Minister Louis Farrakhan, the controversial head of the Nation of Islam, “laid a trap” for Mayor Richard Daley by calling for dialogue with Jews, a Jewish leader charged Friday.
“The Nation of Islam attempted to pull a fast one with Mayor Daley by raising the issue of dialogue,” said Richard Hirschhaut, Chicago regional director of the Anti-Defamation League.
Nation leaders have held talks in the past, only to return to their rhetoric of bigotry afterward, asserted Michael Kotzin, director of the Jewish Community Relations Council.
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Hirschhaut and Kotzin commented after emerging from a City Hall meeting that Jewish leaders had sought after the mayor sat down Nov. 21 with Farrakhan.
But the issue of exactly who called for dialogue became a matter Friday that was anything but clear.
After his parlay with Farrakhan on Nov. 21, Daley told reporters that he spoke plainly to the man accused of virulent anti-Semitism and added, “I would encourage him to sit down with the Jewish community and have a dialogue.”
But Jewish leaders who met with Daley said he denied calling for a meeting between the two groups.
That’s when Jacquelyn Heard, Daley’s press secretary, entered the semantic fray.
“I would say (the mayor) implied (a meeting) would be a good idea if it worked out” when he talked to Farrakhan, she said. “He didn’t say that you have to do this.”
Leonard Muhammad, chief of staff of the Nation of Islam, accused the Jewish leaders of “attempting to embarrass the mayor.”
Farrakhan’s meeting with Daley was called to discuss economic development on the South Side, not relations with Jews, Muhammad said.
The Jewish leaders expressed satisfaction with their meeting with the mayor.
“I have never heard such a forthright condemnation of this kind of anti-Semitism from any civil leader as I did this afternoon from Mayor Daley,” said Jonathan Levine, Midwest regional director of the American Jewish Committee. “He repeatedly stated that people have to stand up and speak against this bigotry.”