Overview
- After a late-night session, the Richmond City Council approved Mayor Eduardo Martinez’s restorative agenda item and pushed a formal censure resolution to a future meeting.
- The plan commits Martinez to antisemitism education, at least two meetings with Rabbi Julie Saxe-Taller in the first quarter, and public apologies at a council meeting and in a local newspaper.
- Martinez had shared LinkedIn posts that echoed a “false flag” claim about the Bondi Beach Hanukkah attack and other antisemitic tropes, and he apologized at the meeting while acknowledging the harm.
- An effort to fold censure language into the mayor’s proposal failed on a split vote, and the final approval passed with Councilmembers Jamelia Brown and Cesar Zepeda voting no after a raucous hearing that saw heckling and removals.
- Regional Jewish groups, including the Bay Area JCRC that has urged Martinez to resign, criticized his apology, and the JCRC’s political arm said it is considering backing an opponent in this year’s mayoral race.