Move over Christopher Columbus, it’s Peter Stuyvesant’s turn to get scorched in the monuments war.
A Jewish activist group is now demanding Mayor de Blasio scrub all traces of the Dutch governor from city property — even Stuyvesant High School — as part of his campaign to rid the city of “symbols or hate.”
“Peter Stuyvesant was an extreme racist who targeted Jews and other minorities including Catholics and energetically tried to prohibit them from settling in then New Amsterdam,” said Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, the head of the Shurat HaDin-Israel Law Center.
“New York, of all American cities, which boasts such important Jewish history and claims such a present day vibrant Jewish community, should take the lead in denouncing Stuyvesant’s bigotry.”
Stuyvesant did eventually allow the people he described as “deceitful,” “very repugnant” and “blasphemous” to settle at the order of the Dutch West India Company
Erasing Stuyvesant’s name from the city wouldn’t just affect Manhattan’s Stuyvesant Square and its eponymous statue — there’s also the elite public Stuyvesant High School, and possibly even the entire neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant.
Darshan-Leitner recommends replacing all traces of his name with that of Asher
Levy, one of the first Jewish settlers in New Amsterdam.
A spokesman for the New Netherlands Institute, which researches America’s Dutch History, called the idea “ridiculous” and said statues of historical figures with outdated views are not the same as those of “treasonous” Confederates being torn down in the South.
“This is an entirely different case. This was about customs in the 17th century,” said the spokesman, arguing that Stuyvesant opposed any religion outside of his own church to maintain social cohesion and due to ignorant ideas about disease.
Meanwhile, Italian-American leaders rallied on Thursday to protest City Hall’s Christopher Columbus statue from meeting a similar fate — a day after de Blasio said it would be among those studied by his commission into the city’s offensive monuments.
“The one iconic symbol for Italian Americans was Christopher Columbus. He’s flawed. We’re all flawed. Hey I’m flawed. Does that mean I’m not going to get a rest stop named after me on the Jersey turnpike?” said comedian and radio host Joe Piscopo at the rally outside City Hall.
“Leave our statues alone. Stop the political correctness. The political correctness is killing us.”
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