Newly appointed president of Chicago education board resigns amid uproar over antisemitic social media posts

Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief

Rev. Mitchell L. Ikenna Johnson listens to Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson during a news conference on Monday, Oct. 7, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
Rev. Mitchell L. Ikenna Johnson listens to Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson during a news conference on Monday, Oct. 7, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

CHICAGO — The newly appointed president of the Chicago Board of Education has tendered his resignation after coming under fire for past antisemitic and conspiratorial social media posts.

The Chicago Sun Times reports that Rev. Mitchell Johnson’s decision came at the request of Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson (no relation).

A day earlier, the Chicago mayor had defended the embattled CBE president, saying he had “expressed sorrow and is seeking atonement.”

But the mayor apparently shifted his approach after Illinois Governor JB Pritzker joined the super-majority of Chicago council members who called for Johnson’s ouster.

Many of Johnson’s most controversial posts — uncovered by Jewish Insider — came amid Hamas’s October 7 onslaught and the ensuing war in Gaza.

“People have an absolute right to attack their oppressors by any means necessary,” he wrote in one post.

“My Jewish colleagues appear drunk with the Israeli power and will live to see their payment,” Johnson said in another.

Johnson had been sworn in by the Chicago mayor just last week.

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