Ohio member of school board delivers Nazi salute at meeting

A woman has apologised after she came under fire for making a Nazi salute at a public meeting. 

Anne Zakkour, who is a member of the Tipp City Board of Education, performed the salute and quietly said, “sieg heil” after the President of the Board asked her not to interrupt him.

Initially, when approached by a local Jewish media outlet, Ms Zakkour said that the President of the Board, Simon Patry, “[had] a dictator mentality” and explained that the salute was a “sarcastic gesture” which was “[in] no way meant to be anything towards the Jewish people”.

She continued: “If we don’t identify, even at a local level, if we don’t call out suppression and oppression, I’m not an expert at this, but isn’t that how some of this snowballed with Hitler and Nazism?”

After Ms Zakkour received further backlash, particularly from two Jewish groups that sit on the school board, she expressed regret for her conduct. 

In an e-mail, Ms Zakkour wrote: “In hindsight, I regret having done this…After four years of attacks by a board member that I believe has been acting as a dictator spreading lies and division, my action was spur of the moment and I’m very sorry for that. My heart is open to all religions, and it was never my intent to offend anyone of the Jewish community. [sic]”

Campaign Against Antisemitism reports on news and incidents relating to antisemitism throughout the United States.