A high-level aide to Los Angeles Metropolis Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martínez resigned from his submit Friday after going through criticism for making Holocaust jokes in regards to the comic Amy Schumer on social media.
Josh Androsky, senior advisor to Soto-Martínez, took half in an exchange on X, previously referred to as Twitter, earlier within the day that featured puns about focus camps and what gave the impression to be disparaging remarks about Schumer’s weight.
By the top of the day, the messages from Androsky, who has labored as a political advisor for at the very least three of the council’s 15 members, had been condemned by an array of civic leaders, together with Mayor Karen Bass.
“The anti-Semitic and misogynistic feedback made right now have been reprehensible, disgusting and harmful and under no circumstances characterize the town household,” Bass stated in an announcement issued simply earlier than midnight. “Particularly now, Metropolis Corridor should be a beacon of hope, not hate. I’m glad the staffer accountable has resigned.”
Soto-Martínez, in a separate assertion, called the posts from his worker “disturbing and reprehensible.”
“With antisemitism on the rise in recent times and particularly in current weeks, cracking jokes in regards to the holocaust isn’t simply disgusting, it’s harmful,” stated Soto-Martínez, who chairs the council’s civil rights committee. “These antisemitic and misogynistic posts sickened me, and I’ve accepted his resignation efficient instantly.”
The Androsky incident appeared to have begun Friday morning, when the social media account for TrueAnon, a podcast, took intention at Schumer, who had posted a political cartoon derided as offensive to Palestinians residing in Gaza and to protesters searching for to finish the bloodshed there.
The TrueAnon account wrote that Schumer, who incessantly posts in regards to the Oct. 7 assault on Israel, is “significantly delicate to Jewish deaths because of her expertise within the holocaust.”
“The nazis named a focus camp after her. It was referred to as Da Cow,” the TrueAnon account wrote, providing a pun on Dachau, the place greater than 40,000 prisoners have been killed, in accordance with some estimates.
Androsky, a onetime comic who’s Jewish himself, responded by saying “it’s f— up that you’d say this about her when you understand it was truly Cowschwitz.”
Later, in an obvious reference to a sprawling cattle farm close to the 5 Freeway, Androsky took one other dig at Schumer, writing: “I referred to as it cowschwitz!!! both manner all of them (and amy) smelled the identical.”
Androsky didn’t reply to a number of inquiries from The Occasions. He initially deleted his posts, then his whole account.
Schumer has not publicly commented on the controversy. She described her Jewish heritage in a single current Instagram post, mentioning a relative who had “numbers from Auschwitz burned into his forearm.” In one other, she apologized for making “hurtful” remarks about Gazans, promising to “be extra cautious.”
The response to Androsky’s posts was swift amongst L.A.’s Jewish group leaders.
Jake Flynn, a spokesperson for Councilmember Bob Blumenfield, stated his boss had seen Androsky’s messages and was “appalled.” Sam Yebri, an activist who sits on the board of the authorized companies nonprofit Wager Tzedek, referred to as the posts distasteful and antisemitic.
“The truth that a metropolis worker felt it was OK to make these phrases in a public discussion board, with such utter disregard for any penalties, is shameful,” he stated in an interview.
Androsky, an outspoken progressive, has been closely concerned in metropolis politics in recent times, working as a advisor for the marketing campaign of Councilmember Nithya Raman in 2020 and Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez final 12 months.
Soto-Martínez paid Androsky’s political consulting agency, Vibrant Future LA, practically $108,000 for companies carried out as a part of final 12 months’s council marketing campaign, in accordance with Ethics Fee information. He additionally labored on the unsuccessful council bid of lawyer Erin Darling on the Westside.
Androsky left Vibrant Future LA when he took a job with Soto-Martínez, in accordance with Anne Freiermuth, who’s at present listed on state enterprise types as a supervisor or member of that agency.
Androsky has lengthy been identified for his glib takes on social media. In February 2022, as Russia’s army was launching its invasion of Ukraine, he posted on Twitter: “Putin’s dangerous, NATO’s dangerous, however the vibes right here at buca di beppo? fairly good!”
In 2017, Androsky tweeted a joke about Invoice Cosby that was denounced by some as insensitive to victims of sexual assault. He issued an apology and introduced he was “stepping again” from his work with the L.A. chapter of Democratic Socialists of America, in accordance with an archived DSA post.
Naomi Goldman, a onetime spokesperson for former Councilmember Mike Bonin, stated Friday on her personal social media account that Androsky’s profession needs to be positioned “on the no-fly listing.”
“I might have vastly most popular to see Josh Androsky swiftly fired by [Soto-Martínez] with a robust management stance vs letting him determine his personal consequence,” she wrote. “However at the very least he’s gone from Metropolis Corridor.”
