An outspoken supporter of Israel, Alderperson Debra Silverstein has become a lightning rod for public criticism and harassment since last year’s Hamas attack and Israel’s retaliation. For the past 13 years, Silverstein, the only Jewish member of the City Council, has represented the 50th Ward, a diverse North Side stretch that runs through West Ridge, Rogers Park, and Lincoln Square. She talked with Chicago about the treatment she’s received recently, her efforts to push back against hate incidents of all types, and her ongoing condemnation of Mayor Brandon Johnson for what she sees as stoking tensions.

You have become more publicly visible since protesters shouted you down at two separate City Council meetings. At the first, less than a week after the October 7, 2023, massacre in Israel, you introduced a resolution to condemn Hamas. What happened when you got up to speak?

People had already heard about the resolution, and public comments had been just really awful. So the mayor put two plainclothes police officers behind me and another in front of the chambers. It was total chaos. I wouldn’t speak over the booing and the yelling and the heckling, so every time that started, I would just stop. And it happened so many times that the mayor ended up clearing the gallery. That’s when they started chanting, “Debra Silverstein, you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide.” We probably had about an hour’s recess until we were able to get the crowd out. They ended up staying in the lobby. So when the meeting was over, the police weren’t going to let me leave through City Hall because people were down there just screaming. They gave my car keys to my staff, and they took me down the elevator through the basement, and I actually walked out of — I think it was the Daley Center. I’m not even sure where I was. They put a police car in front of my house for several days after that. Since then, every time I would get up to speak, I would be booed. And it just continues. I was even heckled yesterday at my committee meeting.

What about harassment outside of City Hall? I know your office was vandalized, you’ve gotten threatening emails and calls, and your Orthodox Jewish neighborhood in West Ridge has been targeted.

In May, I was selected to light a torch in Israel for Yom Ha’atzmaut, Israel’s independence day, for my work on antisemitism. I was just landing back in Chicago from that trip and turned on my phone and saw that [cars in] my neighborhood, just a block from my house, [had been leafleted with] antisemitic flyers. They said that Jews caused 9/11, that Jews are responsible for COVID, that Jews control the media, et cetera. So there I was, having such a wonderful, meaningful experience in Israel, and literally as soon as I landed, it was like, Welcome back to Chicago, get back to being an alderman.

The Secure Community Network, a national nonprofit based in Chicago, reports that antisemitic incidents here have at least doubled since 2022. How do we combat that?

Fighting hate of all kinds has become my passion, even before October 7. I introduced a hate crimes ordinance that unanimously passed [last December]. The old one had been on the books for 30 years. It hadn’t been amended or anything. We did a lot of research, talked to a lot of organizations that deal with hate crimes. We added a definition for hate incidents because those are precursors to hate crimes. We wanted to make sure people were reporting them, so if there was an uptick in a particular area, the police could focus their attention there.

In April, you and two Jewish members of the Illinois General Assembly wrote a letter to Mayor Johnson declining his invitation to participate in a roundtable on antisemitism. You document in detail what you called his “disrespect and lack of concern for the Jewish community.” Among other things, your letter called out his silence “when Jewish students at our colleges and public schools have been intimidated and made unsafe and unwelcome.” Can you elaborate on that?

I’m very concerned about Chicago Public Schools. There was a walkout of kids from CPS on the day of the [council’s January] cease-fire resolution, and they were praised [by the mayor] for protesting the Gaza war. Meanwhile, I have Jewish students who were told, “Don’t wear blue and white because we’re not sure we can protect you.” I have Jewish students who are afraid to go to school and who are being fed onesided information.

Johnson has stood out nationally as the first big-city mayor to endorse a cease-fire in Gaza, the topic of the other meeting in which you were shouted down. [Silverstein opposed the resolution, arguing that the council shouldn’t buck President Joe Biden’s foreign policy strategy.] Then, before the Democratic National Convention here in August, Johnson labeled the war “genocidal.” Is there a response you expect from him in reaching out to Jewish voters?

It’s going to be very hard for him to make amends. I’ve only spoken to him one time since this whole thing happened. So at a bare minimum, I would like to have more of a conversation with him. I would like to get some of the other mainstream Jewish organizations to sit down with him. But at this time I don’t see that happening.

You’ve also publicly denounced Kennedy Bartley, a top aide to the mayor.

Yes, two days after Hamas attacked Israel, she tweeted, “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free. Amen.” That’s before Israel went in. Before Israel did anything in retaliation to that horrible, brutal attack, she was already tweeting that. And then during the ceasefire resolution meeting, she was a part of the gallery that heckled me. I did not see it, but I have several colleagues who did.

In an interview with WTTW, she denied heckling you. But she did apologize for what she said during a 2021 podcast interview, in the wake of the killing of George Floyd, calling police “fucking pigs.” What do you think of her being given additional responsibilities in the mayor’s administration in September, as managing deputy of external relations?

I am very upset about that. She said some very offensive words about the police. And I am a big supporter of the police. Her job entails working with the aldermen and talking with them about legislation and seeing how they’re going to vote and explaining things, and I don’t know how she thinks she’s going to be able to work with a lot of us.

Is it appropriate for the City Council to be weighing in at all on international politics?

I can tell you that with regard to the resolution I introduced condemning Hamas, I felt it was very important for me to speak out. My resolution was not about Palestine, it wasn’t about Israel. It was about an internationally known terrorist organization that came in and brutally murdered people during their holiday. And as you know, Hersh Goldberg-Polin [a murdered hostage whose parents are Chicago natives] was an American Israeli.

You are an accountant by trade. Has there been a time in the past year where you considered returning to the refuge of doing taxes?

Actually, it’s more important than ever to stay in politics. I need to speak out for my people. I need to stop the hate. My mission is to fight back against hate of all types. There’s way too much hate in this world. If I can use my voice to reduce those numbers, to educate people, I’m going to do that.