Israel Matzav

Clifton, NJ public park to be named after known anti-Semite? Congressman Pascrell in favor?

This hits really close to home.

For a number of years before we made aliya (immigrated to Israel), we lived in Passaic, NJ. We still vote there in US Federal elections (just got my ballot yesterday).

The large Jewish community in Passaic also straddles Clifton. So as you read this piece, keep in mind that this is a town with a very large Jewish community.

The city of Clifton, New Jersey is about to name a public park after a known and virulent anti-Semite. And Congressman Bill Pascrell (D) (pictured above) was leading the charge in favor, at least until he apparently concluded that it might harm his election bid.

At least one obituary of Grabowski earlier this year innocuously called him an "advocate for Polish-Americans." But the truth is much more troubling.

For decades, Grabowski published a newspaper in Clifton called The Post Eagle. In that newspaper, Grabowski repeatedly referred to Jews as "vermin," "animals" and "Christ killers."
Grabowski refused to comply with the dictates of Vatican II in 1965, which declared it a sin to promote anti-Semitism or to blame the Jews for killing Christ. Instead, he urged his readers to never "forget and forgive them for deciding to kill our God, and their God, which they refused to recognize."

Nor was Grabowski's anti-Semitism unknown to people in the area. A 1984 article written about Grabowski in the Bergen Record documented his hate-filled writings and described them as "vitriolic anti-Semitic diatribes."

Grabowski himself was a Holocaust denier who published material accusing Jews of fomenting anti-Semitism, imposing Communism on Poland and creating virtually all the evils in the world.
Little wonder the Anti-Defamation League, dedicated to fighting anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry, consistently condemned Grabowski.

Not only was Grabowski anti-Semitic, he was a racist who published an advertisement from the Ku Klux Klan wishing "all polenta a merry White Christmas" — and illustrating that racist wish with a drawing of Santa Claus wearing a Klan hood.

Yet despite this well-known and extensive documentation of Grabowski's anti-Semitism and bigotry, the proposal to name a park — where young children will play — after him has received significant support among public officials in the Clifton area. Among the idea's backers were Sheriff Richard Berdnik and local Congressman Bill Pascrell.

But when Pascrell learned of Grabowski's background, he changed his mind, saying, "There can be never be room for anti-Semitism in any context." Sheriff Berdnik also withdrew his support. But some public officials, even after hearing of Grabowski's long history of bigotry, have continued to push for the proposal to name the park after him.

The implicit claim that Pascrell just learned of his constituent's anti-Semitism after backing a public park in his name after his death is simply not credible. Grabowski published a local newspaper (which now has 50,000 weekly subscribers - that's more hits and about as many page views as this blog gets in a week) for 50 years, and ran for the Clifton City Council and for Governor of New Jersey. It's impossible that Pascrell - who has represented Passaic and Clifton in Congress for as long as I can remember - didn't know Grabowski was an anti-Semite until 2012. No way, no how. Pascrell must have withdrawn his support due to electoral considerations.

Read it all.

Labels: anti-Semitism, Bill Pascrell, personal stuff

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:36 PM