An agitator many Bergen County residents may recognize as one of the invited speakers at the Teaneck High School walkout for Palestine, is a resident of Englewood. As such he’s been a constant presence at Englewood council meetings of late, spewing his unique brand of antisemitic hate speech. Others who now join him also feel emboldened to make increasingly hateful statements directly squarely at the two Jewish council members, including, most recently, “Go back to Europe!”

What Englewood’s council president, responsible for keeping order in the meetings, clearly doesn’t know or isn’t applying, is the IHRA (International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance) working definition of antisemitism, which defines the parameters of hate speech as it relates to antisemitism.

The definition: “Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.” (https://holocaustremembrance.com/)

This definition is adopted by the United States government, at least 36 other countries, and also by many U.S. states, cities and municipalities. While hate speech is legal in many ways as it relates to First Amendment freedoms, defamation, disturbing the peace, harassment and incitement to violence are indeed punishable by law. In recent weeks, speech in the Englewood council chambers had appeared to descend into these legally actionable areas.

Since the beginning of the war in Gaza, the speaker has doubled down on his Jew-hate-laced rhetoric, even inventing a new word for Israel’s prime minister: “Satan-yahu.” He was emboldened by the Israeli real estate expo in recent weeks, and has particularly directed personal attacks and disrespect toward Councilmembers Lisa Wisotsky and Ken Rosenzweig, and a local synagogue: Congregation Ahavath Torah. Wisotsky and Rosenzweig are frequently interrupted when they speak, with expletives shouted at them. There has been no intervention from the dais for this indecorous behavior, indicating that rights to civility only exist if they are fought for.

At the most recent council meeting on March 19, when Wisotsky addressed the Jew-hate head on and asked for the direct attacks and profanity-laced rhetoric to stop or be stopped, she was repeatedly heckled and her request was met with jeers and shouts from the audience. Her words were met with silence from the dais, including from Council President Charles Cobb.

At the end of each bi-weekly meeting, the floor is open to public comments where attendees are allowed to speak on any topic they choose. According to city policy, comments are strictly limited to three minutes and a large digital clock with a buzzer is on the wall to help guide speakers to manage their time.

On January 16, after a particularly offensive diatribe about Jews, Satan-yahu and the Gaza “ethnic cleansing,” the speaker’s comments extended two minutes past his allotted three minutes. Cobb addressed this issue later in the meeting, stating, “I’ve let people speak over the three minutes they have because I think what they are saying is important.”

On March 19, the same speaker, during the public comment portion of the evening, said the following: “They say they are Jews but they are not. They are from the synagogue of Satan. Lisa Wisotsky, Ken Rosenzweig, you people are probably the biggest racists that I know.

“Little Jewish kids don’t have to worry about being killed by the police like Bernard [Placide, a 22-year old Englewood man who was shot and killed in his home by police in 2022 after he stabbed three people in a domestic violence or mental health crisis. The New Jersey Attorney General is still investigating the incident].

“You can’t tell me about Jew-hate. Black folks have suffered more than you would ever imagine…. Africa was colonized by people that look like you, Lisa. They look like you, Ken. They look like you, Mike [Wildes, the Englewood mayor]. They came from where your ancestors come from. You’re not from Tel Aviv! You’re from Kyivan Rus [an archaic term for the Slavic region encompassing modern Belarus, Russia and Ukraine], you’re from Germany.

“And I’m not going to allow you to disenfranchise me or stop my First Amendment right to express myself. You’ve got a lot of nerve to talk about Jew-hate when they’re killing people for land and selling it out of your synagogue. How dare you even raise your lip?

“But because, Lisa, you’re the daughter of the devil, and because, Ken, you are the son of the devil, this is what you devils do.

“And I am going to keep coming here and saying what I have to say, whether you like it or not, because from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free. By any means necessary!”

As the speaker left the microphone, a woman was heard clapping and shouting, “That’s right! Go back to Europe!”

Englewood Mayor Michael Wildes expressed concern at the rising tide of hate speech at council meetings. “With an alarming uptick in antisemitism—we need to be vigilant in the face of blind racism and hatred with no basis or purpose,” Wildes told The Jewish Link. “I would never accept that behavior towards any other human being—never mind race or religion—in my home or business, and certainly not in our council chambers where every council member is sworn to serve and protect all of our constituents.”

Later in the meeting, Englewood resident Sarah Russell explained that her work has taken her to many city council meetings over the years, and she had in fact come to speak about an entirely different topic, but she said she’d prefer to use her three minutes to express dismay over the lack of civility and danger she felt in Englewood council chambers. She said she has never seen hate speech protected in this way, with the person fomenting the hate even speaking past the time allotted while everyone else respected the time constraints.

“I’ve never experienced my blood pressure pump this way: the fear of being in this room. I’ve seen city council presidents bang their gavel and throw people out when the decorum starts to unravel and I am honestly shocked at what is allowed to be said,” Russell said.

“I want you to not allow hate speech, lies or propaganda in this room,” she added.

Charlotte Bennett Schoen, a former Englewood council member from 2005 to 2010 who also served as council president, shared her disappointment with the allowed rhetoric during public comment. “The person who is council president has to set the limits and set the tone. I request of this council president, the pointed remarks to the Jews in the room not be allowed. If you have a gavel that’s when it’s used. That’s what has to have been said weeks and weeks ago.”

Howard Shafer, a member of the Englewood Democratic Municipal Committee, also spoke at the March 19 meeting, objecting to the primary agitator and others’ characterization of the events in Israel as a genocide. He implored the council to follow regulations with regard to disorderly conduct.

“I fully support the First Amendment and I am aware that anyone can come to a meeting and say the most vile, antisemitic or racist rant,” said Councilmember Rosenzweig. “But there are many things we can do to mitigate the damage. We should limit people to three minutes and not a second more. We can charge people with misdemeanor ‘disturbing the peace’ citations if they repeatedly interrupt the meeting. If it gets really unruly we can stop the meeting and continue at a later time on Zoom.”

Rosenzweig added that Council President Cobb has not considered any of these options, and in fact, “gives great deference to the Jewish hate speech and never shuts it down or condemns it.”

“The silence of Englewood council leadership in the face of anti-Jewish hate, is deafening,” Councilmember Wisotsky told The Jewish Link. “Week after week, rather than allowing the council to focus on the business of Englewood, the council leadership provides a forum for hate-filled rhetoric aimed at the two Jewish elected council members.

“I am hopeful that by bringing this behavior to light, those in leadership positions will begin to understand the importance of addressing hate directly and the danger of normalizing antisemitism, so we can focus on the business of Englewood and improving the lives of all our residents.”

Council President Cobb did not respond to multiple requests for an interview by press time.