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Fire Chief Issues Apology To Greenburgh Supervisor For Anti-Semitic Remarks

GREENBURGH, N.Y. -- Fairview Fire Department Chief Anthony LoGuidice gave a letter of apology to Greenburgh Town Supervisor Paul Feiner Friday for anti-Semitic remarks the chief made recently.

Greenburgh Town Supervisor Paul Finer received an apology from Fire Chief Anthony LoGuidice for insensitive remarks made about the Supervisor.

Greenburgh Town Supervisor Paul Finer received an apology from Fire Chief Anthony LoGuidice for insensitive remarks made about the Supervisor.

Photo Credit: Daily Voice

LoGuidice’s alleged anti-Semitic remarks were detailed in depositions made in a non-related age discrimination case filed against the Fairview Fire Department by David Hecht, a Greenburgh native who was passed over twice for openings in the department.

Feiner, who had expected LoGuidice to meet with him Friday at 1 p.m., informed Daily Voice that he received the letter and that the chief would not be able to attend the meeting.

"Earlier (Friday), the lawyer for the Fire Chief indicated that he was unavailable to meet me at the scheduled appointment time that we had agreed to," Feiner said. "He cancelled the meeting. An hour and a half after the scheduled meeting, the Chief and his attorney appeared at my office unannounced. I was handed the  letter."

"First, I apologize for offending you and others with my careless and hurtful words," LoGiudice wrote in the letter he hand-delivered to Feiner. "I said what I said without thought and without thinking of the pain that it would bring to this community. When I read my words in The Journal News, and realized that young people, friends, colleagues and neighbors of the Jewish faith were reading those words, I was horrified."

The letter continued and included a check in Feiner's name from the Chief to the Myrna Youdelman Community Farm on the Woodlands campus as a gesture, "that would present new beginnigs, figuratively and literally for all of us."

"Using a slur to express anger is never appropriate in any context, even if uttered privately," LoGuidice wrote. "As a public official, I owe a special duty to the people I serve and to those who report to me to conduct myself accordingly. Slurs are hateful and ugly and have no place in the firehouse or anywhere else."

Read the whole letter here.

Feiner said the visit and letter were a positive step, but he hoped LoGuidice might go further in dealing with the insensitive remarks mentioned in his letter.

"In my opinion this is insufficient," Feiner said. "The Chief should visit the Holocaust Museum in N.Y. with a holocaust survivor so he will have a better understanding of the impact his words have had on the Jewish community and the entire community  and our concerns about anti-Semitism, bigotry and hatred."

 

 

 

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