Jersey City school official who criticized 'brutes' in Jewish community should resign, governor and mayor say

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Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop and Gov. Phil Murphy called for the resignation of school board member Joan Terrell-Paige on Tuesday after she made racially charged comments about the Jewish victims of last week's kosher market shooting.

Terrell-Paige posted a lengthy message on her Facebook account accusing local Jews of blackmailing African-American homeowners into selling their property, and referred to them as "brutes."

"Where was all this faith and hope when black homeowners were threatened, intimidated, and harassed by I WANT TO BUY YOUR HOUSE brutes of the Jewish community?" she wrote.

The school board member went on to accuse local Jews of using threats and coercion to declare war on the black community, and said people should "explore" the intended message of the kosher market shooters. She eventually deleted the post, but it was saved with screenshots and later posted on Twitter.

Fulop's first Twitter response expressed sorrow at Terrell-Paige's "ignorance," while his second post called on her to resign.

"I saw this and I’m saddened by the ignorance her comments demonstrate," he wrote on Tuesday. "Her comments don't represent Jersey City or the sentiment in the community at all. The African-American community in Greenville has been nothing short of amazing over the last week helping neighbors."

"I also said I’m not going to mix words," his second tweet read. "My opinion is she should resign. That type of language has no place in our schools and no place amongst elected officials. Imagine she said this about any other community - what would the reaction be? The same standard should apply here."

Murphy echoed Fulop's sentiments and said Terrell-Paige's hate should not go unchecked.

"We will not let anti-Semitism and hate go unchallenged in our communities," he tweeted Tuesday. "In light of Ms. Terrell-Paige’s comments, I urge her to immediately resign from the Jersey City Board of Education."

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The shooters -- David Anderson, 47, and Francine Graham, 50 -- had expressed interest in a fringe group called the Black Hebrew Israelites, according to The Associated Press.

The suspected shooters killed four people on Tuesday, according to officials who have described the attack as an anti-Semitic hate crime that is now being investigated as domestic terrorism, and they were both found dead after an hours-long shootout with police.

Fox News' Nicole Darrah contributed to this report.