More than half of Chicago’s 50 aldermen wrote a letter to Mayor Brandon Johnson denouncing a work of art on display at the Chicago Cultural Center that they said is anti-American and anti-Israel.
The work, titled “U.S.-Israel War Machine,” is a sculpture with a painted head, apparently with blood dripping from its mouth, set atop a white T-shirt with long red sleeves culminating in large hands. It is set atop a wooden stand that states, “Don’t look away,” according to a photograph of the work provided by the office of Alderman Debra Silverstein of the city’s 50th Ward.

The sculpted figure wears a red bowtie marked “Uncle Sam,” and it pours a bucket marked “tears.”
On the shirt, a tank loaded down with all sorts of missiles (some labeled “money”), other tanks, guns, drones and a helicopter, appears to have two Stars of David on its wheels, set within tracked treads.
Among the other inscriptions on the base is the work’s title, “U.S. Israel war machine.”
In a letter that they sent on Wednesday to the mayor, the 27 aldermen—more than half of the Chicago City Council’s 50 representatives—called for the piece to be removed.
They also sought the attendance of Clinée Hedspeth, commissioner of the city’s cultural affairs and special events department, at a special hearing of the city’s special events, cultural affairs and recreation committee “to explain how this artwork was approved and to outline steps that will be taken to prevent similar incidents in the future.”
The aldermen wrote “to express our deep concern and condemnation” of the sculpture, which they said “is extremely offensive to the United States and to Israel and crosses into unprotected hate speech.”
“Such representations normalize anti-American sentiment and promote hatred and bigotry against the Jewish community,” the aldermen wrote.
The 27 Chicago leaders said that they appreciated that Hedspeth took a sign down, “added a warning and removed the death count total, but the puppets are still offensive.”
“As public officials, we respect freedom of speech and artistic expression but not when it crosses into the obscene and promotes hate,” they wrote. “The Chicago Cultural Center is a public space funded by taxpayer dollars, and displays there should reflect the values of our diverse and vibrant city.”
“Artwork that is this divisive should not use public funds without a clear, transparent vetting process,” they added.
The Chicago Tribune reported that the work includes “bloodied caricatures of Uncle Sam and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described on a sign as ‘protest puppets.'”
“Writing on the wooden bases holding up the figures criticizes U.S. financial support for Israel’s war efforts in Gaza and labels the characters as ‘children killers’ and ‘murderers,'” per the paper.
Silverstein, the only Jewish member of the Chicago City Council, told the Tribune that Hedspeth agreed over the weekend to remove the work’s title “U.S.-Israel War Machine” and to add “a warning that the exhibition ‘contains sensitive content'” and to remove “a death count included in the exhibit.”
Silverstein hoped to speak to the commissioner on Tuesday to have the work removed, “but did not receive a response,” per the Tribune. “Mayor Brandon Johnson is expected to speak inside the Chicago Cultural Center Wednesday morning at an event unrelated to the exhibition.”
The artwork is visible on the Chicago Cultural Center website in a description of the exhibit “Potential Energy: Chicago Puppets Up Close,” which opened on Dec. 21 and is slated to close on April 6.
“Chicago is home to a rich and growing ecology of puppetry, bridging mediums and communities of makers. This sampling of puppets by local artists challenges expectations about puppetry and inspires the public to tell their own stories,” the center states. “Puppets are made to tell stories. By taking puppets off stage, we can focus on how artists design specific stories into each object.”
It adds that the show—co-presented by the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival, curated by Grace Needlman and Will Bishop, and coordinated by Ashwaty Chennat—is one of “potentialities.”
“How can the possibility for a particular story be built into a puppet?” it adds. “What stories could you imagine telling with these puppets? What stories do you want to tell and how can you start telling them?”
On Jan. 31, 2024, Johnson broke a 23-23 tie at the City Council and voted for a resolution demanding a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. The Consulate General of Israel to the Midwest called the resolution “highly controversial” at the time.
It also said that the resolution “will have no impact in the Middle East” but “will create more division among communities in Chicago and inspire more antisemitism, as we saw on the floor and in the galleries of City Hall today.”
In October 2024, the consulate slammed Chicago’s newly-appointed Board of Education president after Jewish Insider reported that he posted antisemitic content and supported Hamas.