Open Letter to Trenton City Council

Part of why I love my home is because Trenton has such a long history of diversity and inclusivity embracing many groups and cultures - a history that continues to evolve as my beloved city grows.

That’s why it’s so heartbreaking that Trenton City Council has been so hideously corrupted by the normalization of outright bigotry.

It’s no longer unusual to hear chants of “Jews will not replace us” on the evening news. We hear near-daily attacks on people of color, women, immigrants and people of divergent religious backgrounds by hate mongers, but that hasn’t been true in my Trenton.

We have an openly gay mayor with a diverse council. I am represented by people of color in the U.S. Senate, The U.S. House of Representatives, and both houses of the New Jersey state legislature. My state’s first lady has Jewish family. And I can eat food, hear prayers, and see culture from around the globe within the short walk from the New Jersey State capital to City Hall.

I feel safe and welcomed in my community despite some of the highest rates of antisemitism and antisemitic attacks ever on record in the United States, Canada and Europe. And despite the synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh, swastika’s in the Department of Homeland Security and the arson’s at various shuls around this country, Trenton feels insulated by its noble history of civil rights leaders like the late Edith Savage Jennings and Millicent Fenwick both made history in Trenton.

So, the normalization of hate speech by such as those allegedly made by Council President Kathy McBride, Councilman George Muschal and Councilwoman Robin Vaughn cast a pall of shame over New Jersey’s capital city.

I was so sad when I read it but no one is perfect and I hoped eventually Council President McBride would reflect and educate herself to deepen her understanding of how toxic and damaging hate language is. However, she offered neither a denial nor an apology - a decision which would have been hurtful and damaging all on its own. The confirmed recordings of her words demonstrate the level of bigoted corruption within our Council.

But worse still, Councilwoman Vaughn (my own ward representative) cast blame on me for asking to be considered equal in my humanity by my elected officials. Instead, she said “we need a better definition of antiSemitism”, insisting there was nothing wrong with the statements made or support of the antisemitic statements. And for George Muschal... well... bless his heart, I guess this is just business as usual and I won’t clutch my pearls and feign surprise at his public endorsement and use of antisemitic statements. Although, I do wish he would not defend bigoted language as a “common turn of phrase”, something which he finds perfectly acceptable.

But he does find the lazy bigotry of casual discrimination acceptable, and I am afraid that even in Trenton that sickness of the soul may have become the new normal to too many.

And it is this comfy bigotry that makes these statements so scalding.

I’m a big girl. I’ve been called words I won’t repeat and endured things that most Jews do. But I am not the most vulnerable member of my community. And If these are the types of statements Trenton City Council members are comfortable making openly, comfortable accepting, and comfortable excusing, what other statements are being made behind closed doors? If the Jewish people are easy and acceptable targets for public slurs, who else being targeted behind closed doors?

What things are being said about the city’s LGBTQ and our Mayor? How do they refer to immigrants? Where does intolerance stop? How are these toxic behaviors and opinions impacting McBride’s, Vaughn’s, and Muschal’s ability to effectively govern and collaborate?

As he is a man of color who has taken a journey of understanding, I have been grateful and relieved to read Councilman Jerell Blakely’s article’s and statements of condemnation, but the silence that followed by the other Council members sears at fabric that ties our community together. It is not that I assume what is in their hearts, but I do wonder, “Is this what they think is normal for our community?”

I don’t.

Nobel Laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Weisel noted that silence in the face of racism, antisemitism, and any form of intolerance is implicit approval and gives it power. So, I am hoping to make a little “tuml”, as the ladies in my synagogue like to call it.

Because I know I am not the only voice that thinks this city is a great place for everyone to work and live. That is true at the vegetarian Jamaican place, the mosques, the Church of God, the Dunkin Donuts and the sidewalks between me and Councilwoman McBride’s house. I know that I am not alone, but even if you can only hear me today, listen as I swear to you that Trenton is better than this!

New Jersey is better than this. We are all better than this.

— Alana Burman, Trenton

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