Bloomfield Township, MI – A political flier for two school board candidates has been labeled anti-Semitic and has outraged some residents in the Bloomfield Hills School District.
The glossy, color flier for school board candidates Don Greenwell and his wife, Jenny Greenwell, depicts a wizard wearing a flowing black robe with a golden Star of David in the center, along with other symbols. The words “School Board” are emblazoned across his chest, and he’s holding a wand as though he’s casting a spell on a pile of money. The fliers were mailed to residents throughout the district.
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“I find it very, very offensive. The imagery here really goes back to the old prejudices and stereotypes that Jews are so tied to money,” said Betsy Kellman, Michigan director of the Anti-Defamation League.
School board President Steven Weiss was upset. “I am very disturbed, and I think it shows an incredible lack of judgment and sensitivity,” he said. “This is not the type of thing that should be injected into a school board election and it does not represent our core values.”
But Jenny Greenwell said she passed the flier around to the Jewish women at her table at a luncheon hosted by the Jewish women’s organization Hadassah. “I told them I’m personally so offended I don’t know what to do and they told me they were going to vote for me anyway,” Greenwell said. “They know me and know I’m not anti-Semitic.”
Rabbi Joshua Bennett of Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, isn’t buying it. “Even if it was just a mistake, I think we need to be smarter than that,” he said. “When you choose to be in the public light in a community like Bloomfield Township, which is incredibly diverse, we have to be smarter and take pained concerns to make sure we’re making the right choices.” [DetNews]
To See the Flyer PDF.
As a resident of the Bloomfield Hills School District, a religiously diverse district that closes on the High Holidays, I do not care whether this was an oversight or not — The “Greenwell Team” is ultimately responsible. To say that they have apologized to their “Jewish friends” or “women at a Hadassah meeting” indicates Ms. Greenwell’s lack of understand as to the hurt that she and her husband have created. I do not want them making important decisions regarding my children and my tax dollars. They weren’t responsible with their own money. They did not take the time to “carefully” proofread their own personal policitcal advertisements – how carefully are they going to look over the documents of the District, if they, by chance, were to get elected.
That is COMPLETELY false. The pieces started arriving in homes on Monday. She immediately pulled all the rest that had not been mailed.
She has been VERY apologetic about the sad oversight.
She tells Jewish women that she is “personally offended” yet she continues to hands out the flier!!!!
I wouldn’t vote for her she is obviously dumb.