In an email, Jeffrey Slavin, the mayor of Somerset, Md., who has been a member of the club for 61 years, wrote “I can no longer belong to a community: Where Intolerance is accepted, Where History is forgotten, Where Freedom of Speech is denied, And where the nation’s first black president is disrespected.” Some members of the historically Jewish club have said they would not welcome President Barack Obama as a member, because he did not veto a U.N. Security Council resolution criticizing Israeli settlements. There is no indication that Obama has actually asked to join the club.
Jeffrey Slavin, the mayor of Somerset, Md., resigned from Woodmont Country Club on January 16 because the club might not welcome President Barack Obama as a member, the Washington Post reported.
Slavin wrote in an email that he would not remain a member of the Rockville, Md., club, where he has been a member for 61 years, because of a recent fevered debate about whether Obama could join, the Post reported.
Some members of the historically Jewish club have said they would not welcome Obama, who has played there four times during his presidency, because of his recent decision not to veto a U.N. Security Council resolution criticizing Israeli settlements, the Post reported.
“He has created a situation in the world where Israel’s very existence is weakened and possibly threatened . . .” longtime member Faith Goldstein wrote in a late December email obtained by The Washington Post. “He is not welcome at Woodmont. His admittance would create a storm that could destroy our club.”
Another member, attorney Marc B. Abrams, called it “inconceivable” that Obama should be in the club because of his stance toward Israel, the Post reported.
In the ensuing debate over the email, Slavin, a Democratic activist and a lifelong member of the club where his father was also a member, said he would lead a mass membership resignation if Obama were not invited to join. On Monday, which he noted was Martin Luther King Jr. Day—Slavin made good on at least his own resignation, the Post reported.
He wrote in an email to the club’s General Manager:
“I can no longer belong to a community:
Where Intolerance is accepted,
Where History is forgotten,
Where Freedom of Speech is denied,
And where the nation’s first black president is disrespected.”
Slavin signed his email “Thanks for many great memories,” followed by a quote from the civil rights anthem “Lift Every Voice and Sing” and then the words “Stay Woke,” the Post reported.
There is no indication that Obama has actually asked to join the 460-acre club, though Politico reported last summer that it would be his likely post-presidency choice of golf spots.
Woodmont charges an $80,000 member initiation fee and $9,600 in dues annually. When it was founded in 1913, Jews commonly were not accepted in other clubs, and it remains predominantly Jewish today, the Post reported.
Club President Barry Forman declined to comment on Monday.
Slavin told the Post that he was inspired to resign right away when he heard the Rev. William J. Barber II, a prominent civil rights activist, speak at Washington Hebrew Congregation’s Martin Luther King Jr. service on Friday night.
“I decided that unless someone did something bold, the club would do nothing,” Slavin said. “There would be no reason they wouldn’t want someone like that, a prominent figure they could rub elbows with.”
Slavin has spoken to many other country club members. The majority agree with him that Obama should be welcomed, he said, but they’d rather stay in the club, trying to make that happen, than resign, the Post reported.
Slavin couched his decision to quit his country club in the rhetoric of the civil rights movement: “Dr. Martin Luther King stated in 1963, ‘The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands in times of challenge and controversy,’ ” Slavin said. “I felt I couldn’t let this go on any longer.”
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