A DC councilman who sparked outrage with his anti-Semitic comments about Jews controlling the weather made even more offensive remarks during a disastrous ‘conciliation’ visit to the Holocaust museum on Wednesday.
Council member Trayon White defended Nazis during the 90-minute guided tour of the museum – and then dropped off the tour early.
While viewing a photograph from 1935 of a woman surrounded by Nazi soldiers with a sign hanging from her neck that read: ‘I am a German girl and allowed myself to be defiled by a Jew,’ White asked, ‘Are they protecting her?’
‘No,’ the guide explained to White, according to the Washington Post. She added, ‘They’re marching her through.’
‘Marching through is protecting,’ White said.
‘I think they’re humiliating her,’ the guide replied.
D.C. Council member Trayon White defended Nazis during a tour of the Holocaust Museum before leaving early, after making comments in March about about rich Jewish people controlling the weather
An aide of White’s stayed behind for the duration of the tour- and then compared Jewish ghettos to gated communities
New York magazine writer Jonathan Chait clarified things politicians who may be confused: Nazis are the bad guys at the Holocaust Museum
To make matters worse, White left early, texting Rabbi Batya Glazer, a director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington, who was also in attendance, that he was expected at a meeting. However, White was seen walking around aimlessly outside of the museum.
Then, an aide of White who remained on the tour, made a shocking comment.
The guide was telling the tour about how 450,000 Polish Jews were crowded into one small area, the aide of White asked if the ghetto was similar to ‘a gated community.’
The Rabbi quickly explained to the aide: ‘Yeah, I wouldn’t call it a gated community,’ she said. ‘More like a prison.’
New York magazine writer Jonathan Chait tweeted about the visit: ‘Free advice for any pol who has to visit the Holocaust Museum to prove he’s not anti-Semitic: Just assume the Nazis are the bad guys in all the exhibits.’
White’s comments in March about weather, and posted in a video on Facebook, were aimed at the Rothschild family- a prominent Jewish dynasty descending from Mayer Amschel Rothschild, a wealthy banker who lived in Germany during the 18th century.
‘Man, it just started snowing out of nowhere this morning, man. Y’all better pay attention to this climate control, man, this climate manipulation,’ he says.
‘And D.C. keep talking about, ‘We a resilient city.’ And that’s a model based off the Rothschilds controlling the climate to create natural disasters so they can pay for to own the cities, man. Be careful.’
Initially, White expressed surprised that some interpreted his comments as anti-Semitic but later apologized after consulting with a Jewish advocacy group
Like many anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, the Rothschilds have been targeted as clandestine manipulators of world events who exploit others for their own advantage.
‘This kind of anti-Semitism is unacceptable in any public official,’ Rabbi Daniel Zemel of Temple Micah in Northwest Washington said in response to the lawmaker’s remarks.
‘This so diminishes what America is about and adds to the oppressive feeling going on in the country right now,’ said Zemel.
‘We all have to be better. Public officials have to learn not to say the first ignorant thing that comes into their head,’ he added.
Initially, White expressed surprised that some interpreted his comments as anti-Semitic, telling The Post in March ‘The video says what it says.’
But in the wake of the controversy, the councilman said that he had reached out to his ‘friends’ at Jews United for Justice who helped him ‘understand the history of comments made against Jews.’
Rabbi Daniel Zemel (L) immediately condemned White for his language but Jewish D.C. Councilwoman Brianne K. Nadeau (R) said in a statement that White was sincere in his apology
‘I work hard everyday to combat racism and prejudices of all kinds. I want to apologize to the Jewish Community and anyone I have offended,’ said White at the time.
There is not yet another apology from White at this time.