Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Brooklyn Lawmaker Unleashes Rant Against Jews At Community Meeting

A New York state assemblywoman delivered a rant against Jews during a community board meeting in Brooklyn last Monday night, The New York Post reported.

During her 50-minute address, Diane Richardson allegedly blamed Jews for gentrifying areas in her district, which includes parts of Crown Heights and Flatbush.

“It must be Jewish people,” Richardson responded when a board member complained that people often knock on her door asking if she wants to sell her home.

“That was dripping with anti-Semitism. That’s when smoke came out of my ears,” Lew Fidler, a former City Council member, who was at the meeting told The Post.

Richardson reportedly suspected that her words were controversial because she requested that board members turn off tape recorders before she began speaking. She did not deny making offensive remarks but did say she was sorry if anyone was offended by things she “repeated,” suggesting she was restating the opinions of others.

“At the end of the day, we all bleed red, it was never my intention to insult or hurt anyone nor would it ever be,” Richardson said in a statement.

Contact Haley Cohen at [email protected]

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.