70 State Department employees demand Blinken fire antisemitic worker

JTA — Six months after his internet posts attacking Jews came to light, a US Foreign Service officer remains employed by the State Department while at least 70 of his co-workers sent a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken demanding his dismissal.

The letter, sent July 28, argues that Fritz Berggren is a threat to Jewish employees at the State Department, and has violated department rules and ethical standards, Foreign Policy reported after obtaining a copy.

“Not only is his propagation of antisemitic ideas highly disturbing and offensive to Jewish and non-Jewish employees alike, but as Jewish employees, we feel his presence at the Department is threatening,” the letter reads, according to Foreign Policy.

For years, Berggren has maintained a website featuring screeds against Jews and the LGBTQ community, and promoting white Christian supremacy.

“Jesus Christ came to save the whole world from the Jews — the founders of the original Anti-Christ religion, they who are the seed of the Serpent, that brood of vipers,” Berggren wrote in an October 4, 2020, post on his website titled “Jews are Not God’s Chosen People. Judeo-Christian is Anti-Christ.”


https://www.timesofisrael.com/70-state-department-employees-demand-blinken-fire-antisemitic-worker/