A national Jewish organization called on Mayor Justin Elicker Friday to take disciplinary action against a city employee over an Upper Westville encounter that laid bare local tensions over the war in Gaza.
The encounter took place last Sunday on Knollwood Drive, down the hill from Hopkins School.
Thabisa Rich left her home around noon to walk alone in the street in her neighborhood chanting “Free Palestine!” through a bullhorn. Rich, who grew up in South Africa and now lives in Upper Westville, is a singer and recording artist who has a day job as a community outreach coordinator for the city Department of Arts, Culture and Tourism.
On Facebook she had called people to join her in a march calling for a ceasefire in the war: “I’ve done it before. I’ll do it again. At noon I will be on top of the hill Knollwood Drive by Hopkins High School. I will be protesting in my community for Palestine & a permanent Ceasefire. You are welcome to join.”
Rich had just begun her walk down the hill when she passed the home of Elchanan Poupko, who teaches at a Jewish day school and whose family recently moved to the neighborhood.
Poupko told the Independent that his wife informed him that “someone is standing outside our house with a megaphone and a Palestinian flag draped around her.”
Poupko, who has written online urging people to confront antisemitism, said Rich had been out in the street “for 20 seconds” when he rushed outside.
The family has a “We Stand With Israel” sign in front of its house. Poupko said he was concerned that his family was being “targeted” because of the sign, a claim Rich subsequently denied.
What happened next was captured on videos subsequently posted online by Poupko and Rich, video taken by others, and accounts by witnesses.
“Go back to Germany, you Nazi!” Poupko told Rich.
Rich continued chanting slogans through her bullhorn.
Her husband, Charlie Rich, pulled up in a car. He and Poupko got into a heated discussion about the Middle East war and about the husband’s identity. (He didn’t identify himself as Rich’s husband.)
“We’re trying to get people to speak up” and “advocating for peace,” Rich told Poupko. Poupko accused them of “harassing Jews” and “Nazi behavior.”
“Well, you do have a sign that says you support Israel,” Rich stated.
Neighbors came outside to watch. A number of Jewish people from Westville who happened to be en route to a shiva gathering up the street stopped and urged Rich to leave. She remained on the block, in the street, chanting through the bullhorn while her husband and the neighbors argued. “Free Palestine now!” she called out repeatedly. She compared the situation for Palestinians to the apartheid regime in South Africa. She called for the Board of Alders to pass a resolution supporting a ceasefire.
Eventually she and her husband left.
Police subsequently arrived. They concluded no crime had been committed, according to Police Chief Karl Jacobson: He told the Independent it’s legal for a person to march in the street chanting into a bullhorn. Political candidates and religious preachers do that, for instance. Technically a person may be violating a noise ordinance, “but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a bullhorn with a noise violation” involving one person.
“Obviously it depends on the situation. Her using a bullhorn at 3 in the morning and our getting multiple complaints would be a different story,” Jacobson said.
Rich proceeded to post video on Facebook from inside a car after leaving the scene with her husband.
“You tell me when you want to come back and ask for a ceasefire and ask for this people to stop their hate because they think that they are white and privileged and that they think that their religion is superior to the rest,” she said in the video. “I need people to show up to this very same street. We need to find a time to come back and show up in numbers and say no, enough is enough.”
She specifically called on Westville Alder Adam Marchand to support a ceasefire resolution submitted to the Board of Alders.
“Marchand needs to listen to people in this community and not just all the white people that live in our community,” Rich said. (Marchand told the Independent that he’s “still listening” to community voices on the ceasefire resolution. He said he welcomes meeting with any constituents who contact him seeking to discuss it.)
On Facebook Rich posted that she had just been “insulted and intimidated by the jewish family (that just mived in 3 moths ago)+ their neighbors in my community because they feel that I should go back to Germany lol Calling me a natzi.” She also posted a video of her speaking into the bullhorn mentioning that the family had a pro-Israel sign in their yard.
Poupko, meanwhile, posted video online. He headlined a YouTube video of Rich with the bullhorn: “Palestinian Mob Harassing Jewish Residents Of New Haven.” He stated that Rich had “targeted” his house.
He was asked about the targeting claim in a conversation on Friday with the Independent.
“We don’t know 100 percent. It could be she was just walking by. The impression we had was that I was targeted,” Poupko stated. He noted that Rich remained on the block chanting after being asked not to stay there, and that her husband had mentioned the sign in the yard during their conversation.
“If they were not targeting us, she could have continued. She didn’t have to linger there,” he said.
He said the incident left his family shaken. “My children were crying,” he said.
Rich, who for years has participated with neighbors in Westville community events, issued a statement to the Independent about the incident.
“I am not going to delve deep into details at this point about the recent incident but can offer some truth which is: I did not target that house and was walking through my neighborhood with the intention to call our community to stand together for a ceasefire to preserve our human lives being lost when the neighbor came rushing down to me on the road where I was protesting and accosted me calling me a ‘Nazi’ and ‘to go back where I came from,’ ‘to go back to Germany,’ among other derogatory names,” the statement began.
“All my work has always centered around humanity, uplifting all people and bringing joy and perspective through my art. To the insinuation of my husband Charlie Rich that he was part of this solo protest is utterly false, misconstrued and misleading.
“This piece of clarification is to offer truth and not to add fuel to the fire nor to bring harm to my neighbors.”
On Thursday, a national right-wing website, the DailyWire, subsequently posted an article entitled: “Connecticut City Employee Harasses Jewish Family Over Pro-Israel Yard Sign, Encourages Others To Join.” It stated that Rich “chanted ethnic cleansing slogans with a megaphone outside a Jewish family’s home.”
It cited Rich chanting “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”: Some consider that chant a call for eradicating all Jews in Israel (ethnic cleansing), while others claim it to be a call only for Palestinian rights and self-determination.
Since the incident, Poupkos and others have called attention to anti-Israel Facebook posts on Rich’s page. The postings include:
• “I do not condemn hamas.”
• “I promise I understand that some of y’all have your pockets lined with bosses who are Jewish.”
• And, after that night’s Super Bowl, during which an ad aired calling for an end to antisemitism: “I am sick of these Jew focused ads. What a show of power. Muslims are getting the hate. Stop Muslim hate. Stop Palestinians hate. #SuperBowl2024.”
By Friday, the American Jewish Committee, a national organization, released a statement calling on Mayor Justin Elicker to “take action” against Rich for “calling for ethnic cleansing” “outside the home of a local rabbi,” Poupko.
“Thabisa Rich not only exercised incredibly poor judgment by harassing the rabbi and his family but by also thinking that livestreaming her heinous actions was a good idea. New Haven city leaders must urgently address this matter and take appropriate action. At a time when antisemitic incidents have increased, especially since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, Jewish residents should feel protected, not threatened,” AJC Regional Director Myra Clark-Siegel said in the statement.
Elicker told the Independent Friday that his administration is reviewing both the Sunday encounter and Rich’s Facebook posts.
“It’s a complex issue. We want to support people expressing their views without it impacting one’s ability to do a job,” Elicker said.
“People have really different and strongly held views about the war between Israel and Hamas. There is an appropriate time and place and manner to express them. It’s deeply concerning when employees act in a way that doesn’t represent the city’s values. What you do on and off duty reflects on the city. It’s really important that we’re reviewing what happens.”
New Haven’s government, like others, has wrestled over the years with the question of where the boundaries lie between employees’ First Amendment rights and their professional responsibilities, what they can and can’t say and do, at work as well as off hours. A police officer was placed on leave last year, and then retired during an ongoing internal investigation, after she used a racial slur in the course of duty. Another officer resigned in 2020 after his off-hours podcasting and Facebook posts caused controversy. The police department has a social media policy preventing officers from engaging online with people about police-related issues, according to Jacobson.
Rich on Thursday added this message on her Facebook page: “Anyone here in New Haven would be interested in community conversations particularly all religions groups and see how we can best support one another without letting emotions taking charge of our narratives as a community.”
Elchanan Poupko and Charlie Rich argue on Knollwood Drive while Thabisa Rich speaks through a bullhorn, in video posted and headlined by Poupko.
When Oberlin College faculty "protested" in front of Gibson's bakery, it wound up costing them $44 million.