Massachusetts school board member resigns after using antisemitic slur

Bob Hoey, a member of the Lowell School Committee, was on a local talk show Wednesday morning when he referred to a Jewish former official as a “kike.”

ARE WE doing enough to confront antisemitism? (photo credit: REUTERS)
ARE WE doing enough to confront antisemitism?
(photo credit: REUTERS)
The local school official in Massachusetts who  made an antisemitic slur on TV announced his resignation via Facebook Live video on Friday morning.

Bob Hoey, a member of the Lowell School Committee, was on a local talk show Wednesday morning when he referred to a Jewish former official as a “kike.” The slur came amid statements denigrating undocumented immigrants, the diversity of a local high school, Indian Americans and U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a progressive Democrat, according to the Lowell Sun.

On Friday, the Sun reported that Hoey announced his resignation on Facebook. The video in question is no longer public.

Hoey said he has “a big mouth” and “no control over how I talk or speak,” according to the Sun. He also said that he apologizes to the Jewish former official and “to everybody across the country because this thing’s gone all over the place.” Hoey also asked viewers to “condemn that word,” the anti-Semitic slur.

The Sun reported on Friday that the city manager in the Boston suburb had not yet received official resignation papers from Hoey.