A Tennessee criminal court judge has been facing calls to resign for posting on his Facebook page a link to an article that states that Jews should “get the f*** over the Holocaust.”
Numerous organizations, including Jewish ones such as the Anti-Defamation League, and the Memphis Jewish Federation and Jewish Foundation of Nashville & Middle Tennessee, have called for Jim Lammey of the Shelby County Criminal Court to be reprimanded.
On Wednesday, Shelby County Commissioners took the first step on censure by voting for a resolution that was in favor of doing so. The resolution will be considered by the 13-member commission on Monday.
A local newspaper, The Commercial Appeal, first reported on the development, which included revealing that the judge has also shared anti-immigrant posts on Facebook.
Lammey denied to the outlet that he’s an anti-Semite.
“I certainly don’t agree with that, being a Holocaust denier,” he said. “My best friend, who’s deceased now, was Jewish, and I wouldn’t do that.”
Lammey was elected to office in 2006. In 2014, he was re-elected to an eight-year term.
“Judge Lammey continues to defend his social-media posts that link to anti-Semitic, anti-Muslim and racist remarks and negative images of faith-based and ethnic minorities. He stands behind his disparaging and unsubstantiated rhetoric about immigrants,” stated the Memphis Jewish Federation and Jewish Foundation of Nashville & Middle Tennessee in a letter to Timothy Discenza, disciplinary counsel at Tennessee Board of Judicial Conduct.
“He attempts to justify his own anti-Semitic and racist posts by stating that he ‘had a Jewish friend’ and Latinos have ‘done a heck of a good job on his roof’—statements which are classic anti-Semitic and racist tropes,” continued the letter.
