Cleveland Heights Mayor Denies Wife Made Antisemitic Remarks, Despite Her Allegedly Calling One Public Commenter a "Jewish Bitch"

Cleveland Heights Mayor Kahlil Seren broke his silence on Wednesday evening after a civil rights complaint filed earlier this week detailed antisemitic remarks made by his wife, Natalie McDaniel. Credit: Kahlil Seren

Cleveland Heights Mayor Kahlil Seren, after remaining silent for a week after reports surfaced that his wife, Natalie McDaniel, made a series of antisemitic remarks in person and in text messages, finally broke his silence.

In a 15-minute recorded video Seren posted on his Facebook account on Wednesday, days after a civil rights complaint was filed by a former employee, the mayor wrote off the flurry of comments allegedly made in the past year as mere misunderstandings. His reasoning lied in personal ties: We’re friends with Jews, we’re family with Jews.

“Some of the most important people in our lives are Jewish people,” Seren said in the video statement. “My wife grew up here in the [South] Taylor neighborhood, playing with Orthodox Jewish kids on the block, developing friendships with Jewish people throughout her life.”

“And, for my part, my godmother is Jewish,” he added. “In fact, her family still lives here in Cleveland Heights.”

In the charge, filed on Monday in the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, former employee Patrick Costigan relayed a collection of McDaniel’s outbursts: calling a planning director a “pawn” of the Orthodox Jewish community; referring to a public commenter as “that Jewish bitch”; suggesting Planning Commission Chair Jessica Cohen and another city worker were “fucking each other,” the charge reads, “simply because they are both Orthodox Jews.”

“What qualifications does this brood mare have?” McDaniel wrote in a text thread, referring to Cohen’s large family size. “She is destined for a glue factory and the days drag on.”

“Why is she there?” McDaniel continued. “Is this for Jewish worship?”

Cleveland Heights residents, about 17 percent of which are Jewish, didn’t react too kindly to the development.

On Monday, dozens of protesters stood outside Cleveland Heights City Hall, or inside Council Chambers, to denounce Seren and urge him to step down from his office. “No Haters in the Mayor’s Office,” one sign read. “#EndJewishHatred,” read another.

“The allegations of comments made by Mayor Seren’s wife, directed at the Orthodox community, are deeply hurtful and unacceptable,” a member of the Jewish community, dressed in a black suit and yarlmulke, said at the meeting. “They do not reflect the values of Cleveland Heights.”

“Spouses have different views,” another commenter said. “Spouses don’t give each other the keys to City Hall. You did. You need to resign.”

In Seren’s statement, the mayor colors Costigan’s accusations as “false,” adding that the text screenshot that shows some of McDaniel’s alleged comments as “altered.” Costigan, he said, has “perjured himself” in an attempt to oust him from his seat, Seren said.

Comments that actually, he added, were tied to himself, not McDaniel. Including one claim that Michael Ungar, a former Cleveland Heights councilman, put his “allegiance” to the Orthodox Jewish community “above all else,” the complaint reads.

“This had nothing to do with religious or ethnic loyalty or allegiance,” Seren said. “Mike isn’t even a member of the Orthodox community. This was a story about politics in a Cleveland Heights context.”

When reached for comment earlier this week, Ungar felt surprised that Seren was silent on the matter that day.

“This is really dark day for Cleveland Heights,” Ungar told Scene in a call. “I think it’s ridiculous days later, I don’t think the city itself has come out with a strong condemnation of antisemitism.” (At least until Wednesday.)

Such groundswell may be coming to yet another head on Friday, when City Council has planned what seems to be an emergency meeting tied to both the civil rights complaint and Seren’s personal statement.

At noon tomorrow at City Hall, councilmembers will be discussing the “Mayor’s whereabouts, presence, accessibility and ability to perform the duties of Mayor,” an agenda sheet reads. Including talk about “the welfare of the community.”

The City of Cleveland Heights still has yet to make an official statement on the matter, as of Thursday afternoon.