Rabbi Shlomo Soroka, of Agudath Israel of Illinois, told JNS. “We all have legitimate questions.”
JNS Staff
(JNS)
U.S. President Joe Biden took two days to comment after three men were shot in Burlington, Vt.—over Thanksgiving weekend, one of the year’s slowest news periods—before he said that he was “horrified.” The president noted that the victims were “of Palestinian descent” and “while we are waiting for more facts, we know this: there is absolutely no place for violence or hate in America. Period.”
The following day, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris stated that Americans were “praying for the full recovery of the three Palestinian students who were shot in Burlington” and “while the facts of this tragedy are still being investigated, we know that far too many people live with the fear that they could be targeted and attacked based on their beliefs or who they are.”
Like Biden, she used the word “hate” in her statement.
It later emerged that the shooter expressed pro-Hamas sentiments. Nevertheless, Biden referred to the incident when proclaiming Arab American Heritage Month in March, saying “a group of students were shot while just walking down the street—tragic reminders that hate never goes away.”
Five days after a 39-year-old, visibly Orthodox Jewish man was shot in Chicago as he walked to synagogue on Shabbat on Oct. 26, Biden and Harris have yet to issue a statement.
The lone reference connected to them came in an Oct. 28 speech at the University of Pittsburgh, in which Doug Emhoff, Harris’s Jewish husband, noted that “we see the antisemitic attacks that are happening week by week in America,” including “the man who was shot in Chicago while walking to Shabbat services two days ago.”
Harris and he “recommit ourselves to extinguishing this epidemic of hate,” Emhoff said.
Jewish leaders in Chicago told JNS that mum has been the word from city and state leaders as well.
Brandon Johnson, the city’s mayor who has drawn widespread criticism for being anti-Israel and promoting Jew-haters, waited three days to comment. When he did, he didn’t mention that the victim was Jewish.
“On behalf of the City of Chicago, our heartfelt thoughts and prayers are with the victim and his loved ones from this weekend’s shooting incident that took place in Rogers Park,” he stated. “This tragic event should have never happened.”
On Wednesday, the mayor spoke again about the victim and mentioned that he was “visibly Jewish” and walking to shul. He “reaffirmed our support for the Jewish community” and condemned “the antisemitism that is moving about in the City of Chicago and around the world.”
The mayor issued the latter remarks after extensive criticism of his initial statement, including from the Chicago JCRC and from Michal Cotler-Wunsh, the Israeli special envoy for combating antisemitism. “Olympic gymnastic-level acrobat[ic]s to avoid saying the word ‘Jew,’” wrote Raymond Lopez, alderman of Chicago’s 15th Ward.
“Words from our elected leaders matter,” stated Bob Morgan, a Democratic Illinois state representative. “After several days, when the mayor of Chicago finally spoke about this shooting, he refused to name the victim as Jewish, in a largely Jewish neighborhood, likely shot only because he was Jewish. Do better.”
“I am sickened that the mayor of Chicago could not call out this antisemitic attack for what it is,” wrote Rabbi Steven Burg, CEO of Aish. “Would it have been so difficult to comfort the Jewish community, which is now terrified after one of its members was shot because he was a Jew attending Sabbath prayers?”
Debra Silverstein, the alderman of Chicago’s 50th Ward, wrote that “the victim was a Jewish man, who was wearing traditional Jewish garb, walking to a Jewish place of worship on the Jewish day of rest.”
“Don’t erase his identity, and don’t try to minimize the fear and anxiety my community feels after this attack,” added Silverstein, who is Jewish. “We’re scared, and we need to know that our mayor has our back.”
‘Get to the bottom of this senseless shooting’
“I’ve never seen anything like this in 20 years of federal and state government service,” Richard Goldberg, a senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told JNS on Tuesday. (Goldberg served on the White House staff and as deputy chief of staff to a U.S. senator and chief of staff to a governor, both of Illinois.)
“The governor is in hiding—the mayor and police superintendent can’t even say the words ‘Jewish’ when speaking about the victim—and the FBI is nowhere to be found in a case where terrorism would obviously need to be ruled in or out,” Goldberg told JNS. “What is going on here?”
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, a Jewish Democrat, took four days after the shooting to issue a statement, which he did on Wednesday.
“I am deeply troubled by the shooting of an Orthodox Jewish man as he walked to his synagogue in West Rogers Park on Saturday,” Pritzker said. The governor added that he was praying for the “entire Orthodox Jewish community” and stated that “the motivation of the shooter deserves a complete and thorough examination to determine if this should additionally be charged as a hate crime.”
The governor, too, drew criticism. “Shameful that Pritzker does not mention the attacker was an illegal alien who shouted Allahu akbar while shooting a Jewish man,” stated Rep. Mary Miller (R-Ill.). “It’s on video. Kamala Harris allowed this illegal alien to enter our country and Pritzker allowed him to stay in Illinois. They put your safety last.”
“Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, one of the highest-ranking Jewish officials in the country, weighs in on the shooting of an Orthodox Jewish man,” wrote Josh Kraushaar, editor-in-chief of Jewish Insider, “four days after the crime took place.”
Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) also released a statement on Wednesday. “The news that an Orthodox Jewish man was shot on the way to his synagogue for Shabbat morning prayers is deeply alarming and unacceptable,” the Jewish congresswoman stated.
“I support all efforts by law enforcement to get to the bottom of this senseless shooting. It is imperative that we know the motive of the shooter to determine whether hate crime charges are applicable,” Schakowsky added.
She noted that she has “heard from several of my Jewish constituents, who are scared to walk to school or synagogue, go to the grocery store or wear anything that could convey their Jewish identity.”
“This cannot become the norm. With antisemitism on the rise in America, we must recommit ourselves to rooting it out,” she stated. “All Americans deserve to feel safe in this country, and I will not rest until this ancient hatred is cast aside once and for all.”
‘We all legitimate questions’
Earlier in the week, the Chicago Police Department announced 14 felony charges against the suspect, who reportedly entered the country illegally and who was recorded appearing to say “Allahu Akbar” at some point during the shooting. Police did not announce hate crime charges.
“The community is shaken and, frankly, outraged,” Rabbi Shlomo Soroka, director of government affairs at Agudath Israel of Illinois, told JNS. “We all have legitimate questions.”
The legal bar for proving a hate crime “is difficult to prove,” according to Soroka. “The investigation is ongoing, and they can add those charges later,” he told JNS. “The charges that carry the most significant penalties have already been filed, but we would like to see hate crime charges brought, as it would serve to validate what we’ve been saying all along—that this was an act of violence motivated by unadulterated unbridled Jew-hatred.”
The community is watching the Illinois attorney’s office “closely, and we want to know that the FBI is using every bit of energy, tool and resource to ensure justice is served and that the community is being adequately protected,” Soroka said. “Ensuring the safety of its citizens is government’s most fundamental responsibility.”
Soroka told JNS that the Chicago mayor’s statement was “woefully inadequate.”
“His office has said that as the investigation is ongoing, they are legally restricted from mentioning the Jewish identity of the victim or urging a thorough investigation to determine if a hate crime was committed,” he said. “I am still trying to find an impartial, qualified individual who agrees with that assessment.”
‘People feel that it’s a hate crime’
A source closely connected to Chicago’s Orthodox Jewish community and part of local government told JNS that the Jewish community has focused its ire more on the mayor than on the government or the lack of statements from the White House.
At a rally on Wednesday at Indian Boundary Park, hundreds of Jews marched to the site of the shooting and back to the park, the source told JNS. Attendees gave Chicago Police officers a standing ovation, the source said, and police officers held a roll call as a show of support for the Jewish community.
“People feel that it’s obviously a hate crime,” the source told JNS.
Daniel Schwartz told JNS that he co-founded the Chicago Jewish Alliance—which helped host the rally on Wednesday night—after being one of a handful of Jewish attendees at the City Council vote that the mayor broke, voting in favor of a ceasefire in a resolution that didn’t mention Hamas or the hostages.
“The mayor is kind of the inception for all of this,” he said of the alliance.
Schwartz told JNS that it was heartening to see an “amalgamation” of Jews of all sorts at the rally, which he said drew more than 400 people. Attendees gathered to say “you can’t hunt Jews and not call it out,” he said.
The Chicago Police has done a “tremendous” job, according to Schwartz, who said that many Jews in the city are highly critical of the Chicago mayor. The community is more split, along political lines, on the governor, he said.
“The Jewish community is facing existential threats all around the world. We don’t feel like we’re a part of America. We feel like we are Americans,” he said. “If they’re shooting after Jewish people in Chicago, we would really hope that our leaders would not just be aware of it—that they would actually speak up on behalf of our community.”
Schwartz, whose organization is a nonprofit and doesn’t endorse candidates, told JNS that many Chicago Jews support Harris in her campaign for president. “Hopefully there is that reciprocity—that we support our leaders and try to get them elected, but they are actually looking out for the interests of the Jewish community,” he said.
The Jewish community in Chicago has seen a lack of consistency in responses from the government, as when many commented last year when a 6-year-old Muslim boy was shot and killed in Illinois.
“We would just like it to be egalitarian, as far as how they apply these comments. What happens when it’s a Jewish kid now?” Schwartz said. “Even when politicians do speak up, it’s like they can’t unequivocally compartmentalize antisemitism. They always have to add ‘Islamophobia’ in the same breath.”
“What does that do? That waters down our perspective,” he added. “We’re sick of that.”
In the local Chicago government, “there has been no validation of any of the concerns,” said. “When we need them to stand up for us when we’re being shot at, the mayor can’t even call it a hate crime.”
Rabbi Zvi Zimmerman, of the Orthodox synagogue Bais Chaim Dovid of Lincolnwood, a village adjacent to West Rogers Park, told JNS that “collectively, we do not have any expectations from our elected officials.”
“We know they have political aspirations and are hindered by their policies and campaign promises,” he said. “From a humanity standpoint, one would think there would be more of an outcry.”
Zimmerman added that the United States has been “tremendously kind” to Jews, “much more so than any other country in the last 2,000 years” and that “we thank them for their efforts until now, and we know they will work harder to make sure this does not happen again.”
Featured Image: A rally in Chicago organized by the Chicago Jewish Alliance on Oct. 30, 2024. Credit: Chicago Jewish Alliance.
