Norton Statement on Councilmember Trayon White’s Comments Regarding the Rothschilds

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) has put in a call to her friend District of Columbia Councilmember Trayon White (Ward 8), following his comments suggesting that the Rothschilds—a prominent Jewish family—control the climate and the federal government.

"By now, Trayon recognizes how hurtful and offensive his remarks were to the Jewish community and to all Washingtonians. I appreciate the way that our city's own Jewish leaders are working closely with him, rather than isolating him, to ensure an understanding of anti-Semitism and science-based climate change. This response by our Jewish community exemplifies the long and close relationship between the Jewish and African American communities in the District and in our country. Jewish Americans have always been African Americans' closest allies in the ongoing struggle against racism. Their own history here and in many countries throughout the world with bigotry and worse has led to a bond between Jews and Blacks like no other in our country.

"All the residents of this great and diverse city—African Americans, Jews, whites, Latinos, Muslims, Asian Americans, Christians, the LGBT community, and others who make D.C. representative of the world—have long worked together to fight prejudice of all kinds and not only against what we ourselves encounter. The District of Columbia is a city that understands that we are all in this together."