New Jersey councilwoman Robin Vaugn told the New Jersey Globe that Trenton City Council President Kathy McBride’s use of the term “Jew down” wasn’t antisemitic in nature.The term “Jew down” refers to the stereotype that Jewish people are cheap and negotiate for lower prices.Following the incident, McBride apologized for her use of the term. “I am apologizing to the community at large. Because in my position you cannot make anyone feel insulted or you cannot be insensitive to any ethnic backgrounds, so I am apologizing to the community at large,” McBride told The Trentonian.
Following the backlash against McBride, Vaughn told the New Jersey Globe, “We really need to get a more acute meaning and understanding of ‘antisemitic.’ I believe her comment ‘Jew down’ was more in reference to negotiating, not ‘I hate Jews.' Inappropriate in today’s PC culture absolutely, but to Jew someone down is a verb and is not anti-anything or indicative of hating Jewish people.”Robert Yudin, a former executive director of the New Jersey-Israel Commission, disagreed with Vaughn and said her response was more offensive than McBride’s comment.“It’s as vile and vicious an antisemitic statement as someone could make,” Yudin told the New Jersey Globe. “It’s clearly an antisemitic trope and it can’t be explained.”New Jersey Councilman Jerell Blakely told AP, “We cannot sit idly by and allow elected officials who represent New Jersey's state capital to embrace vicious antisemitic tropes.”McBride used the terminology a closed-door session earlier in September, and her statement was made public after The Trentonian obtained the recording, AP reported.In the recording, McBride is heard saying “I’m sad for her that they were able to wait her out and Jew her down for $22,000 with pins in her knee that can never, ever be repaired," in reference to a legal settlement, according to AP.The settlement to which McBride was referring, was overseen by Jewish attorney Peter Cohen.New Jersey councilwoman: 'To Jew someone down is a verb'
“It’s as vile and vicious an antisemitic statement as someone could make,” Robert Yudin, a former executive director of the New Jersey-Israel Commission, told the New Jersey Globe.
