The newly appointed Chicago School Board of Education (BOE) President Rev. Mitchell Ikenna Johnson resigned from his position on Thursday despite having previously claimed he would remain in the role.
This comes amid a scandal in which Rev. Johnson was revealed to have made antisemitic and anti-Israel statements.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said Rev. Johnson’s resignation was effective immediately.
“Rev. Mitchell Johnson’s statements were not only hurtful but deeply disturbing,” the Mayor said. “I want to be clear: antisemitic, misogynistic, and conspiratorial statements are unacceptable.”
Chicago Governor J. B. Pritzker, as well as 40 other members of the Chicago City Council and multiple Jewish leaders, joined together to call for Rev. Johnson’s resignation.
Examples of his problematic comments include social media posts such as “I have been saying this since October 2023. People have an absolute right to attack their oppressors by any means necessary” and saying that people should “stop blaming Hamas.”
Johnson equated Zionist Jews with Nazis.
He also accused Zionist Jews of being Nazis.
Jewish groups StopAntisemitism, Anti-Defamation League (ADL), and American Jewish Committee (AJC) referenced Rev. Johnson’s “disturbing” statement about his Jewish colleagues being “drunk with Israeli power” and threatening that they will “live to see their payment.”
“It is incomprehensible that someone with these antisemitic views was appointed to lead the Chicago public school system, designed to promote education, coexistence, and inclusion,” the Consulate General of Israel to the Midwest said.