Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Rahm Emanuel Chides Fickle Chicago Media for Acting Like a Jewish Mother

Politicians have a lot of choice words for the media — but embattled Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has a whole new view of the press corps that we’ve, frankly, not heard before.

The other day he mocked fickle reporters as acting like Jewish mothers.

He may, of course, have some experience on the subject: He’s the Windy City’s first-ever Jewish mayor.

Emanuel, who has been under fire for Chicago police relations with the city’s huge black population, lost a vote on the city council to expand the inspector general’s powers. And the aldermen also trimmed a $3.2 billion bond sale plan (to address a monstrous debt) by $600 million.

The rubber stamp council is flexing its muscle, reporters wrote. Some asked: Is Rahm losing control?

Feh, responded Emanuel.

“Before you all said that they’re too much of a rubber stamp,” Emanuel told the media wags.

DNAinfo, a , noted that Emanuel has won 89 percent of all council votes.

“You’re like a Jewish mother,” Emanuel complained.

Wrote DNAinfo:

“Emanuel criticized the question of weakness, and said reporters can’t have it both ways. He then compared them to a Jewish mother who gives her son blue and green sweaters. When the son wears the blue sweater first, she immediately asks, ‘What’s wrong with the green sweater?’”

They all need some matzo ball soup.

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.