House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) reportedly defended his uncle, Leonard Jeffries, and Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan in a 1992 college editorial at a time when they were both accused of making antisemitic statements. Jeffries has previously said he didn’t know much about the controversies surrounding his uncle’s comments.
CNN’s KFILE investigative team reported on April 12 that Leonard Jeffries had said during a speech at a 1991 Empire State Black Arts and Cultural Festival in Albany, NY that there is a Hollywood “conspiracy” to disparage Black people and it’s being carried out “by people called Greenberg and Weisberg and Trigliani.” Leonard, then a City College of New York (CCNY) professor and chairman of its African American Studies Department, also said during the speech that “Russian Jewry had a particular control over the movies, and their financial partners, the Mafia, put together a financial system of destruction of black people” and that “everyone knows rich Jews helped finance the slave trade.” CCNY, which is under the City University of New York (CUNY) umbrella, subsequently terminated Leonard from the school. Farrakhan, by that time, had already come under fire for referring to Adolf Hitler as a “very great man” and calling Judaism a “gutter religion” in the 1980s.
CNN unearthed an op-ed from Jeffries in The Vanguard, the Black Student Union (BSU) newspaper at Binghamton University, where he defended the BSU’s decision to invite his uncle to speak on campus. “Dr. Leonard Jeffries and Minister Louis Farrakhan have come under intense fire,” Jeffries, a board member for BSU, wrote. “Where do you think their interests lie? Dr. Jeffries has challenged the existing white supremist educational system and long standing distortion of history. His reward has been a media lynching complete with character assassinations and inflammatory erroneous accusations.” He added: “Clarence Thomas was appointed by George Bush to the highest court in the nation. Colin Powell was appointed by George Bush to lead the military establishment ‘policemen of the Wall Street Bankers,’ in the words of Cesar Agusto Sandino. Where do you think their interests lie?”
When various media outlets have previously asked about his uncle’s views, Jeffries claimed to have had a “vague recollection” over them. “My mother made a very deliberate concerted effort to shield us from a lot of the controversy that took place,” he told The Wall Street Journal’s Metropolis blog in 2013. “She didn’t want us to be distracted from our studies. My grandmother on my mother’s side always emphasized the importance of doing well in school and remaining focused. And so when a lot of the controversy took place and my brother and I were away at school. 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.”
A spokesperson from Jeffries’ office told CNN, “Leader Jeffries has consistently been clear that he does not share the controversial views espoused by his uncle over thirty years ago.”
Republican Jewish Coalition National Chairman Norm Coleman and CEO Matt Brooks said in a statement, “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 antisemites. 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 antisemites 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 antisemites, from Leonard Jeffries and Louis Farrakhan to Ilhan Omar.”
House Minority Leader @RepJeffries owes the Jewish community an explanation as to why he lied and attempted to cover up his defense of his antisemite uncle and notorious bigot Louis Farrakhan.
Full release: pic.twitter.com/Dct6jxuw3u
— RJC (@RJC) April 14, 2023
The Jewish Democratic Council of America defended Jeffries in a tweet, calling him “an unwavering partner of the Jewish American community and ally of Israel in Congress.” “We are grateful for his leadership defending democracy, fighting antisemitism and right-wing extremism, and standing with Israel,” they added. “His long record in Congress on these issues is beyond reproach and we condemn any assertions to the contrary. We are proud to call him a friend.”
Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries has been an unwavering partner of the Jewish American community and ally of Israel in Congress.
We are grateful for his leadership defending democracy, fighting antisemitism and right-wing extremism, and standing with Israel.
His long record in…
— Jewish Dems (@USJewishDems) April 14, 2023
Jeffries’ 1992 op-ed defending his uncle and Farrakhan was titled “The Black Conservative Phenomenon,” where Jeffries compared Black conservatives to “House Negroes,” pointing his ire at Thomas, Powell and Shelby Steele. Toward the end of the piece, Jeffries does say that he doesn’t want to restrict “Black political thought” and encouraged Black Americans to “evaluate, critically, the Black conservative phenomenon.”
When asked by Fox News if he stands by what he wrote in the 1992 op-ed about Black conservatives, a spokesperson from Jeffries’ office replied: “Leader Jeffries has consistently been clear that he does not share the controversial views espoused by his uncle over thirty 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.”
This article has been updated.
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