Vigil To Help Jersey City School Trustee Joan Terrell Is Thursday

JERSEY CITY, NJ — A special candlelight vigil in support of embattled Board of Education trustee Joan Terrell-Paige is Thursday night.

Terrell-Paige has come under fire by local and state officials and national organizations following comments she made in a long, since deleted Facebook post where she said, "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?"

The vigil will be at the Fred W. Martin Center for the Arts at Public School 41 at 59 Wilkinson Ave. at 5:30 p.m.

Terrell-Paige made the comments just days after a mass shooting in Jersey City's Greenville neighborhood left six people dead, including Joseph Seals, a longtime city police detective.

The Anti-Defamation League called for Terrell-Paige to resign from the board. The organization said her comments were: "anti-Semitic, inflammatory, and deeply-hurtful."

Related: Anti-Defamation League Wants Jersey City School Trustee To Resign

The ADL previously said that Terrell-Paige's "lack of remorse or self-reflection following the incident has rendered her unfit to continue to serve on the Board of Education — a body entrusted with modeling our shared values of diversity, tolerance, and inclusion for students in our local Jersey City public schools."

Besides the ADL, Gov. Phil Murphy, Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop, and Jersey City Board of Education President Sudhan Thomas have all called for Terrell-Paige to resign from the board.

Fulop previously said in a tweet that he was "saddened" by Terrell Paige's comments.

"Her comments don't represent Jersey City or the sentiment in the community at all," Fulop said. "The African-American community in Greenville has been nothing short of amazing over the last week helping neighbors."

One of the suspects in the mass shooting, David Anderson, 47, appeared to have a connection to the Black Hebrew Israelite movement, a law enforcement official told The New York Times. The Southern Poverty Law Center has called the movement a hate group. The movement has no connection to mainstream Judaism.

Related:

• Slain Jersey City Police Officer 'An American Hero,' His Son Says
• 6 Killed In Jersey City Shooting Standoff; Police Officer Dies
• 'Hate' Note Reportedly Left By Attacker In Jersey City Killings
• Mayor, Governor Call For Jersey City School Trustee's Resignation

Email: daniel.hubbard@patch.com