L.A. Jews for Peace – a far-left organization that criticizes Israel’s policies toward Palestinians – has received a voicemail in which members of the organization are referred to as, “Jew traitors, filthy Jew traitors, bastard Jew traitors.”
L.A. Jews for Peace representative Jordan Elgrably, who received the voicemail on Saturday morning, denounced the anti-Semitic words of the caller, who appears to be a man and did not leave his name.
Listen to the audio here [WARNING: Graphic language used]:
“The whole thing is so distasteful, because I don’t appreciate the references to the Holocaust and Hitler. My aunt was killed in the Holocaust, to me it’s not a joke,” Elgrably said in a phone interview on Monday about the voicemail, in which the anonymous caller also says, “May Hitler come back and stuff their ashes in gas ovens and kill them all, these miserable, cowardly, pieces of sh-t, parasite, Jew traitors, filthy Jew traitors, bastard Jew traitors.”
Elgrably provided the Journal with the voicemail last Saturday, one day after L.A. Jews for Peace organized a rally outside the headquarters of the Consulate General of Israel in Los Angeles that called on the Israeli military to cease its current operation in Gaza and to end its blockade of the region.
The voicemail was left at the telephone number of the Levantine Cultural Center, a nonprofits arts center in West Los Angeles that holds events about the Middle East. Elgrably is the founder of the Levantine Cultural Center; L.A. Jews for Peace does not have its own phone number, Elgrably said.
Elgrably, who has not contacted law enforcement about the message—on Monday, he said he was still deciding if he wanted to or not—said the incident should not be blown out of proportion while emphasizing the hateful nature of the voicemail.
“We have Muslims, right-wing Jews, left-wing Jews, all kinds of people who come here [to the Levantine Cultural Center]…this is like the worst thing that has ever happened to us, and it’s just a phone call,” he said.
The full message:
I thought this number was for [LA] Jews for Peace. If it is, tell them the following message. ‘May they all become victims [of] Palestinian and Islamic terrorism. May the flesh be torn from their cowardly, Jew, four-eyed, ugly pieces of sh-t bodies, may Hitler come back and stuff their ashes in gas ovens and kill them all, these miserable, cowardly, pieces of sh-t, parasite, Jew traitors, filthy Jew traitors, bastard Jew traitors.’
ADL regional director Amanda Susskind said the voicemail, which she was made aware of by the Journal, is inexcusable.
“We can agree we are all entitled to different opinions, but we draw the line when people cross into hate speech and extremism,” Susskind said during a phone interview. “There really is no place for that kind of behavior in a civil society.”
