Even by the standards of this administration, the continued presence of the Rev. Mitchell Ikenna Johnson as Mayor Brandon Johnson’s president of the Chicago Board of Education is utterly preposterous. Let’s briefly review Johnson’s record, since no one at City Hall appears to have taken the time. As the national reporter Gabby Deutch at the Jewish Insider first noted, Mitchell Johnson has a history of antisemitic social-media pronouncements, including such gems as “the Nazi Germans’ ideology has been adopted by the Zionist Jews” and, following the 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel, “people have an absolute right to attack their oppressors by any means necessary!!!” “And again I say again,” Mitchell Johnson wrote in December 2023, apparently attempting to stop what he saw as a grievous wrong, “stop blaming Hamas.” Put your mind back to that month and the trauma faced by Jews in Chicago and beyond, never mind the hell the Hamas butchery and the subsequent Israeli reaction unleashed on the Palestinian people, and see if you find that acceptable. The answer to that has to be no, whatever your views of the current Israeli government. Surely, we don’t need to remind you of exactly what Hamas did. No wonder Chicago’s one Jewish alderman, Debra Silverstein, 50th, called upon Mitchell Johnson to resign, saying that these comments make Jewish families feel unsafe at Chicago Public Schools, and found close to 30 other aldermen to join her in her quest. Certainly, perceived safety, or the lack thereof, often is used as a way to push an agenda. But look back at that quote again with an open mind. How could anyone find Silverstein’s reaction unreasonable? Mitchell Johnson’s words were unconscionable. He apologized Wednesday in a weaselly way, offering regrets to sympathetic reporters at WBEZ “for not being more precise and deliberate in my comments,” to which we say, Rev. Johnson, you were plenty precise and deliberate in your comments. Your multiple comments. Neither precision nor deliberation were the problem. He further allowed that his comments “could be construed as antisemitic,” as if the problem was the person doing the construing. No, the Rev. Johnson, your words were, and are, the problem. In our view, WBEZ’s story about the apology went beyond what is customary at that justly respected news outlet when it came to contextualizing, which can be read as justifying someone’s errant words. Also on Wednesday at an unrelated event, Mayor Brandon Johnson talked at a news conference of Mitchell Johnson’s “work toward restoration and healing.” Such talk belongs in the pulpit, or the synagogue, not the secular Chicago Board of Education. Related Articles Editorials | Willie Wilson: Is the newly installed Chicago school board a Halloween trick or treat? Editorials | Editorial: CTU backers’ huffing and puffing over the money in Chicago’s school board races is rich Editorials | Mailee Smith: CTU took over Acero charter schools to stifle choice. Subsequent closures are no surprise. Editorials | Jitu Brown and Ald. Jason Ervin: Chicago has zero tolerance for any school closings or consolidations Every Jewish family in CPS knows exactly what is going on here. Including liberal Jewish families who have been critical of Israel’s action in Gaza. But let’s just say you are unpersuaded by all of the above arguments, or even Gov. JB Pritzker’s understated observation that “to the extent that someone has been put up for a position, especially one as important as chair of the Chicago schools, I think vetting is vitally important. That doesn’t seem to have occurred here.” Ya think, Governor? This is not the only issue with Mitchell Johnson. In 1997, a panel of the Board of Commissioners on Grievances and Discipline of the Supreme Court of Ohio concluded that Mitchell Johnson had “engaged in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation,” neglected an “entrusted legal matter,” failed to “carry out an employment contract … causing prejudice to client in course of professional relationship,” and “failing to promptly pay or deliver, on request, client funds or property to which client was entitled.” The panel also found that Johnson had violated a rule called Gov.Bar R. V(4)(G) (neglect or refusal to assist disciplinary investigation) and V(6)(A)(1) (attorney misconduct).” The board accepted the panel’s recommendation that Mitchell Johnson, who at the time was unresponsive to his client’s complaint that he took his money, be permanently disbarred. Granted, that’s a long time ago. But it’s still a problem, still a decision by the Ohio Supreme Court, even after restoration and healing. But let’s just say you are still unpersuaded. According to a report from NBC-Ch. 5, a lien was placed on Johnson’s house for his refusal to pay child support. Enough? We’re not done. On Thursday, NBC-Ch. 5 also reported that Mitchell Johnson’s social media posts were sympathetic in 2021 to conspiracy theories regarding the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center in New York being “an inside job.” And, finally, what evidence is there that Mitchell Johnson is an expert on education and thus well qualified to direct the nation’s fourth largest school district? We’ve not found anything meaningful. This is simply not the person to be leading the Chicago Board of Education at a time of great tumult following the resignation en masse of the previous board, which has been widely assumed to be due to their reluctance to fire CPS CEO Pedro Martinez at the behest of the mayor and his Chicago Teachers Union backers. Mistakes get made with the best of intentions. Things come out. Previous unknowns become known and past mistakes do not always have to be disqualifying. But this raft of evidence not only stretches back a long way but is very much of the present. And it sure looks like City Hall, in its desperation to find a new board chairman who could be trusted to do its bidding, made a pretty significant mistake with Mitchell Johnson. We suspect they know that already. But there’s only one thing for Mitchell Johnson to do now. Step down. And if that does not happen, there is only one thing for Mayor Brandon Johnson to do. Find someone else to lead the Chicago Board of Education. Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email [email protected].