‘I Want Jexit!’ Written On American Federations Of Teachers Building
American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten Image by Getty Images
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The American Federation of Teachers said vandals defaced its headquarters in Washington D.C. with anti-Semitic graffiti.
A number of areas around the building, including a wall, were yellow spray-painted on Tuesday and Wednesday with “I want Jexit!” an apparent anti-Semitic play on “Brexit,” Britain’s planned pullout from the European Union.
Randi Weingarten, the president of the national union for teachers, is Jewish and has partnered AFT with Israeli programs. She has become an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump.
In its statement, the AFT said it had reported the vandalism to police and had asked the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center to further investigate the term “Jexit.”
Weingarten in the statement said the union would not be intimidated. “Defacing our community with hateful rhetoric is meant to intimidate, otherize and sow fear, and to divide our community and make people feel unsafe and unwelcome where they live and work,” she said. “But this type of hate crime does just the opposite: It mobilizes us to come together and unite around the common causes of tolerance and peace, and to continue fighting for a more inclusive, more just world.”
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
