Cleveland Heights Mayor Khalil Seren is facing mounting public outrage after explosive allegations of antisemitism surfaced against his wife, Natalie McDaniel.
Last week, the law firm Sobel, Wade & Mapley, LLC filed a formal complaint with the Ohio Civil Rights Commission alleging that McDaniel used antisemitic slurs in private text messages referring to city officials, including members of the Jewish community. The complaint, which includes messages reportedly sent to Mayor Seren and a former aide, accuses McDaniel of referring to Jewish Planning Commission Chair Jessica Cohen as a “broodmare” — a term allegedly used to disparage Orthodox Jewish families for having large numbers of children.
Other reported messages include derogatory remarks about Jewish residents and city officials, including calling a councilmember “that Jewish [dog].” McDaniel also reportedly implied that Cohen was serving on the commission solely to benefit the Orthodox community.
Scores of Cleveland Heights residents gathered this week outside City Hall hours before the council meeting to demand accountability. Protesters, including children, held signs calling for Mayor Seren’s resignation, expressing frustration over his silence and inaction in the face of bigotry coming from within his own household.
During the city council meeting, residents filled the chamber and voiced outrage during public comment. While councilmembers unanimously passed a resolution condemning antisemitism as an emergency measure, they also took pointed aim at the mayor’s silence.
“As a city leader, your judgment has failed you,” Councilwoman Gail Larson said. Vice President of Council Davida Russell added, “We need to close the door on all this hatred.”
Council President Tony Cuda said: “I’m disappointed. I’m repulsed. And most of all, I’m sorry to the Jewish community that has to endure this hate speech.”
Mayor Seren, who has not publicly addressed the complaint, said during the meeting, “I’ve prepared a statement and I’ll be releasing that tomorrow. Tonight, I’m here to listen.”
On Wednesday night, Seren released a long video – but made no mention of resigning. The video can be watched below.
The city’s second-ever mayoral election is set for November. While two candidates have already filed to run, it remains unclear whether Seren will seek re-election.
(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
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14 Responses
Stop crying wolf , we don’t fire people period and certainly not for a spouses texts…save it for real issues
“…of referring to Jewish Planning Commission Chair Jessica Cohen as a “broodmare” — a term allegedly used to disparage Orthodox Jewish families for having large numbers of children.”
The term doesn’t discourage anyone from having many children, unlike the article’s implication. Rather, the term denigrates a woman for doing so. A woman who has chosen to have a large number of children would be the implication of the term “brood”, and then the “mare” part would imply female animal.
So it’s a derogatory reference calling a woman an animal at least in part because she has a lot of children.
This gentile woman seems to have insulted this Jewish woman. I don’t see anything antisemitic about calling her a “broodmare” or even a “female dog”, and her husband pointed that out in the video. That’s a generic insult, not at all antisemitism.
For the gentile woman to state that she believes that this Jewish woman is there to benefit Jews, this happens to be a reasonable question, just as anyone might wonder why (liHavdil) a Muslim woman might join.
The mayor’s claim that he and his wife are not anti-Jewish seems reasonable, from what is presented here. He also stated that the text chain is doctored.
He also stated that they are approving a a project which some consider to be favoring Jews, even though he thinks it is also good fro the city.
This whole story stinks. Crying wolf about antisemitism is very dangerous for Jews, and is therefore very counter-productive for Jews.
This is concerning. Please don’t alienate gentiles and then G-d forbid cause them to hate, when they are not haters.
Another case of boy crying wolf.
Though I can appreciate “Hakatan’s” contrarianism, this article omits many more alleged anti-Semitic comments due to their delicate nature, such as an accusation of infidelity among the Jewish city officials.
That she is an antisemite is indisputable. If it creates a hostile environment and is a violation of Ohio workplace laws, there’s no reason it shouldn’t be investigated and penalized.
Perhaps this should serve as a wake-up call to the liberal, Jewish elites, that woke politics invites radicals into the government and legitimizes their views.
Anti-Semitism is not too far behind that.
Remember, cattle cars are non-discriminatory. They will transport conservative and liberal Jews to the same death camp.
Careful who you vote for.
Once again the posters of YWN will comment that it is “not important” and make up other excuses that allow people to express hate. Meanwhile, had they said such a thing about ANY other group of people, this would be on CNN for days and days, there would be an investigation, there would be a conference for diversity and sensitivity training, and probably a firing. There would even be a national outrage.
But if it is Jewish, then there will be a special set of rules and allowances, because even the Jews commenting on the internet feel themselves inferior and allow this to go on.
We will never have equality.
The comments here are so insensitive. Being derogatory in general is not okay at all.
If you know the full story, you will agree that it’s antisemitism. Check out other news sites if you don’t believe me.
@ Hakatan
firstly YWN didnt say she was discouraging, they said “DISPARRAGING”.
Additionally, she keeps referring in denigrating tones to her being Jewish. One can be a regular female dog, the adjective Jewish is what makes this antisemitic. Along with her House of warship question, and the general context.
Furthermore, the claim that someone is there to benefit a specific constituency should not be a cause for ire, unless you oppose that community.
Yes, opposing certain islamist aligned representatives is also ok as they align themselves with terrorism, nothing to do with the rights and benefits of the citizens of these United states.
yeshivaguy45:
Being derogatory in a private conversation is not a reason to start trumpeting antisemitism. Being antisemitic in a private conversation, however, is a different matter.
lakeeriejew:
I do not know the details of this story, and my comments were based on what was presented here.
However, I fail to see the connection between “woke-ness” and cattle cars. The Nazis YM”Sh were not “woke”; that is not what lead to cattle cars.
Just listening to his reply, if I understand correctly, he has some very valid points. I.e. the person accusing him was after money and willing to withdraw everything. The term is not specifically addressed to Jews. He and his wife have a lengthy history of extraordinary involvement with the Jewish community. None of these points are mentioned in the article. I have not researched the issue nor heard both sides or all the facts. I have come to no conclusions. What I can state emphatically is that it is not good for us as Jews to reflexively push the anti-Semitism card in cases that do not warrant it. It reflects very badly on us if that occurs.
Hakatan, the Nazis were not “woke”?! They were socialists, and that makes them not far from the neo-Marxists that we now call “woke”.
chash:
Thanks. I either misread that (one “R”, BTW), or they edited that afterwards. Sorry about that, if the former.
Not sure I understand the rest of your post.
Calling someone a Jewish “whatever” is not inherently antisemitic; it’s simply noting their religion in addition to whatever else it is. You can argue that the religion is irrelevant, and therefore should have been left out, but that still doesn’t make it inherently antisemitic, regardless.
Claiming that someone is “there” to benefit a specific community when the “there” is a secular public entity that governs all citizens is indeed a potential cause for ire even if you have nothing at all against that specific community. Just as a hypothetical example, if Catholic schools would all be fully funded by the government while, liHavdil, we all have to pay tuition, then that would certainly “be a cause for ire”.
anti semitisim is not the problem rather its a lack of semitisim! not my line
jews have never been safer ..hundreds of public jewish events w/o a boo , chupas, lag baomer fires,.. torah paradeds, even funerals..
thousands of woman & kids alone in the country all week……..