The Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) slammed Johnson’s insensitivity towards Chicago’s Jewish community.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has come under fire after appearing in a photo wearing a keffiyeh during an Arab Heritage Month celebration.
The image, posted on Instagram on Wednesday by the Chicago chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), shows Johnson with a keffiyeh draped over his shoulders while standing alongside CAIR-Chicago Executive Director Ahmed Rehab.
“This is outrageous,” the Chicago Jewish Alliance wrote on X. “For the mayor of Chicago to stand there—cloaked in a symbol now synonymous with Jewish bloodshed, flanked by an organization that justifies it—is more than tone-deaf. It’s a betrayal.”
“The keffiyeh isn’t just a cultural symbol. Not anymore. In today’s world, it’s worn at Hamas rallies. It’s paraded in the streets when mobs chant ‘From the river to the sea,’ a call for the eradication of Israel,” the statement continued.
“It’s the uniform of those who cheered on the Oct. 7 massacre — where babies were burned, women raped, and over 1,200 Jews slaughtered.”
CJA also took aim at CAIR itself, describing the group as “an unindicted co-conspirator in the largest terror-financing trial in U.S. history.”
In May 2023, CAIR was removed from the White House national strategy on antisemitism after the organization blamed Israel for Hamas’s unprovoked attack on Oct. 7.
The Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) also slammed Johnson’s insensitivity towards Chicago’s Jewish community.
“Mayor Brandon Johnson’s recent public appearance wearing a keffiyeh, alongside a CAIR leader, was deeply painful to many in Chicago’s Jewish community — the third-largest in the United States,” said Lisa Katz, CAM’s Chief Government Affairs Officer.
“We understand that Mayor Johnson may not have intended to cause harm, but at a time of historic antisemitic threat levels, including in Chicago, symbols matter.”
CAM also urged the mayor to “engage in open dialogue with Chicago’s Jewish community, learn more about the evolving symbols of modern-day antisemitism, and show solidarity against antisemitism and hate in all their contemporary forms.”