Officials Criticize City Council Candidate for 'Greedy Jewish Landlords' Comment

HARLEM, NY — An outsider candidate running for City Council in the seventh district — which spans parts of the Upper West Side, West Harlem and Washington Heights — has drawn the ire of multiple city officials for hateful rhetoric included in a fundraising email.

On Aug. 2, Thomas Lopez-Pierre sent an email with the subject line "SAVE HARLEM from Greedy Jewish Landlords," the Daily News reported. On Monday he was at the receiving end of a strongly worded letter from 14 New York City politicians, including Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, Comptroller Scott Stringer and Public Advocate Letitia James among others.

"We demand that you retract and apologize for these statements, and that you refrain from any further comments that target anyone based on their religion, race, gender, or sexual orientation. Such rhetoric has no place in our society, and certainly does not belong in a political campaign," the officials wrote in the letter sent to Patch.

Lopez-Pierre is running to unseat incumbent City Councilman Mark Levine, who is Jewish. The email isn't Lopez-Pierre's first remark that could be seen as anti-semitic either. On his campaign's website Lopez-Pierre has shared an article titled "Fighting Jewish Slumlords Isn't Anti-Semitic" and has posted a picture of Levine wearing traditional Jewish clothing.

The letter also alluded to past incidents where Lopez-Pierre made sexist and offensive comments regarding women and used racial slurs to describe an African-American fundraiser for Mark Levine.

"For these reason, we are united in rejecting your hateful attempts to divide us along lines of religion, race, gender, and sexual orientation. We call on you to cease this deplorable behavior at once," reads the letter.

A message sent to the campaign of Thomas Lopez-Pierre has not been returned

[Photo: Flickr user Jeff Keyzer]