social media post<\/a> on Wednesday said the group agrees with Deegan\u2019s view that \u201cJacksonville is a place where everyone has a voice.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\nBut the organization characterized the \u201ctiming and symbolism\u201d of her original post as \u201cdeeply disappointing and caused significant pain within the Jewish community.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Jewish Federation & Foundation of Northeast Florida is deeply saddened and disheartened by a social media post shared yesterday, International Holocaust Remembrance Day, by Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan on X (formerly Twitter), posting a photo of herself with a keffiyeh and Palestinian flag,\u201d the federation wrote.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile we believe our mayor should speak to and engage with every community, posting a photo of herself with a keffiyeh and Palestinian flag on Holocaust Remembrance Day was insensitive and tone deaf. This day is a solemn, nonpolitical moment dedicated to honoring the 6 million Jews murdered in the Holocaust and standing against antisemitism.\u201d<\/p>\n
In an email to Jacksonville Today, the city\u2019s chief communications officer, Phil Perry, said the Ramallah Club event photo should have been posted on Saturday instead of Tuesday.\u00a0He acknowledged that the city should have posted something Tuesday to mark Holocaust Remembrance Day.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe city of Jacksonville typically posts on Holocaust Remembrance Day, and we simply had an unfortunate calendar oversight this year,\u201d Perry said. <\/p>\n
The email continued with a list of examples where Deegan has celebrated and\/or worked with Jacksonville\u2019s Jewish Community.<\/p>\n
\u201cMayor Deegan has consistently demonstrated her commitment to standing with the Jewish community and against bigotry and hatred in our city.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is why she became the first Jacksonville mayor to celebrate Jewish American Heritage Month with a ceremony in the City Hall Atrium; why she spoke at the one-year remembrance of October 7th at the Jacksonville Jewish Center; why she has repeatedly called for all elected officials to speak out against rising antisemitism in Florida; why she was the first local leader to denounce hateful messaging projected onto Everbank Stadium; why she appeared as the keynote speaker at the Jewish Federation\u2019s screening of \u201cA Tree of Life: The Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooting\u201d; and why she will continue her commitment to make our city a place where all its residents feel safe and heard,\u201d Perry wrote.<\/p>\n
Ramallah members\u2019 take<\/p>\n
Salem often speaks fondly during City Council meetings of his membership in the Ramallah Club. In a statement to Jacksonville Today, he took issue with Deegan not publicly recognizing Holocaust Remembrance Day this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Ramallah community is an important part of the fabric of our city. I\u2019ll always take part in recognizing that as my heritage, and I\u2019m proud of that,\u201d Salem said in a text message. \u201cLast night at the Jacksonville City Council meeting, my colleagues and I took a moment of silence and reflection for the atrocities committed during the Holocaust. This day serves as reflection and a reminder of the victims and that horror must never happen again.<\/p>\n
\u201cI find it appalling that Mayor Deegan failed to recognize that yesterday, and I think she owes the Jacksonville Jewish community an apology.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Joy Batteh-Freiha, past Ramallah Club of Jacksonville president and the current national president of the American Federation of Ramallah, Palestine, defended Deegan in a reply to Redfern\u2019s tweet.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis characterization of Mayor Deegan simply doesn\u2019t reflect what actually occurred! She was there at the Ramallah Club\u2019s invitation, along with Congressman John Rutherford and City Councilman Ron Salem, to witness the swearing in of the club\u2019s new officers,\u201d Batteh-Freiha wrote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan is responding to criticism about photos posted on her social media account Tuesday \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":135933,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-135932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135932"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135932\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}