Trayon White Sr., a Democrat representing the district’s 8th Ward, posted a video early on March 16 in which he accused “the Rothschilds” of controlling the climate to make money — an antisemitic conspiracy theory that has gained traction on the web. He later removed the video and issued an apology.
Lynn Williams, an expert on educational programs at the Museum, guided White through the institution’s exhibitions on Wednesday, the Washington Post reported.
With White was Rabbi Batya Glazer of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington, a group that has been heavily involved in the first-term Democratic lawmaker’s public rehabilitation following his dissemination of the video.
“There’s nothing more powerful than visiting the Holocaust museum for understanding the culture of the Jewish community, and our concerns about antisemitism,” Glazer told a reporter who shadowed the tour.
During the visit, White reportedly was confused by a picture of a woman surrounded by Nazis while wearing a sign that reads “I am a German girl and allowed myself to be defiled by a Jew.” He asked Williams twice whether the Nazis were protecting her, before the guide explained they were trying to humiliate her.
White left the 90-minute tour halfway through without saying goodbye to his hosts, the Washington Post report said. Glazer, the rabbi, texted him to ask his whereabouts. He wrote back that he hoped to see her outside the museum but he had to leave soon for an event in Ward 8.
White was standing alone on the sidewalk outside the museum by the time the tour was over. Glazer said she found White’s behavior “confusing.”
White last month attended a Passover seder dinner at the home of another Council of the District of Columbia member, Elissa Silverman.
The Rothschilds are a well-known European Jewish dynasty descended from a Jewish banker originally from Germany.