CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, Ohio — After nearly a week of silence, Mayor Kahlil Seren has responded to allegations of antisemitism, but not in an atmosphere where questions can be asked.
On May 14, Sobel, Wade & Mapley, LLC filed a complaint against the City of Cleveland Heights with the Ohio Civil Rights Commission.
The complaint accused Mayor Kahlil Seren's wife, Natalie McDaniel, of using anti-Semitic language when discussing city employees.
Alleged text messages from McDaniel to Seren, and former Special Assistant to the Mayor, Patrick Costigan, are included in the complaint.
Costigan is ethnically Jewish through his mother.
It reveals McDaniel describing Cleveland Heights Planning Commission Chair Jessica Cohen, who is Jewish, as a "broodmare."
A broodmare is a female horse that is kept primarily for breeding.
The complaint states that the use of the "broodmare" is a coded reference to the number of children in Orthodox Jewish families.
Additionally, McDaniel's texts attached to the complaint allegedly claim Cohen is on the Planning Commission simply to benefit Orthodox Jewish residents.
"She (Jessica Cohen) is destined for a glue factory and the days drag on," McDaniel's texts reportedly read to Seren and Costigan.
The complaint also claims McDaniel made religiously charged comments regarding a current councilmember, a resident who spoke during public comment, calling her "that Jewish b***h," and former city employees.
The allegations outraged residents, forcing dozens to call for Seren's resignation at Monday night's City Council meeting.
RELATED: Cleveland Heights mayor’s wife accused of antisemitic remarks in civil rights complaint
At Monday night's City Council meeting, Seren said he'd release a statement on Tuesday.
However, each time we asked for an update on his statement since then, his office was unable to provide one.
The statement comes as a Cleveland Heights City Councilmember told me the mayor has been unreachable for the last couple of days, and has allegedly not shown up to City Hall since Monday.
Shortly after 8 p.m. on Wednesday, Seren posted a 15-minute-long video to his official Facebook page.
"One area where my wife and I are in very clear alignment, it is in our shared belief that anti-Jewish hatred and antisemitism, as described in the IHRA working definition, has no place in our community or any other," Seren said in the social media video containing his statement. "Some of the most important people in our lives are Jewish people. My wife grew up here in the Taylor neighborhood playing with Orthodox Jewish kids on the block, developing friendships with Jewish people throughout her life. And for my part, my godmother is Jewish. In fact, her family still lives here in Cleveland Heights."
Seren said by revealing their background, he wants to "impress upon you that any accusation of either of us hating the Jewish people is false."
Prior to the allegations surfacing in a civil rights complaint last week, Seren accused Costigan of threatening his administration with a lawsuit if his demand of a job reference and $300,000 wasn't met.
"They offered to abandon the lawsuit and instead sign a mutual non-disparagement and confidentiality agreement. I summarily rejected that proposal," Seren shared. "The demand was accompanied by a message through attorneys that our accuser, Patrick, hopes that we can be friends after this. This EEOC complaint which they provided to the press follows my rejection of their offer."
I reached out to Costigan and his lawyer, Sean Sobel, for a response to Seren's accusations, and this was Costigan's response.
As a proud transgender man who has lived openly my entire adult life, I have no issue with my identity being public. What I take issue with is that my identity is up to me to disclose when, where, and how I choose it. It isn’t for a former employer to announce on a Facebook video. For many in the transgender community, that would be considered an act of aggression that can lead to further prejudice.
My mother was Jewish as were my grandparents. My grandfather was raised in an Orthodox family, the son of Russian Jewish immigrants who came to America to escape persecution. My grandmother was born in Yugoslavia and she, too, came to this country to escape anti-Semitism. Being raised Catholic does not erase my Jewish identity or heritage.
Weaponizing both of these identities to distract from hateful conduct is unacceptable.
Continuing in the mayor's statement, he said, "There are certain things that I cannot responsibly reveal about the city's response to this, but there are certain things that I feel a need to address now, despite the need to maintain the city's solid legal footing."
Seren said the accusations of antisemitism are false.
He added that the City of Cleveland Heights will be "taking all steps to defend that position."
Seren addresses the string of texts attached to the complaint. He describes those as altered.
"I believe that Patrick, both in the statements made in the narrative and in attaching an altered text string as an exhibit, has perjured himself in the commission of this complaint. In the interest of allowing our attorneys to handle this in the most effective and appropriate way, I'm not going to address every false accusation and mischaracterization found in this complaint," Seren stated.
The alleged text from McDaniel calling Cohen a "broodmare" has been taken out of context, according to Seren.
"For those of you who are unaware, mandingo and broodmare are terms that come from American slavery. Plantation owners dehumanized black people through sexual exploitation and by forcing them to bear children, erasing their value as full and complete human beings and intellectual equals. This has never been a term aimed at Jewish people and was never understood or expressed as relating to anything about Orthodox Judaism.
Jessica Cohen has exhibited behaviors toward me that in my view invoke the racist trope of the mandingo. This private personal characterization was in response to Miss Cohen's actions and was never a statement about Jewish people, orthodox or otherwise, and was never intended to be shared or to embarrass Miss Cohen publicly."
We thought we had an ally. We thought we had an ally in this with an ethnically Jewish but raised Catholic white trans man who is not from this place.
"My wife has received threatening texts and calls. Our police had to pay a visit to a man who threatened to come to our home on Monday while I was gone, to have fun with the first lady. We live in a time of heightened emotion and reduced empathy. Some of you may not care that we're dealing with abuse, harassment, and now threats as a result of an unproven accusation. I hope that enough of you can see a path toward more empathy and understanding to allow us to move forward together," Seren detailed.
He said the reason it took him until Wednesday to release a response is because he weighed his avenues of doing so, and thought a video would be best suited for the situation.
"I needed all of you to hear from me directly. I've worked and reworked my thoughts too many times to count. I don't have any excuse for my silence until now — just an apology and an admission that this has taken a toll on me and my family, which has made it nearly impossible to put how we feel into words. Natalie and I love the Jewish people in our lives and we love the Jewish people in pretty much the same way we love our own people," Seren stated.
The request from many residents for Seren to resign was not addressed in the social media video.
McDaniel has not made a statement as of Wednesday night.
A Cleveland Heights City Councilmember told me that due to the lack of communication and physical appearance from the mayor, a special meeting has been called between City Council and the city's Law Director to address what to do next.
The meeting will be open to the public. It'll take place at City Hall at 12 p.m.
