An attorney serving in the Illinois State Comptroller’s Office has been fired for an anti-Semitic tirade in which she told a Jewish person that she wanted them to face the gas chamber and said “Hitler should have eradicated all of you.”
Sarah Chowdhury referred to Jews as “vermin” and said “all Zionists should pay” in private messages with an Instagram account called Big Law Boiz.
Other messages, which the Instagram user screenshotted and were later posted to X, included, “Hopefully someone sends you anthrax or poison and you die a slow terrible death.”
In the messages, she also said, “I’d rather put you in a gas chamber” and “Hitler should have eradicated all of you.”
The comptroller’s office said in a statement Thursday it was made aware of Sarah Chowdhury’s private messages at around 12:30 p.m., and Comptroller Susana Mendoza contacted her about an hour and a half later.
Chowdhury was then fired after she admitted to making at least some of the comments.
“Comptroller Mendoza has zero tolerance for antisemitism or hate speech,” the comptroller’s office said in a statement.
She was also ousted from her position as president of the South Asian Law Association.
“The South Asian Bar Association of Chicago stands against hate, bigotry and bias in any form,” the group said in a statement on Facebook.
Of Chowdhury’s comments, the bar association said: “We are deeply saddened and horrified by her words and their impact on our friends, families and colleagues, and apologize for any harm they may have caused.
“Her words are and will never be reflective of SABA Chicago,” it continued. “To be clear, SABA Chicago condemns such hateful rhetoric and is committed to supporting our communities and all those impacted by hate.”
“We will not tolerate such behavior by any of our members.”
Chowdhury now says she is “extremely” sorry for the “inappropriate and reprehensible” comments, and apologized to the person she messaged and anyone who read her comments, in remarks to the Chicago Tribune.
“We will not tolerate such behavior by any of our members.”
She said she was distraught over the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas, and grew frustrated with the way the conflict was being covered by the media and discussed on social media.
“I don’t know what came over me,” Chowdhury said. “I was in a state of panic.
“Antisemitism has no place anywhere.”
Chowdhury is now just the latest in a string of Americans who have lost their jobs over antisemitic remarks in recent days.
Citibank announced on Thursday it fired one of its staffers after she posted “revolting” commentary on Instagram that endorsed the mass murder of Jewish people during the Holocaust.
“No wonder why Hitler wanted to get rid of all of them,” Nozima Husainova wrote with a smiley face emoji in an Instagram story, which has since been deleted along with the 25-year-old’s Instagram and other social media accounts.
Husainova had written the explosive comment in response to a post about the Gaza hospital bombing that was initially blamed on Israel, but was later revealed to be caused by the Islamic Jihad terror group after its operatives misfired a rocket.