Portland board member apologizes

PORTLAND (AP) - A school board member who made allegedly anti-Semitic statements that were published in a newspaper apologized Wednesday, but refused to step down from his post.

Derry Jackson, who is black, told The Oregonian that Jews run the country and the school board, often at the expense of black students.

Mayor Vera Katz, who is Jewish and whose family fled Nazi persecution in Germany when she was a young girl, said his comments were "anti-Semitic." City Commissioner Jim Francesconi, a Roman Catholic, called for Jackson to resign.

In a statement read to the media Wednesday, Jackson said his comments were taken out of context.

"I sincerely apologize to the Jewish Community for any statements that may have been construed as divisive or in any way damaging to the hard work that has already been done to bring the Jewish and African-American communities into a cooperative relationship," Jackson said.

His original statements, published in Saturday's editions of The Oregonian, said: "There are four of them (Jews) on the (school) board. This is a group that came into this country equal to, if not less than, African Americans. And today they run the country."

Portland's Mayor Vera Katz said the apology did not seem sincere. She said, "Mister Jackson's statement does not cut it."

Carl Flipper, a black activist in Portland, called for Jackson to resign, saying his comments had hurt progress Jews and blacks had made together.

"I think the comments were very hurtful to the African-American community as well as the Jewish community," Flipper said.

Jackson's colleagues on the school board issued a statement Tuesday, saying his statement "offended them deeply."

"They are an affront to our community, and not only to the particular group he singled out in his remarks," the board said.

Jackson, 38, was elected citywide to a four-year term on the school board in March. A senior designer at Freightliner, he was originally appointed to fill a board vacancy in 1999. Portland Public Schools is the largest district in the Northwest, educating about 54,000 students.

His comments apparently stem from a feud between him and another board member, Marc Abrams, who is Jewish. The two have clashed over student achievement, the district's military recruitment ban in high schools and other issues.