JERSEY CITY — It was advertised as a reorganization of the Jersey City Board of Education. Instead, it was the words of a board member that took the spotlight.

Trustee Joan Terrell-Paige, who referred to some Hasidic Jewish people as "brutes" in a social media post after the Dec. 10 kosher supermarket killings, got a show of support from a small group of residents who rallied before the Thursday night meeting.

And during public comments, the residents were vocal about Terrell-Paige staying on the board, saying they saw her post as honest, not anti-Semitic.

Neal Brunson, an attorney and head of the Afro-American Historical and Cultural Society Museum in Jersey City, said Terrell-Paige's post was not broadly targeting Jewish people.

"If I can put my lawyer's hat on for a second, what Joan said, the literal meanings of what Joan said, were directly applicable not to a Jewish community, but to individuals of the Jewish community," Brunson said. "This is important because when you label someone anti-Semitic, you must do your homework."

Terrell-Paige said in a since-deleted Facebook post that some Hasidic Jews had threatened to bring prostitutes and drug dealers to the Greenville neighborhood if African Americans didn’t sell their homes to Jews.

She also expressed sympathy for the shooters, David Anderson and Francine Graham, who were killed in a gunbattle with police.

“'Mr. Anderson and Ms. Graham went directly to the kosher supermarket. I believe they knew they would come out in body bags. What is the message they were sending? Are we brave enough to explore the answer to their message?'" she wrote in the post, where she identified herself as a private citizen, not a school board member.

The shootings claimed the lives of two Orthodox Jews, an Ecuadorian immigrant and a Jersey City police detective.

The meeting comes over two weeks after Gov. Phil Murphy called for Terrell-Paige to resign.

Monique K. Andrews, who lives a block from the shooting site, said Terrell-Paige was only expressing what she knew about some Jewish people coming to the doors of local homeowners and using aggressive tactics to try to purchase their homes, which led the city to adopt a "no-knock" ordinance in 2017.

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"She ain't going nowhere, and the fact that she spoke as a private citizen, which is her right. Nobody is going to take away her freedom of speech away from her," Andrews said.

Mayor Steven Fulop came to the meeting for the swearing in of new board members, but was not available for comment. Terrell-Paige declined to comment.

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School board members did not comment on Terrell-Paige's post during the meeting. And Franklin Walker, the superintendent of schools, also declined to comment.

Cosmetics billionaire Ronald Lauder, founder of the Anti-Semitism Accountability Project, called Terrell-Paige's post despicable in a statement to NorthJersey.com. “Violence targeting Jews—or any ethnic, racial, or religious minority—is abhorrent, yet instead of condemning these attacks, mourning with her community, and committing to fight violent anti-Semitism, Ms. Terrell-Paige is fanning the flames of hate."

Lauder said the organization will also "deploy the resources necessary to make sure voters know about Ms. Terrell-Paige’s hateful, anti-Semitic rhetoric and will do whatever is necessary to see that she steps down.” Terrell-Paige's three-year term expires at the end of 2021.

Adam Schwartzbard, a teacher at Snyder High School, located not far from the kosher supermarket, was alone in speaking against the trustee's post at the meeting.

Referring to himself as a "proud Jew," he called Terrell-Paige's words "hateful and divisive" at a time where there have been a slew of violent attacks against Jews in New Jersey and New York.

"I pray that you also reflect on the pain that you caused people, myself and other Jewish people, both for the timing and for some of your words," Schwartzbard said. "And for the message that it sends to our students, of divisiveness when we really need unity and peace."

Terrell-Paige has also won support from some residents who say city officials and police are more responsive to the needs of the Orthodox community while ignoring street crime in Greenville and elsewhere.

Ricardo Kaulessar is a local reporter for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email: kaulessar@northjersey.com Twitter: @ricardokaul