NY’s Hakim Jeffries Under Fire for Defending Jew Hating Uncle & Louis Farrakhan 30 Years Ago   

Edited by: Fern Sidman

It looks as though the House of Representatives Minority leader is embroiled in some controversy that dates back over three decades ago. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, a Democrat who has represented  New York’s 8th congressional district, anchored in southern and eastern Brooklyn, since 2013, has ignited the wrath of critics who are angered that he defended his uncle, former CUNY professor Leonard Jeffries, who was accused of teaching virulent anti-Semitic theories and Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.

The New York Post reported that this week, an op-ed piece that Jeffries wrote while in college over thirty years ago has resurfaced in which he staunchly defended the anti-Semitic teachings of his uncle.

In the early 1990s, Hakim Jeffries uncle Leonard, then the department chair of Black Studies at the City University of New York, made comments about the involvement of “rich Jews” in the African slave trade and alleged that Jews in Hollywood engaged in a “conspiracy” to denigrate Black Americans.

CNN reported that while a student at Binghamton University in upstate New York, Jeffries penned an editorial in 1992  for the school newspaper in which he defended his uncle as the subject of “a media lynching complete with character assassinations and inflammatory erroneous accusations.” Jewish Insider reported that Jeffries also named Nation of Islam leader Rev. Louis Farrakhan, notorious for his own anti-Semitic comments, as another individual unfairly maligned for his opposition to the “ruling elite.” Since he was elected to Congress in 2013, Jeffries has said he only had a “vague recollection” of his uncle’s controversy and said that his parents kept him shielded from it, the report indicated.

After he was elected to Congress in 2013, Jeffries told the Wall Street Journal that he only had a “vague recollection” of the controversy surrounding his uncle, and said that his parents kept him shielded from it, the report indicated.

“I have a vague recollection of it,” Jeffries told the Wall Street Journal, the Post reported. “There was no internet during that era and I can’t even recall a daily newspaper in the Binghamton, N.Y., area but it wasn’t covering the things that the New York Post and Daily News were at the time.”

The Post reported that on Wednesday, CNN uncovered the previously unreported opinion piece. In the piece, Jeffries addressed his uncle’s controversy and came to his and Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan’s defense.

“Do you think that a ruling elite would promote individuals who would seek to dismantle their vice like grip on power?” Jeffries wrote in the piece, published in the Black Student Union’s newspaper, The Vanguard, the Post reported.

“Dr. Leonard Jeffries and Minister Louis Farrakhan have come under intense fire,” Jeffries continued, according to the Post report.  “Where do you think their interests lie? Dr. Jeffries has challenged the existing white supremacist educational system and long standing distortion of history. His reward has been a media lynching complete with character assassinations and inflammatory erroneous accusations.”

Jeffries blasted black conservatives in his op-ed, calling them “house negroes” and lamenting their acceptance by the “white media.”

“Perhaps this is the problem with the Black conservative politician of today. Their political agenda is not designed to contribute to the upliftment of their people,” he wrote, as was reported by the Post. “These right-wing opportunists espouse the political ideology of the power structure and, in return, they are elevated to positions historically reserved for whites.”

Jewish Insider reported that Jeffries was a board member of Binghamton’s Black Student Union, which invited his uncle to speak on campus amid the controversy. Following protests by Jewish student groups, Jeffries spoke at a press conference defending the invitation.

Jeffries spokesperson Christiana Stephenson said in a statement that he “has consistently been clear that he does not share the controversial views espoused by his uncle over 30 years ago. Leader Jeffries has been in public service for more than 16 years as a state legislator and Member of Congress. His track record of bringing communities together and standing up for everyone speaks for itself.”

CNN reported that following the initial outrage sparked by his comments, Leonard Jeffries continued to denigrate Jews, comparing them to “dogs” and “skunks.” The Post reported that then-New York Gov. Mario Cuomo and New York City Mayor David Dinkins both condemned the professor for his remarks.

Also condemning Leonard Jeffries statements at the time were mainstream Jewish groups, like the New York-based American Jewish Congress. Moreover, 200 members of the Brooklyn-based Jewish group Kahane Chai staged a demonstration past Jeffries’ home in Teaneck, New Jersey at the time. Present at that demonstration was the writer of this article along with former Brooklyn Assemblyman Dov Hikind, who has been in the forefront of Jewish activism for his entire life. Hikind vociferously condemned the hate-filled anti-Semitic calumnies that Professor Jeffries espoused.

After a lengthy legal battle, Leonard Jeffries left his position as Black Studies chair in 1995, the Post reported.

CNN reported that Jeffries invited his embattled uncle to speak on campus in February 1992 for an undisclosed fee. The Post reported that the invitation drew ire from students on campus and members of the Jewish Student Union, who asked for the BSU to cancel the event.

In response, Jeffries held a press conference and defended his uncle, saying he had no intention to cancel, CNN reported.

“The proper way to way to debate scholarship is with scholarship–not with high-tech lynchings, media assassinations, character desecrations and venomous attacks,” he said in a statement reported in the student newspaper, The Pipe Dream, according to the Post report.

In a statement sent to the media, the Republican Jewish Coalition said, “Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries owes the Jewish community an explanation as to why he lied and attempted to cover up his defense of these revolting anti-Semites.”

The group added that, “The added hypocrisy here is particularly jarring: Jeffries recently falsely accused Republicans of not wanting to teach children about the Holocaust, but he’s been exposed as defending anti-Semites who have said Hitler was a “great man” and called Judaism a “dirty religion.” Unfortunately, this is yet another disturbing data point of the Democratic Party embracing and promoting anti-Semites, from Leonard Jeffries and Louis Farrakhan to Ilhan Omar.”

Republican Congressman Byron Donalds of Florida called for Jeffries to “apologize for what he wrote in that article” and invited him to “have a real conversation about whose policies will unleash not just Black America but all of America,” the Post reported.

In a statement sent to the JewishInsider.com, Gideon Taylor, the executive vice president of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, said, “Hakeem Jeffries has been a very strong, stalwart and close friend of the Jewish community and of Israel in the long time we have known and worked with him. We look forward to continuing to work with him as we have in the past in the fight against anti-Semitism and hate and in seeking a safe and secure Middle East for Israel and its neighbors.”