WASHINGTON – The chairman
of the National Jewish Democratic Council has written to Woodbury Town
Supervisor Ralph Caruso urging him to “distance” himself from
Police Chief Richard Vasquez because of what Greg Rosenbaum said is the
chief’s “shameful behavior.”
Vasquez was suspended by the Woodbury Town Board earlier this week, but
officials will not reveal the reason citing the matter is a personnel
issue.
In an August 10 letter to Caruso, Rosenbaum pointed to a campaign video
by Vasquez in which he “blames nearby Rockland County’s Jewish
community for a glut of illegal housing, a shameful example of collective
guilt that slanders an entire population.”
Vasquez is running for Rockland County sheriff next month.
The video was called “deeply troubling, highly offensive and inappropriate”
by the Anti-Defamation League, but the candidate “liked” it
on his Facebook page, Rosenbaum noted.
He also pointed to a supporter of Vasquez distorting the name of his opponent,
Rockland Sheriff Louis Falco, to make the name sound “Jewish,”
call calling him “Falcowitz, an act of “blatant anti-Semitism.”
Rosenbaum told Caruso in his letter that Vasquez “may believe that
anti-Semitism is a joke, but it is obviously not a laughing matter. There
are obvious concerns that his loathsome views have infected the rest of
his police department.”
